Material

You can specify the type and strength of bricks and blocks to be used in the wall design along with the grade of mortar.

Note that certain boxes will be active and others possibly greyed out depending on which design code you are using.

Masonry Unit (Inner/Outer Leaf)

Use this dialog to define the masonry unit and mortar for each leaf. The Inner Leaf and Outer Leaf are specified independently via the tabs at the top.

Unit properties

Material / Type / Group

Select the brick/block material (e.g. Concrete blocks), unit type, and group (or BS block specification). Some options (e.g. Water content) appear only for relevant materials such as clay units.

📄 Dimensioned Natural Stone Values

Execution / Category

Choose Execution Control Class and Unit Category (or Manufacturing/Construction class in BS workflows). These affect partial factors per the selected National Annex (NA).

Strength (N/mm²)

Select the normalised mean compressive strength of the unit from the drop-list. Read more at 📄 Normalised Mean vs Compressive Strength

Density (kg/m³)

Defaults from the material; override if a project-specific value is required.

Height / Width (mm)

Enter the unit height and the least horizontal dimension to suit the orientation you are designing.

• Least horizontal dimension is the smaller bed-face dimension.

• Use the geometry that corresponds to the way the unit is intended to act in the wall (e.g. upright vs laid-flat arrangements).

Overlap (mm)

Horizontal overlap used for bond/layout checks where applicable.

Test-based Override Values

fk, fxk1, fxk2

If you have project test data, you may override the library values:

Use fk from test results

Enter compressive strength, fk (characteristic) to replace the value derived from the drop-lists.

Use fxk1, fxk2 from test results

Enter flexural strengths parallel (fxk1) and perpendicular (fxk2) to the bed joints.

Ticking these boxes tells the program to use your test results (e.g. for proprietary/special units such as Porotherm).

Code/NA options

Units tested to BS EN 1052-1, -2, -3

Enable this option if your unit properties come from these test standards.

Bond strength / Bending strength fields

When supported by the active National Annex, the dialog enables Bond strength (fbw,k) and Bending strength (ffl,b,k) inputs for direct specification.

Masonry Mortar

For each leaf, select the mortar type and strength class from the drop-lists. Lists are NA-aware (options change with the selected country). Where permitted, you may specify a designed mortar instead of a prescribed class.

Each leaf may be defined separately; ensure the material, strength, geometry, and mortar match the intended construction for Inner and Outer leaves.

Strength

The normalised mean compressive strength. If your supplier provides only a declared strength, convert to the normalised value per EN 771/EN 772 before entry.

Use test overrides only with reliable project data; the software will prioritise these values over library/NA defaults.

Old Manual Entry

Masonry unit

Each leaf is specified separately.

The user can select the brick/block material and type, the group (or block specification in BS), water content where applicable and the Unit Category and Execution Control Class specification (or manufacturing and construction class in BS) from the droplists.

The unit normalized mean compressive Strength can also be selected from the droplists.

The unit height and least horizontal dimension are typed in to suit the block orientation and the horizontal overlap specified.

Material density can be modified if required.

The compressive strength (fk) and flexural strengths (fxk1 (parallel) and fxk2 (perpendicular)) can be entered from test results. These will override the values selected from the droplists. Thus the user can add block strengths for specialised manufactured blocks, eg, Porotherm blocks.

If the units have been tested to BS EN 1052-1, -2, -3, this option can be applied.

When certain countries National Annexes are used, the Bond Strength and Bending Strength can be specified.

Masonry Mortar

The type and strength of the inner and outer leaf mortars are chosen from the droplists. These lists will change to suit the particular country's National Annex being used. The mortar can also be specified as a designed mortar.