Tips & Tricks

December 29, 2025

What’s New for IBC 2024 in RISA: A Closer Look

With RISA’s latest release of RISA-3D v23.0.1, we’re continuing to expand support for IBC 2024, helping engineers stay aligned with the latest building code requirements as adoption accelerates across the U.S.—including federally funded projects. This release builds on v23.0.0 ASCE 7-22 enhancements and adds key material design updates that move RISA further into full IBC 2024 compliance. New Material Design Updates Supporting IBC 2024 The upcoming release introduces several important design code updates referenced by IBC 2024, including: Steel Seismic design per AISC 341-22 Prequalified connections per AISC 358-22 Continued support for AISC 360-22 (16th Edition) steel design Ongoing updates to the hot-rolled shape database, including compatibility with both 15th and 16th Edition steel manuals These updates support modern seismic detailing requirements and ensure consistency with current steel industry standards. Masonry Masonry design per TMS 402-22, aligning with the latest strength and serviceability provisions adopted by IBC 2024. Key updates include: Revisions to shear design equations, including clarified definitions of shear area as outlined in Table 4.4.5, improving consistency and transparency in shear capacity calculations. Updated strength reduction factors for flexure and combined flexure + axial. Unlike previous editions that used a fixed ϕ-factor of 0.9, TMS 402-22 introduces tension-controlled,…

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🎃 Trick or Treat… It’s RISA-Jeopardy! 👻
October 30, 2025

🎃 Trick or Treat… It’s RISA-Jeopardy! 👻

Halloween isn’t just for candy and costumes—it’s the perfect time to test your spooky engineering skills! We’ve brewed up a Halloween-themed RISA Jeopardy game, packed with fun, easy questions about our software. Tip for readers: Try to answer before revealing the “treat” below each question!

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Understanding Sign Conventions for Wall Panels & Plates in RISA
September 4, 2025

Understanding Sign Conventions for Wall Panels & Plates in RISA

While members (beams and columns) follow conventions tied to their local axes, interpreting results for wall panels, plate elements, and design strips requires a slightly different perspective. These elements deal with both in-plane and out-of-plane behavior, and the sign conventions can change...

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Understanding Sign Conventions for Members Across RISA Software
September 4, 2025

Understanding Sign Conventions for Members Across RISA Software

RISA software products use different sign conventions depending on the product’s purpose and typical use case. While the conventions are logical within each program, they may appear inconsistent when moving between tools like RISA-3D, RISAFloor, RISAFoundation, and RISAConnection. This article...

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What Happens During a RISA Software Tour?
August 13, 2025

What Happens During a RISA Software Tour?

Exploring a new structural design software purchase? If you’ve ever wondered how RISA’s software could fit into your structural design workflow, a RISA Software Tour is the fastest way to find out—no guesswork, no canned presentations. In this free, 1-hour session, you’ll meet 1-on-1 with a RISA...

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Pile Supported Slabs in RISAFoundation
March 6, 2025

Pile Supported Slabs in RISAFoundation

Ensuring Your Slab is Fully Supported by Piles in RISAFoundation A common mistake when modeling pile-supported slabs in RISAFoundation is forgetting to zero out the soil properties. By default, RISAFoundation assigns a soil definition to all slabs, which introduces soil springs into the model. If...

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Automating Foundation Design with RISAFoundation
December 17, 2024

Automating Foundation Design with RISAFoundation

Why RISAFoundation is Essential for Today’s Engineers? Incorporating RISAFoundation into your foundation design process is more than just a time-saver—it’s a powerful tool for enhancing the accuracy and quality of engineering deliverables. By automating the most tedious and error-prone aspects of...

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Enhanced
March 4, 2024

Enhanced "Move" Tools in RISAFoundation

RISAFoundation includes the added ability to move selected foundation elements. This includes beams, wall footings, piles, pedestals, slabs, etc. To access the move tools, click on the Modify tab in the toolbar.

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Gross and Net Soil Pressures
February 20, 2024

Gross and Net Soil Pressures

In RISAFoundation, the Allowable Soil Bearing value is controlled by the Soil Region. This value is always taken as a Gross allowable soil pressure by default.

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Experience the Updated User Interface in RISAFoundation
February 20, 2024

Experience the Updated User Interface in RISAFoundation

The all new RISAFoundation provides engineers with a fresh new take on our foundation analysis and design software. With a completely redesigned interface and robust graphical modeling tools, RISAFoundation v16 allows engineers to work more efficiently and get the most out of the software. The...

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