NBCC / Provincial Building Code Climatic Data as Spreadsheets 3

[TLHS]

Has anyone run across spreadsheets of the wind/snow/rain etc values in the Canadian Building codes as tabulated data? I have never been able to track it down. Obviously it must have been a step in the creation of the document, but I can't find anything shared other than the base data used for the seismic portion.

I've gone through before and manually entered a bunch of data when I want to make a calc sheet that can do the lookups for me, but it's error prone and hugely time consuming. The PDF tables don't do well when I try to automate extraction.

I suspect this doesn't exist, but figured I'd see if anyone's come across it.

 

[skeletron]

For what you want, the closet thing is Jabacus:

https://www.jabacus.com/engineering/load2015/seismic.php

That person obviously has access to the data, and they've obviously modified it to suit some local building bylaws (look up Prince George). I suspect NRC doesn't give the data freely, but it should be good to go through OCR of a good quality digital.

I was successful importing the BCBC 2018 Appendix C through Adobe's OCR, but it does come in buggy. Maybe 80-90% of the data is legit, but some values are blank and some values miss the decimal place. Easy stuff to fix because no location has an Sa(0.2) of 12g! Took probably 1-2hours to actually get the data in a non-bugged up format. My LOADCALC spreadsheet absolutely rocks because of it.

I'm interested if you find out. I had to enter in a bunch of YK and AB locations and it's a bit of a piss-off that this isn't a .csv somewhere accessible for practicing professionals.

 

[TLHS]

As a side note, while seeing if the Jabacus person has their name anywhere, I realized that they have also done a web app for filling in building code schedules for BC, Vancouver and Alberta.

I rarely have to do them, but it's super annoying when I do, so a neat little online utility

https://www.modulosoft.com/

I've never really thought about it, but it's pretty unusual that they have no contact info with a real name on it or any attempt to connect it to the engineering practice they must be involved in. I guess it's just a fun side project and maybe an attempt to avoid owning responsibility for whatever people decide to do with it.

If nobody has a better source, I might fire them an email through the contacts page to see if they'd share their work.

 

[Brad805]

It would not be overly complicated to write a code to extract the data direct from the .pdf file. I bet Celt could do it in an afternoon. The Jacabus tools are great. Great find for the schedules. You can download fillable versions too, but this looks easier.

 

[ryaneng]

I had good luck with emailing the crown publisher in BC and they provided the values to me in a CSV format. I never requested other provinces as it is infrequent enough that we can just override our design spreadsheets manually. I've attached the BCBC table here.

https://files.engineering.com/getfi...file=Copy_of_2018_BCBC_design_data_(002).xlsx

In terms of the Jabacus author, I do think he prefers to remain anonymous; just a little side project for his own use and for others. He might be happy to share an excel sheet of all Canadian values though.

 

[TLHS]

That's awesome, Ryan.

The pdf of Alberta's code extracts really well, so I can pull that really quickly. Adding that to your BC stuff gives me 95% of what I do. I am a completionist at heart, but realistically this covers what I need.

 

[dik]

Can you post the *.pdf of Alberta's code extract?


So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[TLHS]

Yeah, I'll update Ryan's spreadsheet with a tab for Alberta in the next couple of days and post it when I've got it.

 

[dik]

thanks...

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[ryaneng]

Not to hijack this thread, but on a related note: Has anyone heard anything about the rolling out of the new codes? Obviously the NBCC 2020 was just released recently, but I haven't heard a peep beyond that.

 

[jayrod12]

Haha, where I practice we're still using the 2010. It's borderline embarrassing. We're due to enact the 2015 code on Nov 1st. At this rate, we're not getting to the 2020 until 2030.

 

[ggcdn]

@ryaneng, I'm also curious about this but haven't heard anything (in BC). It seems like the province has taken 3-4 years to adopt (BCBC2018 references NBC2015). There are some big changes in there for tall buildings - adding a 'serviceability' seismic check for gravity system.

-JA
try [link calcs.app]Calcs.app[/url] and let me know what you think

 

[dik]

Jayrod... Manitoba... at least we are ahead of Newfoundland and Labrador...This is really important when it comes to energy efficiency.

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[ryaneng]

@jayrod12, Wow, that is very slow! I agree it's a little embarrassing. I don't know a lot about how the codes are modified for individual provinces but it doesn't seem like it is working very well.

@sonofatkins, Definitely some big changes. For agricultural buildings too, everything now needs seismic design. Would just like to hear someone saying "be ready for this at the end of 202_"

 

[skeletron]

@ryaneng and @sonofatkins:
Looks like BC is on track for adopting mid-2023 and enacting December 2023

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/...e next edition,within 24 months from release.

I got the email about public consultation for NBCC 2020 for incorporation into 2025, so it looks like NRC is trying to maintain the 5year code cycle.

 

[skeletron]

I was doing some updating to some of my design tools this weekend and did some poking around regarding NBCC 2020 and the climatic values. With the change to using the site designation and determining χ they have removed the Sa values from Appendix C and replaced them with a link to the Seismic Hazard Tool (LINK).

You can also do some digging in Appendix C to understand the benefits of the online tool vs. a static dataset. However, the dataset is available on the NPARC website at LINK. Basically it's a 30MB zip file with a CSV for every locale and every site designation, both in terms of class and shear-wave velocity.

No word back from NRC on the load table (snow, wind, etc) in CSV.

 

[skeletron]

Once again, reviving an otherwise dead thread to say that, yes, you can email Codes Canada to receive 2015/2010 values in spreadsheet format. No more OCR required!

 

[Pmtottawa]

Skeleton

I reached out to them and have yet to hear anything
Been over 3 weeks.

Needing the climatic set to update my spreadsheets...

 

[dik]

@skeletron... do they have a similar data set for snow and wind loading? If you have one, can you post a link?

Thanks, Dik

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[skeletron]

Part 1
See attached for what they gave out.
Seismic data looks like they cut it off for some reason.
The rest of it looks likely an OCR copy just judging from the text and such.
Do your own verification, I have not touched it, only glanced through.