Cross-sections and stability
A wall that stands up on the canvas still has to stand up in the ground. The cross-section tool checks the wall at a station against overturning, sliding and bearing.
Updated 1 minApplies to: Retaining WallFeedback →
Taking a cross-section
Pick the cross-section tool (the scissors) from the canvas toolbar and click the wall at the station you want to check. Retaining Wall Analysis opens beside the canvas with the section drawn to scale: the blocks, the structural height, and the angle of the failure plane behind the wall.
- Cross section names the station you're looking at (Station 17.0 ft • 6.0 ft • 3 blocks); switch stations from its dropdown.
- Analysis Section switches between Whole Wall (External Stability) and each Subsection (Internal Stability).
- Three cards give the result: Overturning, Sliding and Bearing, each reading PASS or FAIL with its factor of safety (FOS: 4.14).
- Detailed Analysis Calculations opens the working: forces and variables, earth forces, the wall's centroid, surcharge forces, and the sliding, overturning and bearing analyses.
Under the Wall Summary, a box says whether All cross sections passing.
Conditions behind the wall
The context bar along the bottom of the canvas carries the conditions the checks run against; it reads flat until you change it. Right-click it to set the Top Slope in degrees and the Surcharge in psf, then Save.
Good to know — A FAIL is not a bug — it's the answer. Something has to change: the design parameters, the product, the geometry, or the ground you told Struction about. See Design inputs.
Ticking Cross Section Analysis when you export a quote adds a page per wall with its factor of safety and a result per section; see The quote.
More docs