User Guide

RISA-3D User’s Guide
Version 5.0
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easily understand the templates and will be able to use the all of the power of
RISA-3D.
Click the button to start drawing members.
Global Parameters
Global Parameters are settings that apply to the model as a whole. This window
is opened automatically because of this checked box that we mentioned above:
Use your mouse to select the Description tab and click in the first field, labeled
Model Title so that a flashing cursor appears there. Now type:
Tutorial Problem, [TAB]
(Type your name)
Any notes that you would like to keep with the model may be typed in the Notes
area.
Notice that you hit the TAB key to move from field to field. The mouse may also
be used to go directly to a field. Just put the mouse pointer on the desired field
and click.
Use your mouse to select the Solution tab.
The Number of Sections field is where we specify how many locations along
each member are to be used for the reporting of forces, stresses, and deflections.
We will have the calculations reported at 7 section locations.
Click the up arrow two times to increase the number from “5” to “7”.
The Number of Internal Sections controls how many places along each member
the software calculates and stores results such as deflections and code checks.
The member force diagrams displayed in the model view and the detail plot are
also drawn from these results.
The checked Include Shear Deformation box indicates shear deformation
considerations are to be included in the model solution. This will almost always
be checked (the default). For more information on this see the General Reference.
The Include Warping field indicates whether you want RISA-3D to consider
torsional warping effects when calculating stiffness and stress values for wide
flange and channel shapes. For more information on this see the General
Reference.
The Area Load Mesh size controls how many discrete areas the load is broken
into before it is attributed to the members.
The Merge Tolerance is used as the maximum distance 2 joints can be apart and
still be merged together. It is also used when scanning for crossing members and
for unattached joints along the spans of members.