Gents- Thanks for your replies.
At the columns, I want to use the ties more for holding the vertical steel in place during concrete placement, than for retsraining the bars during service. The columns I am talking about are lightly loaded and have less than 1% area of steel, so from a code perspective, ties are not required. However, I am concerned that without some restraint the bars will move as the forms are filled. I have never specified a tie smaller than a number three before, but in this case there is very little clearance for 3/8" of tie on each side of the cage. Also don't know what type of wire would be appropriate to specify. JAE, agree with you that using wwf would be cumbersome.
At the beams, I AM interested in having the steel stirrups add to the shear strength of the section. The area of shear steel required is not high, and using a #3 stirrup will be overkill. Clearances are also a concern at these beams.
Sven, do you specify the yield strength of the ligatures? Is there an ASTM number or other code reference that you use to specify the wire?