Lumber Design Suite and Lumber DesignEasy

WWPA offers software design tools for use with Western lumber: Lumber Design Suite and Lumber DesignEasy. Each program works in concert with Microsoft's® Excel program.

The WWPA Lumber Design Suite is a full featured design tool that provides calculations for horizontal framing (beams and joists), vertical framing (posts and studs) and wood-to-wood shear connections.

The Design Suite offers calculations for the major sizes and grades of Western lumber products available in the market today. Lumber Design Suite 3.1 has been updated to match the 2005 National Design Specification® for Wood Construction (NDS®). The new version also includes a stud wall deflection check, as required by the International Building Code. The Design Suite operates under Microsoft Excel®, using three separate worksheets and macros for the calculations.

The WWPA Lumber DesignEasy - Joists  and Lumber DesignEasy - Beams utilities generate span tables for all appropriate structural grades for that species group. The programs calculate simple Western lumber joist and rafter spans and beam spans with uniformly distributed loads. Both are optimized for use on PDAs or smartphones such as Palm or Windows Mobile. Users select the species, size, dead load, live load, load duration factor, span deflection limit and incising status for pressure-treated wood.

Like the Design Suite, the Lumber DesignEasy utilities operate under Microsoft Excel®. The Lumber DesignEasy worksheets can operate on Palm-based PDAs and smartphones loaded with Documents To Go® software or on Windows Mobile-based PDAs and smartphones loaded with Pocket Excel® software.

Click the links shown to download the software programs. Links are also provided for operating instructions and frequently asked questions for each program.

Disclaimer

Western Wood Products Association (WWPA) provides the Lumber Design Suite and Lumber DesignEasy utilities "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. Telephone support for the installation and operation of the Lumber Design Suite and Lumber DesignEasy is not available from WWPA. View the operating instructions and FAQs for both programs for common questions.

The WWPA Lumber Design Suite and Lumber DesignEasy utilites, like all commercial engineering software products, should be used as tools, not a substitute for engineering judgments of design professionals. Users of these programs are responsible for verifying the suitability and applicability of outputs and results.

WWPA and Forum Engineers offer this program for informational purposes only and do not represent or warrant that any information provided in this program is correct, complete or up to date. WWPA and Forum Engineers may change or delete information in this program without notice at any time.

The WWPA Lumber Design Suite and Lumber DesignEasy may not be altered, modified or sold for commercial purposes. WWPA and Forum Engineers make no warranties expressed or implied concerning this product. In no event will WWPA and Forum Engineers be liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, whether in contract, tort, strict liability or under any other legal theory arising from use of the WWPA Lumber Design Suite and Lumber DesignEasy.

For additional information on Western lumber, go to the WWPA web site at www.wwpa.org. For information on the professional version of the Design Suite, go to the Forum Engineers web site at www.forumengineers.com/software.htm.