Forte Software Ideas

NDS Wet -Use and Incising Factors (and others as applicable)

I use Forte to size members for residential decks, pergolas, patio covers, etc. Those are exposed to weather and thus require the NDS Wet-use (Cm) factor to be applied which reduces the capacities of the member (bending, shear, bearing, etc.). These factors vary for different species of lumber and for glulam beams.

In additon, for Doug-Fir and Hem-Fir species of wood, the Incising factor (Ci) applies since those species, (and maybe others), require incision to pressure-treat them. So whenever a pressure-treated member is used in those species, this reduction factor applies as well.

Plan reviewers have been requiring both of these be manually adjusted in the Forte calcs, since the software does not currently account for either of these.

Can these NDS factors (and others) be added?

I've been using Woodworks and/or RISA since those software do account for these adjustment factors, but I like using Forte since it's easier and faster to setup the calcs (and you can have multiple calcs in one file). However, it becomes too much of a pain and too time-consuming to manually adjust each member for these factors, so at that point I just use the other software.

  • Guest
  • Jul 2 2022
  • Attach files
  • Guest commented
    May 16, 2023 14:53

    I agree with all of the above. If you are designing in wood, there should be a check box for the wet use and insized stress adjustments. They are in the NDS code so they should be in your code as well.