LAVA allows you to build models with a variety of slopes and elevations. In wood construction it is common to see scenarios that require a lot of modifications to the roof and LAVA is tailored to this workflow.
Different Building Slopes in LAVA
The entire building slope is defined in the Load Assemblies tab. You can enter the slope that the majority of the roof uses, and this is referred to as the default roof load.
.png "image(473).png")
You can also add secondary and tertiary slopes into the loading for other roof areas. Above show 6/12 as an addition roof type.
To apply this secondary roof load, you can open the Roof Plate dialog and go to the Basic Loads- Gravity tab- and uncheck the “use default load assembly”. This allows you to pick from the load dropdown to navigate to the specified 6/12 load.
.png "image(475).png")
Note: you will need change the slope on the Definitions tab of the Plate as well.
.png "image(471).png")
Different Elevations in LAVA
In wood buildings, not only can slopes vary, but floor and roof heights can also differ on the same level. LAVA provides the tools you need to customize floor and roof levels individually.
The elevations are controlled by the Diaphragms, and you can adjust the heights for each of the load types- wind and seismic as well as the shear walls.
Wind Elevations
Go to the Diaphragm dialog, Basic Loads- Wind and check the “Manual Adjust Tributary Height” checkbox to take control of the elevations for each direction.
.png "image(478).png")
Automatically, the program will calculate the Wind Height in the X and Y directions. When you manually take control of these numbers, you can define the tributary heights that would differ from the global settings in the Elevation tab.
.png "image(477).png")
Seismic Elevations
Go to the Diaphragm dialog, Basic Loads- Seismic and check the “Manual Adjust Tributary Height” checkbox to take control of the elevations for each direction.
You can then adjust the Trib Height to match your floor/roof height.
.png "image(479).png")
Shear Wall Elevations
Go to the Shear Wall dialog, Sizing tab- check the “Shear Wall Height” checkbox to take control of the individual shear wall elevation. Also adjust check the “Applied Load Height” checkbox to make sure the load application is also raised.
.png "image(481).png")