Shear Wall Designer
Introducing IES QuickConcreteWall

IES is pleased to introduce a powerful new program for reinforced concrete wall design. IES QuickConcreteWall will check walls loaded for shear, axial, and in-plane moments. Following in the footsteps of QuickRWall and QuickRFooting, the new tool provides a transparent interface, superb reporting, and excellent graphics.

You only need to do one thing to convince yourself of the quality of this tool: Have one of your in-house checkers read through this QuickConcreteWall report to check the design. Any questions? No, we thought not. Everything you need is right there in plain view, from detailed equations to beautiful sketches of the rebar placement.

This tool is now available at an introductory price of just $295. A bargain-basement price for a product that calculates the interaction diagram you need for intelligent design:

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Load Combinations
VisualAnalysis Tips & Tricks

VisualAnalysis 5.1 includes some powerful capabilities for automatically generating load combinations, the feature is found under Load | Building Code Combinations. This feature is customizable, flexible, and imperfect. There are a number of ways that Building Codes make your life difficult and IES has tried to make the most common jobs trivial, while still allowing you to handle those "exception" clauses in the various codes. You know more than we do how ugly the building codes have become: It is not uncommon to have over 25 load combinations to analyze in order to meet their crazy requirements!

Key to Building Code Combinations

The key to the automatic Building Code load combinations is in the data file "LoadCombo.txt" which is installed in the IESCommonFiles folder. This file has a companion which is easier to edit: LoadCombo.xls. After editing, save a tab-delimited format file as LoadCombo.txt, which is the file read by VisualAnalysis. Throughout the remainder of this article we will simply refer to this pair of files as LoadCombo.

This data file contains equation information required to generate the load combinations you need, based on where you have placed loads in Service Load Cases in VisualAnalysis. You may edit the load combination equations, or add your own for specialized needs or foreign design codes.

The nicest part about this system is that it automatically maintains the load combinations as you add or remove loads or load cases.

IES Errors vs. Customer Ownership

The file that we ship with VisualAnalysis 5.1 contains at least one 'error' in that the ASCE ASD equations with W and S should use a 0.75 factor rather than a 1.0 factor. We have just recently discovered this, but are hesitant to update this file which really belongs to you!

Others have told us that we are missing the 'Alternate' combinations from IBC 2003. We could add these too, but on the other hand, the whole purpose of this feature is so that the power is in your hands to support code changes, foreign building codes, or do specialized load combinations as you see fit.

Many customers have already customized this file, so we do not wish to overwrite those files with an update, so instead we are posting an updated LoadCombo set of files to our web site for your use, should you desire it. This file only fixes the errors that have been reported, it does not add new combinations or building codes.

Dealing With Variations and Exceptions

The Building Code Combinations feature is about a 90% solution to the problems you have to face in dealing with building codes and their requirements. There are all kinds of situations that are currently not handled by the automated system:

• Multiple, but independent loads of the same source
• Skewed wind directions
• Varying factors or equations depending on the actual magnitude of loads (e.g. snow loads < 30 psf)
• Varying factors based on other project-specific information (e.g. Sds for seismic loads and the factor on 'D')

Our thinking was that you could generate the basic combinations, and then create a custom load combination (or perhaps a few) to cover any special cases. You can add your own load combinations to an individual project at any time using Load | New Custom Combination.

Another feature you have available to help manage the complexity, is the option in exclude a Service Load Case from the automatic Building Code Combinations. This shows up in the Project Manager, on the Modify tab as 'Include in Bldg. Code.', or on the Service Case tab of the Edit Service Case dialog box as 'Use in Building Code Combinations'.

Alternate Solutions

There, are of course, other ways to deal with load combinations. None of which represents an ideal solution.

1. Constantly modify the LoadCombo definitions of the standard building code, but with project-specific changes. Then make sure that the correct definitions are in place for the project in question before you open the file or do something to cause the combinations to regenerate.
2. Adding a project-specific 'building code' definitions to the LoadCombo file, for each project, as required. The list of options in Building Code Combinations will grow very large.
3. Create custom LoadCombo files for each project and then make sure VisualAnalysis is using the right one and archive this file with your project. Use Tools | Customize Behavior, and the Files tab to change the location of LoadCombo, but remember this is system-wide, not project specific.
4. If you regularly use the exact same load combinations, and you cannot get the Building Code Combinations to generate the correct set, you can create a pseudo template project. This is just a .VAP file that you save in a special place, perhaps make it read-only, and use it as the basis for any new project you create. This file can have a model, loads, and/or load combinations all predefined as necessary.

Future Directions

IES has heard your pleas regarding load combinations and building code requirements. We are actively working on systems to help you keep up with these codes and to make working with VisualAnalysis easier. VisualAnalysis version 5.5 will definitely offer some kind of improvements in the way load cases and combinations are managed.

You can help us out by telling us of the specific problems you are having before you go off and devise some complex 'work-around' system or worse--abandon VisualAnalysis! Our goal at IES is to make structural analysis more fun for you, not harder.

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The New iesweb.com
Changing our image, not our focus

IES, or rather i.e.s., is now sporting a new logo, new magazine ads, and soon, a new web site. We are trying to revamp our whole organization to better serve you.

Logo

The old logo was nice, but dated and too 'clipart'. We want customers to know what we do, and how we desire to serve in this industry. To that end we have hired some professionals to help us clean up our image. We are taking i.e.s. to new heights from our garage beginnings. The start has been the introduction of a new logo. The new logo retains a hint of the old integral sign and conveys our 'structural' and finite element expertise with a very prominent focus on engineering software.

Ads

We also have new ads that are designed to attract new customers to our web site, build our name recognition, and provide a convenient way to get contact information. We have kept the magazine ads small because 30% of our business is from customer referrals, and another 30% is from repeat business (upgrades and extra licenses). IES is tremendously thankful for such a great group of clients!

Web Site

The old business mantra was 'location, location, location', while the new one is 'functionality'. Our soon to be unveiled iesweb.com will be easier for to navigate and will offer a personalized experience. By streamlining content we hope to make the site more useful. By reorganizing the back-end, we hope to make the site more dynamic, staying current with changes in the tools we offer. As always our focus will be on providing the tools you need to get your job done with a higher quality.

Watch for the new web site launch this summer.

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