User Guide

RISA-3D User’s Guide

Version 5.0

Physical Members

You may notice that we have defined our truss chords with one member, rather

than multiple members between each panel point. RISA-3D’s Physical Member

feature allows us to do this and much more.

Physical Members automatically connect the members that frame into them.

This means that you don’t have to use multiple members to model what is one

Physical Member in the field. Later when changes are made to the model you

don’t have to work with multiple smaller members to make modifications. Most

important, the results for these members will not be spread out over multiple

members, making it difficult to find design values. RISA-3D does all of the

bookkeeping behind the scenes letting you see your model as it really is.

RISA-3D starts you off with one section set for each basic material type. We will

have to create new ones as we go along. Creating new sections is accomplished

in the Sections spreadsheet. While we are there we will define the section

properties for all the members that we have defined thus far. We have not defined

any material properties either, which will be done in the Material spreadsheet.

Click on the RISA Toolbar to bring back the Data Entry Toolbar.

Material Properties

On the Data Entry Toolbar click on and this window will open:

Notice how the materials spreadsheet is organized based on material type with the

detailed information for each type given on a separate, tabulated page. Take a

moment to review the information shown on the Hot Rolled tab. Click the Cold

Formed and Concrete Tabs as well. As you review this information you can see

that RISA comes with standard properties already defined for the most common

materials used in the United States.

Note

• You may save any changes, to this and other spreadsheets, as the default values. If, for instance,

you’re working on a Canadian job with a steel that conforms to the G40.21 spec then you can add

this material and save it by clicking the

button on the Window Toolbar. New files will then start

with this steel material automatically.

• To increase or decrease the width of a column, drag the line to the right of the column heading.

You may also look to the status bar for a full explanation of the current column.