It was Tom Cruise in "Top Gun" who once said, "I feel the need, the need for speed". I sometimes wonder if Tom Cruise is on the ASCE 7 committee, because it feels like they have the need to change the wind speed basis with every new release of ASCE 7. I'm not...
Articles
Tornado Alley
I live in Oklahoma and during the Spring and Fall seasons we tend to have a lot of tornadoes, and that's why this part of the country is part of the region dubbed "Tornado Alley." Since our company sells the MecaWind software, we sometimes get asked whether MecaWind...
Shining light on Windows and Doors
Calculating pressures on windows and doors is one of the most common operations performed in MecaWind, and so we thought we would make a brief video to explain the way to calculate Components and Cladding (C&C). We also show some tips for new features in...
Florida Building Code 2017 Wind Loads
Update: The Florida Building Code 2020 was adopted in 2021 We have added the Florida Building Code 2017 Wind Loads to our software, MecaWind (Pro feature), and this gave us an opportunity to get familar with the Florida Building Code 2017. We wanted to take a moment...
Getting High on Wind
I am an amateur cyclist, and I typically ride my bike on trails in my home of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma at an elevation of 700 ft [213 m]. One year I took my bike on a vacation to Breckenridge, Colorado at an elevation of 9,000 ft [2743 m]. The first thing I noticed...
MecaWind is like Driving a Car
The new MecaWind release provides a new way to select the method used for the Main Wind Force Resisting System (MWFRS) and the Components and Cladding (C&C). The results can be different based upon the MWFRS method and C&C method selected. The question now is...
It’s not my Default
There is a feature in MecaWind that is seldom used, but can be very helpful. It's a feature under the File Menu called "Save Current File as Default".What does it do? When this feature is is selected, it takes the current file and sets it up as the default file that...
ASCE 7-16 Wind Changes
The ASCE 7-16 Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures was released in the Summer of 2017, and some jurisdictions are starting to reference this standard. MecaStack has a built in calculator for ASCE 7 wind loads on the stack, but Meca also offers a...