Hold-down Design

Important Note – These are descriptions to changes implemented in WoodWorks Shearwalls for version 9 and may not reflect current behavior.

1. Hold-down Location

   The program performs the design check for hold-down capacity at each wall or opening end.

   1. Vertical elements

      There is currently no mechanism for entering hold-downs at the base of vertical elements transferring a force from an upper story via a vertical element to a location on a lower story that is not a wall or opening end on that story. so is no hold-down design for those hold-down locations.

2. Design Cases

   For each design case (wind, seismic, and both force directions), the program checks the ASD capacity of the hold-downs at each hold-down location against the combined ASD factored uplift force. The combined force includes:

   • shear overturning
   • counteracting dead load
   • wind uplift
   • special perforated wall loads (SDPWS 4.3.6.4.2.1), only in the cases where openings on a lower level are not below a similar opening on the upper level)
   • vertical earthquake loads (ASCE 7 12.4.2.2)
3. Design Method

   This is a design check only on a hold-down selected for the hold-down location. The program does not at this time cycle through various possibilities to find a hold-down.