2024 NDS / 2021 SDPWS Timber Shear Wall Design in RFEM 6
A walkthrough of light-frame timber shear wall design in RFEM 6 with the Multilayer Surfaces and Timber Design add-ons, built around a single wall modeled from scratch and later reworked with openings. The session covers how the framing, sheathing, and fastener connectors are defined together as one beam panel, how an FEA model captures the four sources of deflection named in SDPWS 2021 instead of approximating them, and how the members, the sheathing, and the connectors are each checked — member equations from NDS 2024, connector capacities from SDPWS 2021.
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Webinar language
English (US)Recommended skill level
Skills you will gain
- Build a timber shear wall from a single surface and let the beam panel thickness generate the studs, plates, and sheathing automatically
- Define the sheathing, framing, and fastener layout, then save the whole build-up as a template for later walls
- Trace the nonlinear nail-slip line hinge RFEM 6 generates back to the fastener slip provisions of the 2021 SDPWS
- Frame a wall around openings with surface cells, then restore the supports, hold downs, and unbraced lengths
- Read the member, sheathing, and connector design ratios down to the NDS 2024 equations, variables, and code references behind them
This webinar includes
Webinar content
Amy Heilig introduces the session agenda, then breaks a timber shear wall into its parts: studs, top and bottom plates, sheathing, fasteners, and anchorage. The remainder frames the problem the webinar answers, covering the four sources of deflection named in SDPWS 2021, shear transfer ignored at openings, and black-box software results.
This segment covers the full modeling sequence: activating the multilayer surfaces and timber design add-ons, setting NDS 2024 and ASCE 7 in the base data, defining cross sections and APA-derived sheathing materials, and building the wall as a beam panel. It closes with the nonlinear nail-slip line hinges checked against SDPWS 2021, supports, hold downs, and loading.
With the wind load case calculated, the detailed model is displayed and the results are walked through: global deformation of sheathing and framing, in-plane shear stresses in the panels, member axial forces at the end posts, nodal and line support reactions, and the shear flow from the line hinge releases. It closes on why these differ from hand calculations.
Preparation for the code checks: effective lengths assigned to the vertical studs and the buckling modes that matter once sheathing braces them, a design support added so the bottom plate is checked for compression perpendicular to the grain, and the strength configuration whose beam panel tab governs connector design. The timber design add-on is then started.
The add-on results are reviewed layer by layer: design ratios for the members, with the NDS 2024 equations, adjustment factors, and code references behind each check, then the sheathing panels, then every sheathing-to-framing connector, where demand comes from the analysis and capacity from SDPWS 2021, including how thicknesses and spacings outside the code tables are treated.
Openings are cut into the wall surface, and a dedicated function regenerates the framing around them as surface cells, whose thickness can then be overwritten cell by cell to rotate a header. Supports, hold downs, and effective lengths are reinstated, stress singularities at the opening corners are addressed, and the segment ends on platform framing and wall-to-wall connections with rigid links.
The opening list of software challenges is revisited as solutions, with each of the four SDPWS deflection sources now accounted for in the model. The close is a development roadmap: CSA O86 shear walls, SDPWS diaphragm design, horizontal blocking, gypsum materials, non-rectangular wall shapes, and automatic anchorage design through the Components add-on.
Who this webinar is for
- Engineers still sizing timber shear walls in spreadsheets because the dedicated software feels clunky and demands a complex workflow
- RFEM 6 users who need shear transfer above and below openings, and a view of the forces between the sheathing and the studs
- Engineers on a US project where deflection, members, sheathing, and connectors all have to be checked within one model
Application areas:
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Instructors
Amy Heilig, PE
CEO – USA Subsidiary
Amy is the CEO of the U.S. subsidiary and is responsible for sales and continued program development for the North American market.
Alex Bacon, EIT
Support Engineer
Alex handles customer training and technical support for the North American market and works on continued program development.
Cisca Tjoa, PE
Senior Support Engineer
Cisca is the senior support engineer for the North American market, covering customer training, technical support, and program development.
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