Bracing a Single Story Building

Set the Wind & Earthquake Zone…

1. Navigate to the Plan view that you wish to brace. From the Cadimage menu choose Bracing > Wind Earthquake Zone.

2. In Wind & Earthquake Zones pop up window set the Wind Zone, Earthquake Zone & Soil Class.

Note:

There are two ways to calculate the Wind Zone, use the arrows in the centre of the dialog to choose one method or the other.

Brace the building:

3. Navigate to the Plan view that you wish to brace. Select the walls of the building you want to brace, and from the Cadimage menu choose Bracing > Calculate Bracing.

A Bracing Settings dialog will come up.

4. Expand the Calculation Stages settings, and choose the Storey Location, single.

• Choose to Place Brace Lines and to Place Braces.

• Set the Calculation Set to Default (if the building is to be braced in one shot). If you need to add a second set of braces, lines and table you’ll need to use a different calculation set for each one. (see advanced section)

Note:

If you need to add a second set of braces, lines and table anywhere in your project you’ll need to use a different calculation set for each one. (see advanced section)

• Choose a Brace Type Set from the list.

5. Expand the Building Dimensions settings and enter the dimensions and roof pitch of the building.

Set the angle that is parallel with the length of the building. This angle is measured from the horizontal in a counter-clockwise direction. For the example building, the angle is zero.

6. Expand the Cladding Weights settings and choose cladding weights for Roof, Upper Cladding and Subfloor.

Select the Floor Load and Construction Settings.

7. Expand the Brace Settings settings and set:

• Maximum Brace Length.

• Minimum Brace Length.

• Truncate Braces To - this setting ensures that brace lengths will be set to sensible values like 1.3, 1.8 rather than 1.304, 1.796.

Also set the stud height for braces, and choose whether or not braces can be reduced in height for placement on shorter walls.

8. Finally, choose the layer on which to place all the bracing symbols, and hit OK

Brace lines will be placed on the building, braces placed on those lines, so as to satisfy the requirements of NZS3604.

9. You must then indicate the location of the Brace Table, Click to place the brace table. This will be the top left-hand corner.

If there was a problem, and the required bracing could not be achieved, the Brace Table will report this, as will messages that come up throughout the process.

See advanced section on how to add/edit your braces.