Wood Shear Wall Design Step by Step — Wind and Seismic Worked Example (SDPWS 2021, ASCE 7-22)
1:32Published July 8, 2026Narrated, with captions and a full transcriptAlso on YouTube
Design a wood-frame shear wall in StructSuite per SDPWS 2021 and ASCE 7-22, start to finish — geometry and aspect ratio, the wind and seismic force at the top of the wall line, Table 4.3A sheathing and nailing, a hold-down, and the Step 5 verification. The first trial fails at a seismic unit-shear D/C of 119%, and the fix is on screen: tighten the edge nailing from 6 in to 4 in and the same wall comes back at 77%.
Transcript and details
About this video
What you will see
- Building the design from an empty wizard
- Step 1 geometry: one wall segment, 9 ft tall by 8 ft long. The aspect ratio h/b is computed as you type, 1.13 here, and because h/b is at most 2 the SDPWS 4.3.3.2 aspect-ratio adjustment stays at 1.0
- Step 2 lateral loads applied at the top of the wall LINE, not per segment: W = 4,500 lb of wind and E = 3,800 lb of seismic, plus the redundancy factor rho (ASCE 7-22 Section 12.3.4) and SDS = 0.667 for the vertical seismic term (ASCE 7-22 Section 12.4.2.2)
- Step 3 sheathing chosen out of SDPWS 2021 Table 4.3A, reproduced as a selectable table: 15/32 in Structural I wood structural panels with 8d common nails
- The nominal unit shear capacity read straight off that row: 785 plf at 6 in edge nailing, 1,205 plf at 4 in
- The ASD reduction that decides this wall: Vn/2.8 for seismic (SDPWS 4.1.4.1) against Vn/2.0 for wind (SDPWS 4.1.4.2), which is why a 4,500 lb wind force ends up less critical than a 3,800 lb seismic one
- Step 4 hold-down selection from the Simpson Strong-Tie HDUE table, the HDUE7-SDS3 on the DF/SP species column at 7,015 lb allowable tension against 6,030 lb for SPF/HF
- Step 5 verification against the ASD load combinations of ASCE 7-22 Sections 2.4.1 and 2.4.5
- A real failure on screen at 119%, the fix, and the passing design at 77%
The wall in this example
One shear wall segment, 9 ft tall and 8 ft long, so h/b = 1.13 and no aspect-ratio penalty applies. Wind W = 4,500 lb and seismic E = 3,800 lb at the top of the line, rho = 1.0, SDS = 0.667 g. Sheathing is 15/32 in Structural I with 8d common nails. At 6 in edge nailing Table 4.3A gives Vn = 785 plf, so the seismic ASD capacity is 785/2.8 = 280.4 plf against a demand of 332.5 plf, D/C 119%, fail. At 4 in edge nailing Vn = 1,205 plf, capacity 430.4 plf, D/C 77%, pass. Wind is the milder case: 337.5 plf against 392.5 plf. The hold-down is a Simpson Strong-Tie HDUE7-SDS3 at 7,015 lb allowable on DF/SP.
Codes referenced: SDPWS 2021 Table 4.3A and Sections 4.1.4.1, 4.1.4.2 and 4.3.3.2; ASCE 7-22 Sections 2.4.1, 2.4.5, 12.3.4 and 12.4.2.2.
Written guides on this subject
Transcript
The narration word for word, 183 words, from the video's own captions. Select a time to play from there.
Wood-Frame Shear Wall — SDPWS 2021
0:02In this tutorial we'll design a wood-frame shear wall for wind and seismic, per SDPWS 2021 and ASCE 7-22.
Add the Shear Wall module
0:12From the dashboard, add the Wood-Frame Shear Wall module. It opens empty. Step one, geometry. Our shear-wall line is a single segment: nine feet tall, eight feet long.
Step 2 — lateral loads
0:28Step two, the lateral force at the top of the wall line: forty-five hundred pounds of wind, thirty-eight hundred of seismic, with the redundancy factor and SDS for the seismic vertical.
Step 3 — sheathing (SDPWS Table 4.3A)
0:43Step three, sheathing and fasteners, from SDPWS Table 4.3A. We choose fifteen-thirty-seconds Structural-One panels with 8d nails, starting at six-inch edge nailing.
Step 4 — hold-down
0:54Step four, the hold-down. Expand the HDUE series and pick a model — the HDUE7-SDS3 — with Douglas-Fir framing.
Step 5 — 6 in nailing fails (seismic 119%)
1:07Step five checks it. At six-inch nailing the seismic unit-shear ratio is a hundred nineteen percent — over capacity, so it fails. So tighten the edge nailing — back in step three, change it to four inches.
Now it passes (77%)
1:21Now the ratio drops to seventy-seven percent, and every check — unit shear and hold-down — passes. That's a complete wood-frame shear-wall design, ready for your report.