Starting a design is quick. As soon as you open the connection design module, a pop-up asks for the conditions that define your connection, and the cards below it filter down to the connections that match.
Here, you will need to provide the following information:
- Design Code
- Units
- Categories
- Types
- Orientation
- The Connection
Design Code
The design code is the standard your design checks are written against. Pick it first, because it drives everything after it: which checks run, the factors of safety, the design coefficients, and which categories and connection types are even offered.
The design codes SkyCiv Connection Design supports are:
Coverage is not equal between the two. AISC 360-16 covers every category and connection type below. AS 4100:2020 covers shear connections framing W to W, and nothing else, so if you need a moment connection, a brace, a splice or an HSS column, choose AISC.
Units
Mixing units is an easy way to get a wrong answer, and converting by hand between inches and millimetres, or kip and kN, wastes time you would rather spend on the design. So the module works in whichever system you picked and reports in the same one.
Under AISC 360-16 you can choose Imperial or Metric. Under AS 4100:2020 the unit selector is fixed to Metric, so you will not see the option.
Categories
The category describes what is connecting to what: the member framing in, and the support it frames into. A wide flange beam into a wide flange column is W to W.
The categories available are:
- W to W, wide flange to wide flange, covering beam to column and beam to beam
- HSS to W, a wide flange beam framing into a hollow section column
- Channel to Channel
- Bracing
- Splice
W to W is the only category available under AS 4100:2020. The rest are AISC 360-16.
Types
The type groups connections by the load they are built to carry. All the shear connections sit together, all the moment connections in another set, and so on. Here is what each type carries:
| Type | Axial | Shear | Moment |
| Shear Connections | X | ✅ | X |
| Shear + Axial Connections | ✅ | ✅ | X |
| Moment Connections | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Brace Connections | ✅ | X | X |
| Splice Connections | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Brace connections cover vertical, chevron, knee, horizontal and truss braces. Splices cover column splices and beam splices.
Under AS 4100:2020, shear is the only type offered.
Orientations
The design checks do not stop at the beam and the connection components. The supporting member matters too, and where on that member you land changes the answer. Framing into a column flange puts the load into a different load path than framing into the web, and the local limit states of the support, such as web local yielding and local flange bending, often govern.
The orientations available are:
- Beam to Column Flange
- Beam to Column Web
- Beam to Beam, framing into the web of a supporting beam
- Beam to HSS Column, to either the wide face or the narrow face
Which of these you see depends on the category and type you picked. A moment connection, for example, is offered to the column flange and the column web but not beam to beam.
The Connection
Once you have supplied the information above, the cards in the pop-up filter down to the connections available for that combination. Each card carries a sample image so you can check you are looking at the connection you had in mind before you commit to it. Click the one you want and the model opens, ready for sections and loads.
If you are not sure which configuration suits the job, the list of supported connection types sets out every option by code and category, and the guide to connection design covers the workflow from here on.
Try it now
The starter screen takes about thirty seconds to work through, and you can do it without an account. Pick a code, a category and a type, choose a connection, and see which checks run.
Sign-up to Free Account
A free account lets you save and reload your connection files, which the free tool does not. It also gives you access to the rest of SkyCiv’s structural software, including Structural 3D.
Connection Design Standalone
Want to use the connection design module only? Click the button below for the standalone pricing.
