Engineering Design

Important Note – These are descriptions to changes implemented in WoodWorks Shearwalls for version 9.2 and may not reflect current behavior.

1. Wall Height at Gable Ends for Hold-down Force Calculation (Bug 2465)

   In order to include the portion of an end wall that is beneath a gable end as part of a shearwall, for the purpose of hold-down force calculations, the program now calculates the wall height at a gable end as being the distance from the base of the wall to the height of the sloping roof at the end of a wall segment.

   The average of the heights at both ends of the segment under a gable end is used as the moment arm h in the hold-down force calculation R = vh, where R is the hold-down force and v is the shear per unit foot directed horizontally. Previously the height of the upper level was used as the wall height. Refer to the Shearwalls Help topic Hold-down Forces for further explanation.

2. Creation of Wall Groups due to Hold-down Data (Bug 2323)

   The program created wall design groups based on hold-down information such as "number of brackets”, hold-down type, and number of end studs. It no longer does so for the following reasons:

   • The Sheathing and Framing Materials output does not show these values, so there was no evident difference between wall groups.
   • These parameters do not affect design of the wall, just deflection
   • These parameters differ from other wall group parameters in that they can be different for different walls on the line when “dissimilar materials” are not allowed. Therefore a line would have two groups designed for it, and only one of these was used for design.
   • The default hold-down configuration is to have single bracket on first level and double on others, so by default wall 2 wall groups were made even if all materials are the same.
3. Extraneous Message when Running a Design (Bug 2439)

   In some rare instances, when running a design you get an inaccurate message saying that due to a change in the structure, the last design is no longer valid, and asking you to design again. If you choose to design again, the design proceeds without a problem. This problem has been corrected.