Graphic Editing

You may draw, edit, and load your model directly in the model views. You can draw members and plates between existing joints or draw to grid intersections and have the joints created automatically. You may graphically select joints to be restrained, members to be loaded, and plates to be submeshed. All or selected parts of the model may be moved, copied, and/or modified allowing you to quickly model and edit your structure. See Graphic Selection to learn how to make selections.

Drawing and Modification Features

There are several graphic editing features that make the creation and modification of models quite easy. Use the Insert and Modify Menus or the Drawing Toolbar to utilize these features in the model view. To create new members, plates, etc., you can draw them using a drawing grid or draw "dot to dot" from existing joints. Once you have created these items you may use other graphic features to load the model and set boundary conditions.

See Members for more information on drawing and modifying Members.
See Plates/Shells for information on drawing and modifying Plates/Shells.
See Boundary Conditions for information on creating and modifying Boundary Conditions.
See Loads - Point Loads for information on drawing Point Loads.
See Loads - Joint Force / Displacement for information on drawing Joint Loads.
See Loads - Distributed Loads for information on drawing Distributed Loads.

All model data is automatically recorded in spreadsheets and the spreadsheets and model views are always in tune (unless you turn this feature off in the Application Settings on the Tools Menu). As you edit a model graphically the spreadsheets are automatically updated and as you make changes in the spreadsheets the model views reflect these changes immediately.

All of the graphical modeling tools may be found on the Drawing Toolbar shown below. This toolbar may be turned on and off by clicking the button on the Window Toolbar.

Where to Start

The Drawing Grid is often useful when you are starting a new model from scratch or adding a new section to a model. It allows you to set up grid lines which may then be used to define the members, plates, and boundaries. The Drawing Grid is independent of the model so you may change the grid and place it anywhere, without affecting the model and whenever it is convenient.

There are also times when it is simpler to define joints in the spreadsheet and then draw the members or plates between them. This might be the case if you are working with just a few joints, or if the structure is irregular and does not lend itself to a grid.

Apply Options

Some of the graphic editing options offer more than one way to apply a modification. This is because there are times when each option is useful. For example, changing the material of a beam from A36 steel to A572 steel can be accomplished using the Members Spreadsheet. If you had to apply this change to 100 beams however you would not want to do that for each of them. A better way to do this would be to graphically select all of the beams and then apply the changes all at once.

Use the following options to specify how you want to choose the items to modify. Choosing Apply Entries to All Selected Items allows you to use the tools on the Selection Toolbar to choose the items you want and then apply the modifications to all selected items at once. Choose Apply Entries by Clicking Items Individually to then click on the items you wish to modify individually. See Graphic Selection for more information on the selection tools.

Note

The selection and viewing tools override the graphic editing modes so that as you are editing the model you can alter the selected state. You will be returned to the current editing mode when you exit a selection mode.
You may also double click any joint, member, or plate to view and edit it’s properties.
To correct any modeling errors it is a good idea to run Model Merge before performing a solution. Becoming familiar with this feature will also allow you to take shortcuts while modeling. See Model Merge for more information.

Undo Operations

RISA-2D provides you with unlimited 'Undo' capability so that you may easily correct mistakes or just back up to try different possibilities. Simply click the button on the RISA Toolbar as many times as you wish to undo your previous actions. The model view and the spreadsheets will visually display the "undoing". Remember that spreadsheet edits are undone as well.

Note

Changes made to the selection state of the model, the zoom level or rotation of the model view, or to the Model Display Options settings are NOT undone. Only a change to the model data can be undone.

Redo Operations

RISA-2D provides you with unlimited 'Redo' capability so that you may easily redo any actions that were previously undone using the 'Undo' button. Simply click the button on the RISA Toolbar as many times as you wish to redo actions that were previously undone. The model view and the spreadsheets will visually display the “redoing”. Remember that spreadsheet edits are redone as well.

Note

Changes made to the selection state of the model, the zoom level or rotation of the model view, or to the Model Display Options settings are NOT redone, since they cannot be undone to begin with. Only a change to the model data can be redone.

The generator provides the ability to generate an entire grid system at once rather than entering the grids in manually in the project grid spreadsheet.

Drawing Grid

The Drawing Grid is a tool that lets you draw new members and plates in the model view. This grid is independent of the model, so you may change the grid as you build your model without changing any modeling that you have completed. This is because as you draw the members and plates the joints used to define them are created automatically. These joints remain in their locations if the grid is relocated.

Drawing Grid Dialog

Click the button on the Drawing Toolbar to open the Drawing Grid Dialog shown above. The display of the Drawing Grid in the current model view may be turned on and off by clicking the button on the Drawing Toolbar. If the Drawing Toolbar is not visible in the current model view, click the button on the Window Toolbar.

You may choose between a rectangular drawing grid or a radial drawing grid. Also, rectangular drawing grids may be skewed from perpendicular to the global axis plane.

The Save and Recall Grid Settings... section allows for drawing grids may be saved and recalled for later use. Saved drawing grids are model independent, i.e. when you save a grid, you can reuse it in any other model you are working with in the future. To save a drawing grid, click the Save button after defining the grid. You will be prompted for a name for the drawing grid and it will then be saved and added to the list of grids available for recall. To recall a previously defined drawing grid, select the grid name from the drop down list and click the Retrieve button. If you wish to delete a previously saved drawing grid, select the grid name you want to delete from the drop down list and click the Delete button.

The Show Grid As... section gives the option of displaying the drawing grid as lines from grid point to grid point or simply as a grid of points.

You may save any of the grid information as the default setting so that when you start a new model that information is already there. To do this, simply enter the information that you want to save in the Drawing Grids Dialog, check the Save Current Settings as Defaults box, and then click the OK button.

Rectangular Drawing Grid

The rectangular drawing grid is defined by increments in two directions. The Drawing Grid Origin is where you want the grid increments to start. The Rectangular Grid Increments are the distances between the grid points or lines in two global directions.

You may use symbols such as "@", "/" and "," when entering the drawing grid increments.

The "@" entry may be used to specify multiple, equally spaced, grid increments. For example, if you wanted 7 increments at 10 units each, you would type "7@10" in the increment field.

The "/" entry subdivides a larger increment into smaller equal increments. For example, the entry "12/4" would create 4 increments of 3 units each.

Use commas (",") to enter multiple increments in the increment field. For example, if you wanted to define increments of 3, 4, 7 and 2 units, you could enter "3,4,7,2" in the increment field.

Once the drawing grid is specified and displayed in the model view, it will provide snap points while drawing your model.

Skewed Drawing Grid

The rectangular drawing grid can be skewed by specifying a skew angle. This option is available in the Rectangular Grid Increments section of the Drawing Grids Dialog. This skew angle will allow the creation of a regular rectangular drawing grid, but displayed in the model view at the specified angle, inclined from the global axis.

Radial Drawing Grid

Increments in two polar directions define a radial drawing grid. The Drawing Grid Origin is the point about which the grid will rotate. The default is at the global origin (0,0). The Start Angle defines the angle from the global axis that the first spoke will be drawn. The Angle Increment controls the number and angular spacing of the spokes in the grid. The Radial Increments controls the number and location of the rings in the grid.

Relocating the Drawing Grid

The origin of the drawing grid may be specified in two ways. The first is to enter the exact global coordinates for the origin. This can be done by entering the values in the Xand Y fields of the Drawing Grid Origin section. The second option is to specify the origin by clicking on an existing point in the model. This option is available by checking the Click on a location to relocate Origin box, clicking the OK button, and then clicking on the specific location in the model view where you wish the drawing grid origin to be located. The drawing grid origin will then be moved to this point.

Snap Points

Snap Points let you draw in the model view without the use of grids. To view or modify the snap point settings, click the button on the Drawing Toolbar and select the Snap To Options tab shown below.

In the Member Snap Locations section, you can set the program to automatically snap to the Quarter Points and/or Third Points of a member by checking the appropriate boxes.

The Universal Snap Increments section is used to define a snap grid for "free" drawing to any incremental location on a plane. To activate this feature, check the Use Universal Increments box. Or, the feature may be toggled on and off in the current model view by clicking the button on the Drawing Toolbar. If the Drawing Toolbar is not visible in the current model view, click the button on the Window Toolbar.

When snap points are activated, a red dot or asterisk will appear on your screen as you move your drawing cursor over one of these points. The exact coordinates of this point, and whether it is a 1/3 or 1/4 point of a member, are reported in the status bar at the very bottom of the main application window just beneath the workspace.

Import DXF

Import DXF lets you import a DXF drawing into the model view as a grid. The DXF image is imported so that you can snap to any point or intersection to aid in the drawing of your model. The DXF Import Drawing Grid supports Lines, Polylines, Circles, Arcs, Polylines with Arcs, and Points.

To Import DXF Drawing Grid:

If there is not a model view already open then click on the RISA Toolbar to open a new view and click to turn on the Drawing Toolbar if it is not already displayed.
Select the Drawing Grid Origin or click to checkbox to manually locate it after the dialogue closes.
Assign the DXF Import Options and DXF Plane.
Select Lines or Points for grid lines.
Select the DXF File from a file or from the list of recently used files. The program will remember the last 5 files imported.
Once the file is imported, you will be prompted to "Use All Layers" or "Select Layers from the List". You can check or uncheck selected layers, and select colors of the layers display by clicking on the gray box (defaults to gray).

The program will default to use All Layers. Or you can select the color of the grid lines/points by clicking on the color box next to each layer name and select the color.

Locating the DXF Drawing Grid

Drawing Plane

Select the RISA drawing plane for the DXF file shall be placed.

DXF Scale Factor

Enter the scale factor that will cause the DXF file to be scaled up or down to full scale. For instance, if you had created a scaled model in AutoCAD at a scale of 1/4"=12", then the appropriate scale factor to produce a full size RISA-2D model would be 48. The default is 1.0.

DXF Plane

Select the DXF drawing plane to import from the DXF file. The DXF file will be flattened to this plane and all lines/points visible from this plane will be imported.

DXF Units

Select the units you used in the CAD model from which you produced the DXF file. The supported DXF units are none, inches, feet, mm, cm, and meters.

Angle Increment

The program will break an arc or circle into straight line segments to allow you to snap to them. This indicates the number of degrees the that an imported arc or circle should be broken into.

Copying Model Elements

To Copy Selected Items

If there is not a model view already open then click on the RISA Toolbar to open a new view and click to turn on the Drawing Toolbar if it is not already displayed.
Select the items you want to copy.
To copy the selection linearly click the Copy button
To mirror the selection click the Mirror Copy button and specify the mirror plane.

Note:

Use the "@" symbol to specify multiple equal increments. For example specifying "3@10" will give you 3 copies at 10 units apart.
You may undo any mistakes by clicking the Undo button.

Copy by Increments

This allows you to copy the selected items by entering in increments in any or all of the global directions. The selected items will copy the increment distance(s) that you have entered.

Use the "@" symbol to specify multiple equal increments. For example specifying "3@10" will give you 3 copies at 10 units apart.

Checking the Copy Loads with Members? box will cause ALL loads associated with the original selected model elements to be copied to the corresponding newly created model elements.

Checking the Inter-connect Bays? box will cause new members to be generated that connect all member end joints of the originally selected model elements with the corresponding member end joints in the newly created model elements. You may also indicate whether the new member end releases are to be Fixed or Pinned by selecting the corresponding radial button.

Note:

Only member end joints will be inter-connected. The corner joints of Plates and Solids will NOT be inter-connected.
Member end joints that have a boundary condition associated with them will NOT be inter-connected.

Rotate Copy

You can copy the selected part of the model by rotating the copies. Simply enter the sweep angle, the number of increments along the sweep (rotation) angle, and the location of the polar origin (the point rotated about).

For example, suppose you wish to copy the selected part of your model in six 30° increments (for a total of 180°). You would enter "180" as the sweep (rotation) angle and "6" as the number of increments. For the polar origin, enter the X and Y coordinates of where you want the axis of rotation to pass through the XY plane.

Note

Only member end joints will be inter-connected. The corner joints of Plates and Solids will NOT be inter-connected.
Member end joints that have a boundary condition associated with them will NOT be inter-connected.

Checking the Copy Loads with Members? box will cause ALL loads associated with the original selected model elements to be copied to the corresponding newly created model elements.

Mirror Copy

You can mirror selected parts of your model. Enter the global axis that you want to mirror about and enter a location along the normal axis to move the mirror plane location. If the mirror plane location is left blank, the mirror plane is placed at the origin.

For example, suppose you want to mirror part of your model about the X axis at a location +3.0 feet from the origin. You would enter "X" as the Axis and enter a "3.0" for the axis location.

Note

Only member end joints will be inter-connected. The corner joints of Plates and Solids will NOT be inter-connected.
Member end joints that have a boundary condition associated with them will NOT be inter-connected.

Checking the Copy Loads with Members? box will cause ALL loads associated with the original selected model elements to be copied to the corresponding newly created model elements.

Moving and Rotating Model Elements

To Move or Rotate Selected Items

If there is not a model view already open then click on the RISA Toolbar to open a new view and click to turn on the Drawing Toolbar if it is not already displayed.
Select the items you want to move.
To move the selection linearly click the Move Linear button and specify the offset distances.

To move the selection in a polar fashion click the Rotate button and specify the axis and angle.

Note:

You may undo any mistakes by clicking the Undo button.

Linear Move

You can move the selected part of the model. Just enter the desired translation distances in the global axes directions.

Rotate Move

To rotate the selected parts of the model enter the desired rotation angle and the coordinates of the polar origin (the point rotated about). Instead of specifying coordinates for a polar origin, it may instead be chosen by clicking in the model view. Select Click Joint in Model View, specify the appropriate Rotation Axis and Rotation Angle, then click Apply. The cursor will show a crosshair, with which a polar origin may be specified by left-clicking on a Joint or snap point.

For example, say you wish to rotate the selected part of your model 90°. You would enter "90" as the rotate angle. For the polar origin, enter the coordinates of where you want the axis of rotation to pass through the XY plane.

Scaling Elements

The scale feature allows you to change the size of selected items. Selected joints, members and plates are all affected when the scaling is applied. Loads are not scaled except distributed and surface loads that are a function of the size of the element.

Enter an origin about which to scale and a scale factor to apply to each global direction. The origin is the point that remains stationary during the scaling. The factors are applied in each direction to adjust the joint coordinates, member lengths and plate sizing. The factors work so that a factor of one has no affect, a factor of two will double the size of the item, and so on.

What is actually happening when you scale items is that the joint coordinates that define these items are being moved. For this reason the scaling is applied to all selected items plus unselected joints of selected items. For example if you have selected members to scale but have unselected some of the end joints, the joints are scaled anyway since this is the only way to scale the member.

Note

If you wish to scale in a direction other than a global direction you can rotate the model to a global direction, scale it, and rotate it back.

To Scale Selected Items

If there is not a model view already open then click on the RISA Toolbar to open a new view and click to turn on the Drawing Toolbar if it is not already displayed.
Select the items you want to copy.
To scale the selection click the Scale and specify the scale factors for each direction. For help on an item, click and then click the item.

Note

You may undo any mistakes by clicking the Undo button.

Merging Model Elements

As you build your model, you may find that you will need to perform a model merge from time to time. In fact, if you count on doing this, you can generally build your models faster and let the model merge feature do a lot of the work for you. See Merge Tolerance to learn about inputting the merge tolerance.

To Perform a Model Merge

If there is not a model view already open then click on the RISA Toolbar to open a new view and click to turn on the Drawing Toolbar if it is not already displayed.
Select the items you wish to merge. Typically you will want everything to be selected.
Click the Merge button and set the parameters for the new merge. Click the Help button for more information.

Trim/Extend Members

As you modify the model, you may find that you will need to trim or extend a member. The Trim/Extend tool will allow you to modify the ends of any member in relation to another member. This extension is for members only, not walls or plates.

Note

This tool is sensitive to the end that you click. Each member has an I and J end. Make sure to click on the member side that you want to modify.
You need to click on the member NOT the joint. This tool is modifying the length of the member.

To Perform a Trim

If there is not a model view already open then click on the RISA Toolbar to open a new view and click to turn on the Drawing Toolbar if it is not already displayed.
Select the items you wish to trim.
Click the Trim button.
Click on the member end to Trim. Then click on the boundary member.

To Perform an Extend

If there is not a model view already open then click on the RISA Toolbar to open a new view and click to turn on the Drawing Toolbar if it is not already displayed.
Select the items you wish to merge.
Click the Extend button twice or select Extension by clicking the arrow.
Click on the member end to Extend. Then click on the boundary member.

Example 1:

Example 2: The Extend tool can also be used to extend a member to intersection of that member's projected location.

Deleting Elements

You can delete parts of the model based on the current selection state, or you can click on the items you wish to delete individually. If you accidentally delete something you didn't want deleted, you can use the Undo feature to repair the damage.

If you wish to delete based on the current selection state, you must use the check boxes to define the criteria the program will use to perform the deletion. Only items that are selected and that have their check boxes "checked" will be deleted. The choices let you delete joints, members, plates, wall panels, solids and/or loads.

Keep in mind that if you delete joints, any members, plates, etc. attached to the deleted joints MUST also be deleted, regardless of whether those elements are selected or not.

Two noteworthy features are the ability to delete unattached joints and zero length members. Sometimes in the process of modeling you accidentally create unwanted unattached joints or zero length members. These two parameters give you a convenient way to remove these unwanted items.

If you request deletion of displayed loads, you'll get exactly that. Any load currently displayed will be deleted. By controlling what loads are displayed via the Loads tab in the Model Display Options Dialog, you can easily delete specific types of loads for particular basic load cases, load categories or load combinations.

Alternatively, you can choose to delete items by clicking on them individually. Select the radial button next to Delete Items by Clicking Them Individually and use the mouse to click on any individual item you wish deleted.

A final choice is to delete loads individually by clicking on the item the load is applied to. Select Delete Displayed LOADS on Items and then click the items (joints, members or plates) whose displayed loads are to be deleted. For example, if you wish to delete certain distributed loads, first use the Loads tab in the Model Display Options to display the loads to be deleted, then choose the Delete Displayed LOADS on Items option and proceed to click on the items to which the loads to be deleted are applied.

Remember to click the Apply button to make your choices active.

To Delete Selected Items

If there is not a model view already open then click the button on the RISA Toolbar to open a new view and click to turn on the Drawing Toolbar if it is not already displayed.
Select the items you want to delete.
To delete the items click the Delete and specify the types of items.

Note

You may undo any mistakes by clicking the Undo button.

Re-Labeling Selected Elements

You can use the right-click menu in the program to re-label only the selected items. This is useful when you want all members at a certain elevation to have a prefix which denotes the floor on which it is located.