All Things Column Designs for Residential Structures

About this event

Struggling to understand structural engineering basics?

Our 30-minute Live Residential Design webinar series is the perfect way for any design professional in the residential construction industry to improve their understanding of structural engineering.

You’ll get to follow along with our Director of Customer Success, Connor Conzelman as he walks through how to design all types of common columns you may encounter in a residential project such as rectangular concrete column, steel column, wood stud wall and wood deck post. This will ensure that you can confidently complete your next project!

Join Connor Conzelman to learn more about how to design common columns based on a real-life residential drawing plan and the tips and tricks you can use to speed up your structural design workflow in ClearCalcs!

In this webinar, we will cover:

• Short introduction of the house
• Locating columns in the plan
• Designing common columns in ClearCalcs -- Rectangular Concrete Column (Plain & Reinforced) -- Steel Column -- Wood Stud Wall -- Wood Deck Post
• Tips and tricks to use to speed up your column design workflow

Resources

• PowerPoint presentation

Webinar Summary

The webinar is about structural design basics, specifically signing columns in the real world. ClearCalcs is a cloud-based platform for structural engineering calculations. The presenter, Connor, discusses load linking and validation to eliminate wasted time. Examples are given for gravity loads, wind loads, and seismic loads.

In this segment, Connor sets up a new calculation in ClearCalcs for an exposed outdoor isolated wood column and inputs the given information such as column height, support conditions, axial eccentricity, and load magnitudes for dead, live, and snow loads. He also shows how to add intermediate bracing if needed and selects a member that's comfortable for the design.

Connor then moves on to example 2, where he sets up a new calculation in ClearCalcs for lateral loads caused by wind. He inputs the wind speed and exposure category, and uses the components and cladding wind load calculator to determine the lateral loads on the column. He then inputs these loads into the deck post design and applies them as distributive loads.

Connor confirms with the engineers whether the ClearCalcs outputs are ultimate or service loads. He then demonstrates how to modify bracing and support inputs in the calculator, and shows how to determine the governing load combination for each check by switching to detailed mode. Finally, he introduces example 3, where he sets up a new calculation for a freestanding seismic-resisting frame and explains how to find seismic data using the hazards by location tool.

Connor demonstrates how to use the ATC Hazards tool to gather wind, snow, tornado, and seismic data at a specific location. He then sets up a new calculation in ClearCalcs for seismic analysis and inputs the short and long period spectral acceleration, transition period, building risk category, height, and effective seismic weight. Connor also shows how to link the seismic base shear to the frame calculation and design a wood member to resist the seismic loads.

Connor demonstrates how to modify the member selector in ClearCalcs to choose a different species or number of plies for built-up posts. He also mentions that ClearCalcs is working on developing an API and encourages users to reach out to the Help team with any questions or suggestions. Finally, he reminds viewers to use the Help button for assistance and announces an upcoming webinar on heavy timber framing.