Before You Begin

Welcome to the RISAConnection General Reference manual. Please read this topic prior to installing the program and pay particular attention to the License Agreement. If you are a first time user of RISAConnection it would be beneficial to browse through this manual to become familiar with the interface and connection design capabilities.

Overview

RISAConnection is a hot-rolled steel connection design program that allows you to design many types of connections for different hot rolled steel shapes and configurations. The program utilizes multiple graphical views with a tabular input location to make connection modeling straightforward and efficient. After configuring your connection, the program will give detailed calculations for all of the different connection failure modes complete with full calculation values that you can verify quickly and easily.

System Requirements

One of the following operating systems is required:

• Microsoft Windows 11 (64 bit only)
• Microsoft Windows 10 (64 bit only)
• Microsoft Windows 8.1 (64 bit only)

Software

The following additional software is required:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 or later

Internet

An internet connection is required to launch the program. The internet connection must be maintained as long as the program is open, although brief internet outages (a few minutes) do not affect the user's ability to keep the program open.

Hardware

The following hardware is required:

• 1 GHz or faster processor (x86-64)
• 1024x768 or higher monitor resolution
• 2 (or more) button mouse, mouse wheel recommended
• 1 GB of RAM
• 4 GB of hard disk space

Program Limits

Hardware Limitations

• RISAConnection is not a multi-threaded application, which means that it runs entirely within a single processor core. Therefore the program does not take full advantage of multi-core or multi-processor machines. This limitation affects how long it takes to solve a group or project with multiple load combinations on models integrated with RISA-3D/RISAFloor.

Demonstration Version Limitations

While you can open and solve any model, you cannot save any project or connection. Also the following limitations apply:

• Yield and rupture capacities for all steel materials are hard-coded as Fy = 25 ski and Fu = 40 ksi.
• The welds are hard-coded to have a strength of 50 ksi.
• The allowable compressive stress of concrete for base plate connections is always set to f'c = 1,500 psi.
• RISA-3D and RISAFloor models may export connections into the Demo version of RISAConnection but the other limitations (above) will still apply.

• The Demonstration Version will automatically shut down if left open for 24 continuous hours.

License Agreement

For the full license agreement, please visit: risa.com/eula

Technical Support

Complete program support is available to registered owners of RISAConnection and is included in the purchase price. This support is provided for the life of the program. The "life of the program" is defined as the time period for which that version of the program is the current version. In other words. whenever a new version of RISAConnection is released, the life of the previous version is considered to be ended. Technical support is a limited resource; first priority will always be given to those clients who are current.

See Technical Support for a list of your support options.