Double steel channels are common for reinforcing wood beams with one on each side of an existing (3)2x10, for example. It would be convenient to set a quantity of 2 in the steel beam design module instead of manually fudging the loads to 50%.
Hi Jim, thanks for the suggestion here! Would you typically consider the capacity of the wood as well here (ie, “flitch channels”) or at this point are you just relying entirely on the steel capacity of the channels?
I forgot to reply to this one… This would be for the sole purpose of checking two beams by themselves. Combining materials can seem simple most of the time but there can be some quirks that I would not expect a typical beam calc module to easily anticipate.
I am revisiting this comment today because I am checking for a new opening in an old brick wall. Contractor will be using two steel channels to sandwich the brick before cutting the opening. It would sure be nice to calc with two steel members rather than halving the loads, or adding a custom steel shape…
Hi Jim! thanks for getting back to us with the use case! I’ve added this to our list of potential enhancements. Please understand that while we prioritize our work based on feedback from users like you, we have other competing priorities as well. As a result, we may not be able to implement this feature immediately.
If you have any other suggestions or features you’d like to see in our software, please feel free to share them with us. Your input helps us improve our product for everyone.