Civilbay steel connection design program is one of the most comprehensive steel connection design software based on AISC 360-16 and
AISC 360-10 code, CSA S16-14 code, and all AISC Steel Design Guides.
1. It's a pure AISC solution which covers 90~95% of steel connection design in most projects, with specific strength on brace connection design
    including vertical brace, horizontal brace, chevron brace, knee brace, ver. brace to base plate , and wrap around gusset plate design in horizontal
    brace design.
2. It provides detailed sketches and textbook style step by step calculation showing formulas and parameters. In every step it shows the design
    code reference source for the user to trace how the result is derived so that the user has full control on the calculation.

 

User can click on this link  Buy Now  to buy a license online.
When user navigate through the Buy Now  link , user will find license pricing info.

 

Use Google Chrome as your web browser

 

  Tutorial 01  Quick Start      Tutorial 02 - Design Examples   Part 1      Part 2      Part 3       Working Sheet
  Tutorial 03  Moment Connection           Tutorial 04  Splice Connection     Tutorial 05  Shear Connection  
  Tutorial 06  Vertical Brace Connection          Tutorial 07  Horizontal Brace Connection  
  Tutorial 11  HSS Connection - Moment & Shear Connection  
  Tutorial 12  HSS Connection - Brace Connection  
  Tutorial 21  Brace Connection - Transfer or Pass Through Force  
  Tutorial 22  Slip Critical Bolt Connection and Slotted Bolt Hole  
To view online user manual ,  visit    User Manual
To start online program ,       visit    Start Program

 

To run the concrete anchorage design program online, visit Start Program

 

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See screenshot below for the user interface input and display areas
Area-1 : sketch area,    sketch is shown in this area. Users can change different views of same connection by clicking on radio button in Area-5
Area-2 : status area,    showing license status and calculation result summary in this area
Area-3 : input area,      users key in inputs in this area, by clicking on different tabs in Area-4, the input fields will change to serve different part
                                 of inputs for the connection
Area-4 : input tabs,      clicking on different tabs in this area it will change the input contents shown in Area-3
Area-5 : sketch view tabs,    clicking on different tabs in this area it will change the sketch view shown in Area-1  
Area-6 : file/login area,    user can save/load input file, update input and login/logout in this area  

 

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For licensed user, you will get an email from me after you pruchased the license. That email will give you login user name and password.
Key in your login user name and password as shown below


After login please verify that your user name appears on the status area and the license is shown as activated.
 

 

Click on this link  Change Login  to change login user name and password.

 

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There are Steel Connection and Concrete Anchorage two design modules.
User has purchased Steel Connection license , but Concrete Anchorage design module needs separate license. We encourage Steel Connection
user to have a free trila on Concrete Anchorage module.
For Steel Connection user, follow two setps below to select Steel Connection design module.
Step 1 : Click on General tab as shown below
Step 2 : Select Steel Connection design module from the pull down as shown below

 

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Step 1 : Click on Setting tab as shown below
Step 2 : On the pop-up dialog box, select Design Code, Design Unit and Display Precision

Design Code :  There are three design codes available as shown below
Design Unit :    It will set the Imperial or Metric unit for input and calculation presentation
                      User can design ACI 318-19 Imperial code using metric design unit
                      User can also design A23.3-19 Metric code using imperial design unit
Display Precision :  It sets how the number is presented on the sketch, for example half an inch display as 0.500 or 1/2";
                            This setting applies to sketch presentation only and does not apply to calculation report presentation

 

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For axial load input, negative value denotes tensile load and positive value denotes compression load

 

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To save time and avoid page refreshing after user keys in every input, for many input fileds the page remains not updated after user keys in a new value.
User can click on the Update button to refresh the page after finish all inputs in the panel.

 

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See screenshot below, hover your mouse over an input field and it's value in sketch will be highlighted in yellow

 

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The program provides Tooltip for almost every input fields. It is an online user manual for user's convenience.
User needs to turn the Tooltip On first before viewing the tooltip and user can turn it Off after user is familiar with the program.
User can hover the mouse over input filed and it will pop up the tooltip
User can also click on the question mark and it will also pop up the tooltip

 

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See screenshot below, there are suggest values, many are from standard drawings, which will give user a good start for design
User can click on Copy button to copy all suggest values to input fields on the left

 

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User can click on Design Calc to view calculation report as shown on screenshot below.
Refer to next FAQ for details on how to navigate/organize calculation report for printout.

 

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See screenshot below. User can review/organize which section of calculation to be displayed and click on any check item's title bar to
expand/collapse that item to review detail calculation.
Step 1: User can select which section of calculation to be displayed by checking items in this checkbox. If only Summary is checked
            then it will only display result summary, or Sketches is checked, it will display sketches.
Step 2: User can click on any check item's title bar to unfold this check item to show detail calculation
Step 3: User can also click on the Expand All / Collapse All to expand/collapse all check items' calculation details in one single shot

 

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See Step 3 and Step 4 in next FAQ-19   on how to add company name and project name in the calculation report

 

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Before printing a calculation report , user may follow FAQ-16   above to arrange the report in user expected format by checking the
checkboxes and expand/collapse required sections.
Step 1: In Design Calc tab, click on Print button and it will pop up a new window as shown in screenshot below, maximize the new window

Step

Step 2: Maximize the new window
          a) Point mouse on the right margin      b) Click on mouse right button      c) Select Print menu item in the pop up menu

Step 3:
In the new print window, the two checkbox under bottom-left Options area are checked by default, if not please check these two options
See next screenshot in Step 4 to understand how the inputs of Company Name, Project Name and Connection ID under General tab are captured here as calculation report title



Step 4:
Compare to screenshot above to understand how the inputs of Company Name, Project Name and Connection ID under General tab are captured as calculation report title

 

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Follow instructions below to open/save an input file. It's exactly the same as how you save a download file in the web browser.
How to save an input file




How to open an input file

 

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This program may have bugs which will casue error. When you get the error message similar to the one shown below, don't be panic.
Follow these steps to report the bug to me.
Step 1 : Take a screenshot of the error message similar to the one below, and email the screenshot to me as attachment of your email
Step 2 : Check this page How to Reset Program  on how to reset the program. After reset, click on this link Start Program   to start the program again.
Step 3 : After restart the program, repeat previous steps to reach the step just before you getting error message, save your input file and email it to me.
             Tell me for this file on which input you click causes the error. I will fix the bug if I can repeat your error message here.
Below is a sample error message screenshot. Your error message may not be the same but shall be similar

 

User can refer to this  tutorial video  and tutorial page  for detail explanation on how to handle brace transfer/pass through force input in this program.
The transfer force or pass through force in brace connection is handled as per schematic chart shown below.
User can split the brace connection into two sides of brace connection and design them separately. The relationship between the two sides is the transfer force TF.

Transfer Force or Pass-through Force Load Input
Transfer force or pass-through force input field takes both +/- value. Positive value denotes tensile transfer force , negative value denotes compressive transfer force.
The author suggests to input positive transfer force all the time for both load input cases . Positive transfer force will add axial tensile force to beam-column interface
axial force so that it will produce conservative result for the brace connection design.


Beam End Beam Axial Load Input
In one sentence, beam end beam axial load P_bm , which is taken from structural analysis member force output, is NOT required for brace connection beam-column design.
Refer to Gusset Plate Interface Forces Calculation - Uniform Force Method chart below.
P_bm - beam member axial force, which is taken from structural analysis member force output,  is NOT needed for brace connection beam-column design
P_b-c - beam to column interface axial force, which is calculated from user's input of brace axial force P and trasnfer force A_b  using uniform force method.
         It is P_b-c , not  P_bm , that is used in the brace connection beam-column design
       
For brace connection load inputs, we expect brace axial force P , beam end shear load V_b-c  and trasnfer force A_b  for load input, but beam end axial load P_bm  is not required.
Q1. Steel frame engineer gives out beam axial load P_bm  and asks connection enginner to use it for brace connection design
      Connection enginner shall request trasnfer force A_b instead of beam end axial load P_bm . When there is no choice, connection enginner can take beam axial load P_bm 
      and input it as positive value of transfer force A_b
Q2. Steel frame engineer gives out both beam end axial load P_bm  and transfer force A_b  and asks connection enginner to use them for brace connection design
      Brace axial force P , trasnfer force A_b , and beam axial load P_bm  can NOT be all from input values at the same time as one of the three can be derived from the other two.

The author suggests to input positive transfer force all the time for both load input cases . Positive transfer force will add axial tensile force to beam-column interface
axial force so that it will produce conservative result for the brace connection design.

Below is the load input panel for brace connection

 

In brace or shear connection where beam connects to column web using End Plate, Shear Tab or Gusset Plate as connector, when beam's
axial force imposed on column web is large, Column Web Axial Yielding check is very easy to fail.
User can add vertical stiffener plate to column web to waive the Column Web Axial Yielding check