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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Video: Mat Slab Design in RISAFoundation
August 10, 2020

Video: Mat Slab Design in RISAFoundation

In this video, we’ll take a look at the modeling and analysis of a mat slab in RISAFoundation. We’ll specify design parameters and soil properties to be able to obtain reinforcement design and view soil pressure contour diagrams.

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Foundation Design according to Eurocode 2
August 30, 2019

Foundation Design according to Eurocode 2

RISAFoundation v12 includes mat slab, concrete beam and pedestal design according to Eurocode 2. For more information, check out the video below.

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Soil Overburden on Mat Slab
November 1, 2018

Soil Overburden on Mat Slab

RISAFoundation can apply soil overburden to a mat slab to account for the weight of the soil above the foundation. Simply enter a Soil Overburden pressure value for your foundation design in the Slabs spreadsheet. The soil overburden load is utilized to help the mat slab resist overturning during...

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Passive Resistance for Mat Slabs
September 20, 2018

Passive Resistance for Mat Slabs

RISAFoundation includes the added ability to enter a passive pressure for slabs. The passive pressure represents soil pressure along the perimeter of the slab and will contribute to the sliding resistance of the slab.

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Vertical Slab and Beam Offsets
September 13, 2017

Vertical Slab and Beam Offsets

In RISAFoundation, you can add a vertical offset for slabs or beams. Traditionally, RISA uses centerline analysis which aligns all elements at their centerline. This is a common structural analysis assumption as the loads will get transferred to the centerline even if there is difference in the...

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Shear Splices between Slabs
October 20, 2016

Shear Splices between Slabs

In RISAFoundation v8, you can add a shear splice between slabs so that it acts like a hinge. This is useful for modeling the effects of shear keys or dowel joints between slabs.

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Understanding the Slab Design Cut Results
September 7, 2016

Understanding the Slab Design Cut Results

In RISAFoundation, the user has the ability to manually draw a single Design Cut anywhere on a slab. The Design Strips also automatically include Design Cuts which are used to determine the governing design forces in the Design Strip. For more detailed information on the specifics of Design Strip...

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How to Thicken a Slab
March 3, 2016

How to Thicken a Slab

RISAFloor ES allows you to model concrete slabs of any thickness. However, there might be sections of the building that require a thicker slab. The icon is shown below and it will allow you to draw a Polygon or Rectangular shape.

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How to Add a Drop Panel
February 4, 2016

How to Add a Drop Panel

In RISAFloor ES, you can quickly thicken the slab in the column strip area with the Drop Panel tool. The column strip is typically the area of highest demand so increasing the thickness may help optimize the concrete usage.

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