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Wall Components
The primary design components of a shear wall are the sheathing material, its thickness and fastener schedule, the framing materials, the spacing of wall studs, the number of end studs, and the hold-down devices at each end of wall segments. All of these are input in the Wall Input form. Some of these values can be left as unknown, in which case the program determines the wall design that achieves sufficient capacity.
Wall Geometry
Height
The height of all walls on one building level is the same, and is input in the Structure Input View for each level. Note that the height of the wall used as the moment arm for hold-down force calculations at a gable end is the average height to the sloping roof at the gable end. This height is not used as the wall height for deflection calculations or for determining height-to-width ratios; the height of the wall to the eave is used. Refer to the corresponding topics for further explanation.
Length
You can enter the length of shear wall in the Wall Input view as well as graphically in Plan View.
Openings
You define the size and location of each opening in the Opening input view.
Openings also affect the design by reducing the length of full height sheathing and contributing to the hold-down effect factor Jhd. Openings are defined by their length, height and bottom offset. Only length and height are used in the design calculations.
Wall Sides
The program handles the following cases
The sides are designated as Interior and Exterior for perimeter walls, and Side 1 and Side 2 for interior partitions. Unknown parameters can be specified only for Exterior/Side 1 sides, or when both sides are the same.