Rivets vs welds on modern steel detailing, am I the old timer now?
Been drafting for 22 years, started with a board and a 2H pencil in a shop in Gary, Indiana. I keep seeing younger drafters spec out riveted connections on retrofit jobs because the software defaults to them. They never check if the original structure was actually riveted or bolted, half those 1920s beams were field bolted after 1935. Last Tuesday alone I caught three drawings where a rivet pattern would've cracked a web plate under current live loads. I know the CAD libraries make it look cool and historic, but a rivet is not a weld and it's not a high strength bolt. Anyone else spending half their week fixing that same mistake, or is it just me and the old guard?