User Guide

First Look at RISA-3D
Version 5.0 7
The RISA-3D logo image in the center of the screen will disappear after a few
seconds. Lets take a moment to explain what you have in front of you.
Title Bar
The bar along the top of the screen is called the title bar. It contains the name of
the file that is currently open in RISA-3D. The three buttons
on the far
right side of the title bar are used to control the main window. The button will
shrink RISA-3D to a button on the taskbar. The
button will shrink the RISA-
3D window on your screen. The
button will close RISA-3D, prompting you to
save changes if necessary. You will also see these buttons in other RISA-3D
windows and they have basically the same functions there as well.
Main Menu
Just beneath the title bar is the RISA-3D main menu beginning with File on the
far left and ending with Help on the right. These menus provide access to all of
the features RISA-3D has to offer. Clicking on each of these menus will display
sub-menus that contain options that you may choose from. The toolbar buttons
mentioned in the next section provide easy access to many of these menu options.
File Menu - The File menu helps you access file operations such as opening and
saving, importing, exporting and appending files.
Edit – The Edit menu provides editing tools that help you modify and manipulate
the spreadsheets. You may use this menu to add or remove information from the
spreadsheets or to sort and mathematically operate current spreadsheet data.
Global – The Global parameters allow you to set options that apply to the entire
model such as design codes, shear deformation and warping effects, p-delta
options and model descriptions and notes.
Units – This option takes you to the Units dialog where you can choose different
units and convert existing data.
View – Use the View menu to open a new model view or to adjust the current
view.
Insert – The Insert menu is used to insert joints, members, plates and loads into
the model. All of these items may be input graphically or entered in the
spreadsheets. This menu gives access to the graphical methods that RISA-3D
provides and the Spreadsheet menu helps you access the spreadsheets.
Modify – The Modify menu gives access to the graphic editing features and may
be used to modify existing joints, members, plates and loads.
Spreadsheets – You may open any of the input spreadsheets from this menu.
Solve – Use this menu to access the analysis options provided with RISA-3D.