Moderately Ductile and Ductile shear walls can now be designed within MASS to satisfy the ductility verification (required by CSA S304-14) Any designers struggling with post-disaster strictures or the axial load limitations of conventional construction masonry will be happy to know that MASS Version 4.0 has the ability to perform Read more…
Added to the 2015 National Building Code of Canada is a new design pathway that can be used for areas with very low seismic hazard levels. If you are designing shear walls in an area with very low spectral acceleration values (Looking at you Manitoba and Saskatchewan) then we we Read more…
Oh yes we did! The title speaks for itself and engineers (or their I.T. professionals) everywhere rejoice Due to some behind the scenes changes out of our control, access to the MASS activation server directly from each user’s application was severed, resulting in each activation to needing to be performed Read more…
New to Version 4 is a more intuitive way to navigate drawings The interface for navigating drawings using anything other than the scroll bars was inconsistent and confusing. For example, does scrolling up using the mouse zoom in or pan the image upward? The answer for years was “sometimes just Read more…
The method used by MASS to get bars to align is fairly complicated but gets the job done. One early point of feedback in the Version 4.0 development process is that most engineers will not want to deal with the detailing of bars terminating in one cell and starting Read more…
Yes, you did read that right! The Multi-Storey module can be used to break a single storey design into multiple shear wall elements. With the release of MASS Version 4.0, a new module was announced that specifically deals with the design of shear walls where loads can be applied Read more…
While there is no “pilaster module” within MASS, the walls module can be adapted to assist with their design This article originally was featured on the MASS Software Blog, formerly hosted on the software section of the Canada Masonry Design Centre website. CMDC is the authorized technical service provider Read more…
When designing a Shearline using MASS, the software relies on you to determine how the wall behaves This article originally was featured on the MASS Software Blog, formerly hosted on the software section of the Canada Masonry Design Centre website. CMDC is the authorized technical service provider for the Read more…
In the absence of a true multi-storey MASS module (Update: added in V4.0), there are steps that can be taken to use MASS effectively for these types of designs This article originally was featured on the MASS Software Blog, formerly hosted on the software section of the Canada Masonry Read more…
Understanding the Total Height input when using MASS can add considerable moment capacity to a shear wall design This article originally was featured on the MASS Software Blog, formerly hosted on the software section of the Canada Masonry Design Centre website. CMDC is the authorized technical service provider for Read more…