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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Understanding Out-of-Plane Shear Capacity of Concrete Wall Panels
April 7, 2020

Understanding Out-of-Plane Shear Capacity of Concrete Wall Panels

When designing concrete shear walls for lateral loading, RISA-3D includes design checks for both in-plane and out-of-plane shear. In the condition where a concrete wall is under both axial tension and out-of-plane shear, the out-of-plane shear limit state for a specific region within the concrete...

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Understanding Wall Panel Forces with Rigid Diaphragms
June 20, 2019

Understanding Wall Panel Forces with Rigid Diaphragms

When modeling building structures using steel or composite steel floors, engineers typically utilize rigid diaphragms to distribute lateral loads (wind and seismic) to lateral load resisting elements such as shear walls, moment frames and braced frames. Rigid diaphragms represent a plane of very...

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Wood Wall Panels - Straps vs Hold-Downs
October 11, 2018

Wood Wall Panels - Straps vs Hold-Downs

With the recent release of RISA-3D v17 the program now offers the user the option to use Chord Straps between floors of a wood shear wall building in lieu of using hold downs. Chord Straps are a great option for transferring tension load between floors of a multi-floor building and can be installed...

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