Enhancing Structural
Design with HSS Tools

HSS CONNEX

STI’s HSS Connex is a free web-based tool that offers designers a simple way to check HSS wall thicknesses to aid in efficient HSS connection design. This tool helps to ensure HSS wall thicknesses are adequate at connections without needing to go through the full connection design.

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SPREADSHEET DESIGN AIDS

STI’s HSS connection design aids for truss, shear and moment connections calculate the available connection strength per the AISC 360-22 Specification, including pertinent limit state calculations and corresponding limits of applicability checks. These spreadsheets are available with the HSS Professional Membership.

Download spreadsheets

EFFECTIVE WELD LENGTH CALCULATOR

Calculate the effective weld properties for connections to HSS chords, accounting for the nonuniform loading of the branch weld perimeter on the chord face. Supported connection types include:

• Transverse Plate T- and Cross-connections with branch axial load
• Rectangular HSS T-, Y-, and Cross-connections with branch axial or moment load
• Round HSS T-, Y-, and Cross-connections with branch axial load
• Gapped K-connections with branch axial load
• Overlapped K-connections with branch axial load

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HSS AVAILABILITY

See every HSS size produced domestically by STI member manufacturers, as a heatmap table. Pick a specification and shape type, then see at a glance which sizes × wall thicknesses are regularly produced or available on demand. Click any cell for producer details.

Check Your Sizes

HSS AXIAL COMPRESSION CAPACITY

Calculates the available axial compressive strength of HSS columns per AISC 360-22 Chapter E. Enter a required strength to list every domestically produced size that meets it at your effective length, sorted by weight — or look up one size to see its available strength. Each result opens to the full step-by-step calculation.

Check HSS Axial Compression Capacity

W-SHAPE TO HSS COLUMN COMPARISON

Find HSS alternatives to a wide-flange column. Enter a W-shape and an effective length L_c, and the tool returns every domestically-produced HSS size that matches or exceeds its available axial compressive strength, showing weight, depth, width and surface area relative to the W-shape.

Compare Shapes