Using RAM Foundation for continuous strip footings 1

[SteveGregory]

I was using RAM SS to design a one-story addition. I needed some experience to learn the program. The strip footings under the shear walls and the interior bearing walls were 5 feet thick and extended out beyond the ends of the walls.

Plus, the column footings had about 2X the steel we would normally use.

This stinks! Does anyone use the Foundation module? Or am I doing something wrong?

 

[strguy11]

1. For the column footings, I think the min. steel defaults to a rho of .0033, not the .0018 allowed for footings. Change this in the design criteria, reinforcement tab in the foundation model.

2. Yes, you have noticed how much the continuous footing module stinks. We just calculate those by hand. Sometimes you can get "reasonable" results by changing the footing widths, depths, lengths manually using the view update commands, but I think they are still larger than if you calc them by hand.