Brick Veneer Arch: Design Software Program?

[ichibansan]

For those of you that have designed arches by hand using the BIA technical bulletin 31, you know where I'm coming from on this.

Does anybody on here know of a software program available for design of brick veneer arches? The design procedure published by BIA is as tedious as it gets... it's a lot of time spent on something that ultimately is a very small piece of the puzzle.

The current project we are looking at has arches over window openings. The building is clad in single wythe brick, thus the arches over the openings will be, you guessed it, single wythe brick. Granted, this is cladding, but I feel we owe it to the architect to verify whether or not the arch can be self-supporting. I.e., if I can avoid compromising their aesthetics (which would happen if we used a loose angle lintel, with a horizontal leg exposed at the head of the opening) by "engineering" the arches, then that's the way to go.

Any help on this matter would be appreciated. To reiterate - I can do the calc by hand. But I'd rather save some time and use a computer program if it's available.

Thanks guys.

 

[CSEllc]

The BIA has a program called "Arch".

You can locate it by going to "

http://www.bia.org"

log in as a guest and type arch in the search.

Personally, I had truoble navigating the site.....not very user friendly, even though it looks like it should be).

I used an earlier version of the program (DOS Based) and it was a time saver.

Good luck. Also, if you get the program, I would appreciate some feed back on how it is.

 

[pmkPE]

You may also want to check out concealed lintel designs by Halfen, their web site for their catalog is:

http://www.halfenusa.com/pdf/halfen_adjust_conceal_lintel_sys.pdf

 

[billthecat]

Self supporting arches are good when there is a large rise and when the jamb return is not wide. Otherwise, side trust becomes a problem. Check out

http://www.ilmuratore.us

for a way to handle these other conditions.

 

[3dboy]

I made spreadsheet up that does calcs for that bia technical bulletin. I think I still have it but its been awhile...