User Guide

RISA-3D User’s Guide
Version 5.0
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Click on to indicate that the Material Type for our new members will be
concrete.
Notice that when you click them, the white circles will become filled to
indicate that your choice has been accepted. These circles are known as radio
buttons and are used when you must choose between two or more items that are
mutually exclusive. To select a radio button, you may click on the circle itself or
on the adjacent text.
Next we need to decide how we want to define the cross sectional properties of
the member. We can assign a shape directly, or define our properties based on
section sets. Since we know we want to start with a 12x12 column we will start
by assigning our concrete shapes directly, but will later use Section Sets for our
wood truss and steel members.
Click on to bypass the section sets and assign an explicit
shape for these new members. Click on on the white box under Start Shape and
type the following:
CRECT12X12
We will discuss the Material and Design List entries later in this tutorial. For now
we just need to make sure that member types are defined correctly. Currently, our
member type is listed as a Beam. Since we want to define our columns first we
will need to change that.
Click on the arrow next to the text that says, “Beam” to open the drop down
menu for member type. Select Column.
The dialog should now look like the following:
Member Releases
To the right of the Section Set are the member’s Release Codes. The release
codes are used to designate whether the forces and moments at the ends of the