Advance Design America™ (VisualDesign)

TUTORIAL 6

Timber Design

May 2008
 CivilDesign Inc 1995-2008
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Basic Principles
Timber Properties
Predefined materials are listed in the Timber Properties spreadsheet, which
is located in the Common / Materials / Timber menu.

The following parameters are sometimes confusing, so here is a description

of each of them:

Classification
Visual: Visual means that they are visually classified. All species are
available.
The letter refers to available cuts, as follows:
A: 2x4…4x16
B: 2x2, 2x4, 4x4
C: 6x10, 8x12, 10x14…
D: 6x6, 6x8, 8x8, 8x10…
MSR: Machine Stress-Rated. The shear resistance, fv, is determined with
this method. All cuts are available.
MEL: Machine Evaluated Lumber. The shear resistance, fv, is determined
with this method. All cuts are available.
GLT: Glue Laminated Timber. Available species are S-P-F, D Fir-L, and
Hem-Fir. All cuts are available.

Grade
The grade refers to the quality of the timber, namely Select structural, No.1,
No.2, No.3, Construction and Standard.

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Species
Species refer to tree species, namely S-P-F, D Fir-L, Hem-Fir and North
Species.

Nomenclature
The name of timber properties that appears in the Timber Properties
spreadsheet is explained below.
The first term represents the classification, the second term, its species, and
the third, its grade (quality).
Example: V1C_Northern_s:
 V: Visual classification (1C indicates that available cuts are 6x10,
8x12, 10x14, etc.);
 Northern: The species is North Species.
 s: The grade is Select Structural.

Shape Designation
Sections are listed in the Solid Rectangular Sections spreadsheet
(Common / Shapes) for timber materials. Shapes beginning with this
symbol [ ] are sawn timber (standard) sections. Glue laminated sections
begin with the letters GL.

Glue laminated sections:

A "Glulam" composition is selected for glue-laminated sections. The
direction of laminations is indicated using the member local axes. The
numbers of laminations are also specified.

Custom Sections
Create your own sections by inserting rows at the end of the spreadsheet.
Specify the dimensions b and d only. If it is a glulam section, the
spreadsheet last columns must be filled.
Use the same prefix ([ ] or GL) to localize custom sections in the Material
selection tree. This Material selection tree is accessible through the
Member Characteristics dialog box by pressing the I-Beam icon.

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Public or Private Custom Section

The "Distribution" column of all Advance Design America section
spreadsheets allows specifying a custom section as private or public. A
private custom section is never imported in another user database at the
reading of the file.

Compatibility of Material and Section

Advance Design America does not accept some material and section
combinations. For example, a GLT type of material must be assigned to
glue-laminated sections, as specified in the CAN/CSA-O86-01 Standard
(chapter 6 "Glue-Laminated Timber", Tables 6.2.1 and 6.3). As a result, if
an incompatible material is assigned to a type of section, Advance Design
America warns the user the design is stopped.
Particular case: VisualC and VisualD Classifications
The Visual C and Visual D classifications are exceptions when the
compatibility is tested. Advance Design America can change a C-
classification by a D-one during the design process, and vice versa. The
specified species are not modified.
During the design process, Advance Design America tests the "material and
section" compatibility according to the following description:
Classification Compatibility*

Visual A 2x2…2x12, 4x4…4x(All)

Visual B 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 4x4

Visual C b>=4½po, d>b+2po (Beam & Stringer)

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Classification Compatibility*

Visual D b>=4½po, d<=b+2po (Post & Timber)

MSR Standard sections with b=38mm and d = all dimensions

MEL Standard sections with b=38mm and d = all dimensions

GLT Glue laminated sections only – all dimensions.

* The compatibility is based on the description of materials as defined in the

CAN/CSA-O86-01 Standard.

Design Criteria
When design criteria are activated on the Member tab of Member
Characteristics dialog box, the Timber Design tab appears in the dialog
box. A specification or design group must be assigned to the member and
other design criteria can be specified.

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Notes about Design Criteria

 Lateral supports are applied to the member weak axis.
 Advance Design America automatically detects lateral members in a
3D structural model and thus, effective compression lengths are
automatically calculated. Effective compression length factors can
also be entered by hand.
 Bearing conditions are optional.
 A "deflection" load combination must be created for considering
deflection criteria during the design.
 The calculation of net area is as follows: A net = Ag – Lt*e, where Lt
corresponds to the total width of holes in the member end. This value
must be specified on the Timber Design tab. The variable "e"
corresponds to the smallest dimension of b and d. Ag is the gross area
of the section.
SAWN LUMBER

The species and grade must be specified for the design.

GLUE-LAMINATED SECTIONS

The species must be specified. The grade is not required.

MRS AND MEL CLASSIFICATIONS

The shear resistance, fv, determined with one of these methods, must be
specified in the Timber Design tab. Otherwise, Advance Design America
puts a value of 0.0. The design results will not be valid.

Specifications
Advance Design America needs specifications to design elements according
to a Standard or a Code. An analysis type (design or verification) must be
selected along with a section group to use for the design, a specified shape, a
type of optimization (inertia, area, or height), minimum and maximum
heights, service conditions (wet, dry), and treatment (Not treated, Treated
incised, Treated and not incised, or treated with a fire retardant).

Section Groups
A section group is used to specify the list of available shapes (any shapes)
for a design. This list can include sections of many types along with custom
sections.
Predefined section groups are "Canada" and "USA". Sections belong to one
of these groups, or both, depending on the section availability.

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A section group must be selected in a design specification. It is not required

for verification. During the design process, Advance Design America picks
optimized sections among the selected section group in the assigned
specification.

Design Groups
Design groups are used to get an identical optimized section for a group of
members. A specification must be assigned to each design group. The same
specification can be used for several design groups.
Design groups are quickly created using the Group Members function of
the Structure / Groups menu or by using the shortcut keys [Ctrl] + G.
Members must be selected before calling up the function.
Then, design group names and assigned specifications can be edited in the
Timber Design Groups spreadsheet, located in Structure / Groups /
Timber.

Analysis and Design

This icon opens the Analysis and Design dialog box and the "Analyze"
button launches the design process. When the design is completed, close the
dialog box.

The Design Results activation mode is automatically on when the

design results are available.

Results
View Options
Open the View Options dialog box by clicking the icon on the View
toolbar. Display the color legend and the member design load rates using the
Results tab by selecting the "Design Load" option. To display numerical
data, select the "Numerical" option on the same tab.

Timber Design Results Spreadsheet

Open the Timber Design Results spreadsheet through Results / Structure
Design / Timber.
To look at results for only one member, double click on it. To look at results
for a few members only, select them and press the Properties icon.

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Design of a Wood Roof

A design brief is available for one selected member (row) in the spreadsheet
by clicking on icons located at the bottom of the spreadsheet. However, only
one design brief at a time can be viewed and printed .
A roof composed of custom glulam sections and some predefined sawn
timber elements will be designed. The design and verification are done
according to the CAN/CSA-O86-01 Standard.

Modeling
Please refer to first booklets.

Sections and Materials

Design and Verification
Assign preliminary sections but make sure that the classification (material)
is compatible with the section dimensions. The section and material
compatibility is tested at the launching of the design process.

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New Sections
New glue-laminated sections, called "CS", are added to the database because
the client wants to use particular glue-laminated sections made up of 1½in
laminations. These sections are added in the Solid Rectangular Sections
spreadsheet and a public distribution is specified because the client wants to
import them in his database.
A custom section group includes the CS sections only because we want
Advance Design America to select optimized sections among these sections
only.
 Select Common / Shapes and open the Solid Rectangular Sections
spreadsheet.
 Insert rows at the end of the spreadsheet. Use CS-prefix for section
names and specify a public distribution. Enter dimensions b and d.
Other properties are automatically calculated. At the right end of the
spreadsheet, select a "Glue-laminated" composition and enter the
number of laminations in each local direction.

Member Local Axes and Laminations

The member local x-axis is always corresponding to the member strong
axis.

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Custom Section Group

A section group is created for the design and includes custom CS sections
only.
 Select Structure / Specifications / Section Groups.
 Insert a row in the spreadsheet and enter a name for the group. Then,
double-click in the "Selection of Sections" column to open the Shape
selection tree. Select the "CS" branch only in the Timber root.

 Click OK.

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 Close the spreadsheet.

Specifications
 Select Structure / Specifications / Timber to open the Timber
Specifications spreadsheet.
 Insert two rows, enter names and define one design and one verification
specification using the CAN/CSA-O86-01 Standard. Sawn timber
elements are verified and glue-laminated sections are designed.

 Select the CS sections section group for the design specification.

 Select a dry service condition and the appropriate treatment.

 Click OK.

Member Properties
Note: To select many elements of the same type, such as members, keep the
[Ctrl] key down while clicking on each element.
When many elements are selected, blank fields appear in the dialog box.
The specified data that are entered in these fields are applied to selected
elements. Sometimes, values (negative or else) are indicated in blank fields
but they are not "real" values. Grayed out boxes appear to be selected
(checked) but they are not. As an example, activate design criteria by
checking the box until the background gets white, not grey.

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Top of Roof – Standard Sections

 While in the Structure mode, activate the Member icon on Elements
toolbar. Select members at the top of the roof and click the Properties
icon to open the Member Characteristics dialog box.
 Click the I-Beam icon to open the Shape selection tree. Assign a
preliminary section.

 Click OK to close the selection tree.

This section is sawn timber so an appropriate material must be selected.
 In the "Material" field, click the arrow to open the Material selection
tree. Expand the Timber root, Visual and SPF branches and double click
the V1A_SPF_ss material to select it.
 Activate design criteria.

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 In the "End Conditions" section, select hinges at node i and j (0-----0) on

the member strong and weak axes.

 Click OK.
 Open the View Options dialog box. Display the member local axes and
select the 3D Display option in the Attributes tab.

The members are not oriented properly. They are located at the top of the
roof, which is sloped at an angle of 45 degrees. We are going to modify the
beta angle for these members (the default beta angle is equal to 0).
 Select the members and click the Properties icon. Enter a beta angle of
45 degrees. Click OK.

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Create Selections
Use the selection functions in Edit / Select menu (Create a selection,
Update a current selection, Choose a selection, and Edit selections) to
create custom selections of miscellaneous elements. The selections can be
called back at all time (modeling, load application, viewing results, etc.).
When a selection (or more than one) is activated, use the Mask function to
mask the rest of the structure.
Example: We want to create a selection of edge columns.
 Activate the Structure mode and the Member icon.
 Select edge columns (click on each column with the cursor while
keeping the [Ctrl] key down).
 Select Edit / Select / Create a selection. This dialog box appears on the
screen.

 Enter a name and click OK.

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Assign a color to this selection

 Select Edit / Select / Edit selections. This dialog box appears on the
screen.

Double-click the "Color" column and select a color among the drop-down
list. To see the color, select the "Display Color" option.
We created the following selections:

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Main Beams – Custom Glulam Sections

Call back the Main_Beam selection and mask the rest of the structure.

 Activate the Structure mode and the Member icon. Select members and
click the Properties icon.

 Click the I-beam icon to open the Shape selection tree. Select any
custom CS section. Advance Design America will select the adequate
member among the CS section group.

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 Select a GLT material.

 Activate design criteria.
 End conditions: Display the member local axis system to view the
position of node i and j. The local z axis always points towards node j.
The member is hinged at the top and fixed at the bottom of the roof.
Split members
These members have to be split at the junction of transverse members.
Transverse members will be modeled afterwards using these nodes. Split
functions are available in the Edit / Split menu and on the Split/Join
toolbar.
The member must be split at 40.85in from the bottom node (node i).
 Select the member that you want to split and select Edit / Split / Exact
position.
 Enter 40.85 as the distance between node i and the split node. Click OK.

Advance Design America will ask you to merge nearest nodes. Answer
"Yes"
 Do the same to split the member three other times.
 Do the same for other member or use the Copy/Paste function in
rotation.

Transverse members
Use the split nodes to add transverse members.

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Floors
One-way floors are modeled to transfer the loads on adjacent members, as
shown on the figure.

To create floor, activate the Structure mode, the Floor icon and the Add
mode. Then, click on each corner node clockwise or counter clockwise.
Note: Try to keep in mind that the floor local axes are depending upon
incidence nodes. If the first floor is defined in a clockwise direction, do the
same for other floors.

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If the floor dead load is specified in the Floor Characteristics dialog box, it
is automatically considered in the structure dead load if the "Dead" load case
is selected in the "Dead load" field.
If the floor dead load is specified in the Loads Definition spreadsheet, apply
it graphically, as other types of loads.

Loads Definitions
Load case titles and types are user-defined in the Loads Definition
spreadsheet (Loads / Load Cases / Definition). Load types (wind, dead,
live, snow, etc) are important if you plan to use the Load Combination
Generator. Double-click in the "Type" column and expand the root that is
corresponding to the appropriate building code. Double-click a type of load.

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Applying Loads
Loads are applied graphically because it is easier this way. Loads
spreadsheets are used to sort data and modify common values using the
spreadsheet context menu.

Snow Load:
The projection of snow load must be horizontal-global.
 Activate the Load case mode and select the snow load case among the
Title drop-down list.
 Activate the Floor element and select all floors. Click the Properties
icon.
 Insert a row in the spreadsheet and enter –2.26 kPa. Double-click in the
"Projection" column and select Horiz. Global. Click OK.

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Follow the same procedure to graphically apply other load cases.

Load Combinations
The Load Combination Generator is used to obtain all the required load
combinations according to the CNB-05 code.
 Select Loads / Load Combinations / Generator.
 Select the NBC-05 Code among the drop-down list and click the "Next"
button.
 Select the ultimate and serviceability limit states load combinations. We
want the deflection criteria to be considered during the design process so
we selected deflection load combinations.

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 Click the "Next" button.

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This last page shows the load combinations that will be generated when the
"Finish" button will be clicked. If you do not want to analyze all load
combinations, uncheck some of them.
 Click the "Finish" button. The Load Combinations spreadsheet appears
on the screen.
 Close the spreadsheet.

Design Groups
Select members to group for the design and select the Group Members
function (Structure / Groups) or use the [Ctrl]+G shortcut keys.
Example:
 Activate the Structure mode and Member element.
 Select columns located within the structure and press [Ctrl]+G.

 Enter a name for the group and select a specification. Click OK.
We created the following design groups. (Advance Design America assigns
one optimized section per design group).

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Displaying a Design Group

 Open the View Options dialog box and select the Attributes tab. Select
the Design Group option in the Member section and select a design
group in the drop-down list. Click OK.

Member Design Criteria

Design groups are automatically assigned to members when the Group
Members function is used. For members that need to be check only, select
the Verification specification on the Timber Design tab.
Other design criteria can be specified on the Timber Design tab. For
example, the main beams have continuous lateral supports due to plywood
and other sheathing elements. The following procedures must be done:
 Activate the Structure mode and Member element. Call back the
"Main_beams" selection and mask the rest of the structure. Click the
Properties icon.
 Specify a continuous lateral support at the top of the section, as shown
on the image below, and assign a deflection criterion of Lx/240 on the
member strong axis.

 Click OK.

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To view the default values in this dialog box, double click only one member.
Press the F1 key to open Advance Design America Online Help about this
dialog box and fields that are composing it.

The effective compression length factors are automatically calculated

(default setting) in this project because it is a 3D model (Advance Design
America seeks for transverse members along beams and columns).

Analysis and Design

 Open the Analysis and Design dialog box by clicking this icon.
 Click the "Analyze" button to launch the design.
 When the design is completed, close the dialog box.

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Results
The Design Results icon is automatically activated when the design
results are available.

View Options – Colored Legend for Results

Open the View Options dialog box by clicking this icon. Select the
Results tab and select the Design Load option to view the colored members.
Each color corresponds to a design load rate interval. When a member is at
90% of its capacity, its color is orange. Insufficient members are red.
To modify default colors, select the Limits tab and choose other colors for
design load rate intervals.

Forces and Deflection Diagrams

 Select a load combination or envelope on the Activate toolbar.
 Select the Results tab of View Options dialog box to display graphic
results for forces and deflections, support reactions, moments at nodes,
shear stresses, axial stresses, torsion and global deflection of members
by ticking off the boxes. To view numerical values, select the
"Numerical" option on this tab.

Note: To get a better view, select members and mask the rest of the
structure.

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Timber Design Results Spreadsheet

The spreadsheet is available in the Results / Structure Design /Timber
menu. It includes critical load combinations (interaction, shear and
deflection) and the code provision that controlled the design of each
member. It also provides the member design load rates, bending, shear and
axial resistances, effective compression lengths, etc.
If rows are yellow, it means that the member is not adequate. Look for a red
cell to find the problem. Colors don't appear on the printed sheet.
There are many ways to open this spreadsheet:
 If no members were selected, the spreadsheet includes all members
 Double-click on a member to access the spreadsheet, which includes
results for this member only.
 Select several members (while pressing down the [Ctrl] key) and click
the Properties icon. Only selected members are part of the results
spreadsheet.
Three buttons are available at the bottom of the spreadsheet. The first gives
access to the member internal forces spreadsheet for critical load
combinations, the second prints the member design brief, and the third is a
print preview of the design brief.

Design Brief
 Display the member design brief by selecting (highlight) the appropriate
row in the Timber Design Results spreadsheet.
 Next, click the "Print Preview" icon to view the member design brief. To
print it, use the "Print" button available in the Print Preview menu.

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 Click the "Design Brief" icon to directly print it.

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