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Structural Sofwares
4

Structural Sofwares

Structural Sofwares

(OP)
What are the structural softwares you are using and what are their advantages?

RE: Structural Sofwares

I use excel for all my design....advantage is its cheap, and I know whats goingon in my design.

RE: Structural Sofwares

STAAD by Bentley. Quite user friendly

RE: Structural Sofwares

STAAD, user friendly, is that a joke?

RE: Structural Sofwares

I think he is referring more to the argument for using software A for certain types of jobs vs software B for other types of jobs.

I imagine some folks will say something along the line of, "For residential projects I use software A because of the following reasons..... But, for commercial projects (or bridge projects, or concrete projects or such) then I use software B for the following reason...."

I will leave it at that because I don't want to bias the discussion towards any one particular software or another.

RE: Structural Sofwares

OK Josh...

I use RISA 3D for all complicated steel framing problems! I also use tnxTower married with RISA3D when I have to create structures that tnxTower cannot.

Happy? rofl2

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

RE: Structural Sofwares

I also use "Shapebulder" to analyze the structural properties of complicated structural shapes where needed, plus "BeamPro" for simpler beam analysis.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

RE: Structural Sofwares

RISA Floor, 3D, and foundation

RE: Structural Sofwares

RISA 3D and an old HP calculator....I would pull out my slide rule but I recently used it to beat a young engineer for not thinking about the answer before it got spit out from the computer....just kidding....I generally use baseball bats....I wouldn't want to ruin a perfectly good slide rule.

RE: Structural Sofwares

Quote:

I use excel for all my design....advantage is its cheap, and I know whats going on in my design.

Same here, with the addition of Strand7 for frame or FE analysis, combined with the Strand7 API and Excel to generate/modify models and read/analyse results.

Advantages: The combination will do just about anything (including dynamic, 3D, non-linear etc), and doing the design work in Excel means you know what is going on.

Disadvantages: The API has a steep learning curve (but copying and pasting to/from the Strand7 editor is also quite effective and very easy).

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services
http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

RE: Structural Sofwares

Hello,

I would recommend Inventor Professional as you get a bag of apportunities using this software like FEA analysis, Frame analysis, endless design accelerations as per natioanal standards plus you do take benefit of saving you time. Additionally Solidworks and Staad pro are valuable softwares for Structural Engineers.

Good luck.

RE: Structural Sofwares

I use mostly Excel, Retainwall and a brilliant 2-D frame program call FrameMac (I am a Mac office)
I also use CFS and AISIwin for cold formed steel design and occasionally BC-CAlc for I-joist or column design (these run on the PC side of my Mac)
If it gets more complicated than that or I can't do it by hand, I don't' take the job.

RE: Structural Sofwares

We use Tedds by CSC for hand calc type stuff and RISA. I'd like to look into SMath for creating my own calcs as it is a free version of Mathcad.

Tedds for Word is good if you want nice looking calcs that are easy to follow. It is not the most powerful program but it does let you create your own calcs. It is like a less powerful mathcad and in a way replaces excel calcs or makes them easier to follow. I know IDS will jump on here and tell me how I'm wrong and I probably am, its just that excel/spreadsheet calcs can be difficult to follow. But then again if that really isn't your priority then it's hard to argue with excel.

EIT
www.HowToEngineer.com

RE: Structural Sofwares

I think the best combination of making clear and concise calculations is using Microsoft as your desktop publisher and then paste tables from Excel and other third party software. With this method you can always have a consistent header, hand pick the output you want to show, and the couple your tabulated results with nice graphics.

Excel for all basic tabular calculations. Programmed by myself or handed down from other engineers where I know exactly what the limitations are of the spreadsheet. No enercalc for me.. all excel.
I use Profis for Appendix D calcs.

RamSteel for composite beam design with Ram Frame is a good way to go for a steel structure.

ETABS for concrete structures.

Risa 3-D is Ok, but I prefer either Ram or Etabs.


ETABS with SAFE is a good work flow, similar to Risa-3D to Risa foundation. I like the computers and structures software because I think it uses the best algorithms for dynamic results. And it is great for concrete design.. not so much for composite design.. With that I stick with RamSteel, RamFrame, Ramfoundation software.

It really depends on the types of structures you're designing. I feel certain softwares handle certain building types best. I have been lucky to be exposed to many different softwares.. I currently use Risa 3D/Risa Floor/ Risa Foundation. It works OK, but sometimes I miss my Ram..
I don't like how Risa Floor calculates girder deflections and cantilevers..And i dont like how it handles self weight camber, and mass. More control with camber and mass using Ram.




RE: Structural Sofwares

Ooops.. .using Microsoft WORD as your desktop publisher.. This is how Tedds is set up.. It runs in word basically.

On another note, I tried Tedds some but left the company that was using this software. It appears to be very powerful but does have some setup time and understanding of how it works and flows. but from what I can see it could really be set up to save time and stream line calcs if someone had the time to really get into it.

RE: Structural Sofwares

Dear all,

at my design office, we are using Cross Section Analysis & Design, as an independent, external tool suitable for:
  • Moment Curvature Analysis of arbitrary cross secrtions
  • Interaction diagrams (Axial force vs Moment or Moment X vs Moment Y
  • Automatic reinforcemenet design
  • Check of a provided reinforcement pattern
  • Calculation of sectional properties of arbitrary cross sections
  • Cracked concrete analysis
  • Calculation of neutral axies location, and representation of stress contours and strain diagrams under given nromal force and biaxial bending
  • Support of the following reinforced concrete codes: AASHTO, UBC, AS 3600, IS 456, ACI 318, BS 8110, CSA A233, EC2, NZS 3101, CP 65
We find this package extremely useful and easy-to-use.
It has helped us a lot in the design phase of structural elements, after having obtained the corresponding internakl forces from an analysis program.
Moreover, when performing non-linear analyses (material non linearity, like push-over), we use to create moment curvature diagrams in this software, export their coordinates in a text file and easily import that in SAP.

Apart from this, we need many times to check the adequacy of some irregular or complex cross sections using allowable stress design (retrofitted concrete section, timber sections, masonry, composite, steel etc), whcih is a time-demanding task. This software helped us a lot in such cases as well.
If anyone has any other experience from this software, please feel free to share, as it feels that it is too good to be tru to me :)

RE: Structural Sofwares

(OP)
tnx guys for your reply, I'm still young in structural engineering and I want to become like you in the future... If that time comes, I will buy my own structural software . .

RE: Structural Sofwares

What are books?... is that like a PDF?

RE: Structural Sofwares

I think they're EPUBs actually.

RE: Structural Sofwares

I use Ram Elements for steel and wood design and some simple footers.

Ram Concept for mat foundations. I hate it, but it's all I have. (Was there ever a more user unfriendly software than this?)

RE: Structural Sofwares

2
JohnBridge231 appears to be a salesman.

RE: Structural Sofwares

Hmm, good question-- I think books are like PDFs that you can spill coffee on.

I'll have to look it up.

"We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us." -WSC

RE: Structural Sofwares

I tend to like using RISA 3D for most smaller / medium sized things. I feel you can control the inputs better than other programs and have a better feel for the structure. I have never used RAM Floor though and do not know how well that works.

RAM SS is good for managing large projects and doing it quickly and easily. RAM Frame can be a little black-boxy though and troublesome with complicated geometry. (Arg! A frame member supporting on another gravity member!?! Blast!)

"We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us." -WSC

RE: Structural Sofwares

@jay156, let me know what you don't like about Ram Concept, there might be some alternative ways to use it so you find it more friendly to use. Or maybe Ram Elements is good enough for your needs. I posted about using Ram Elements for basic mat foundations not too long ago: http://communities.bentley.com/products/structural...
but I personally prefer Concept over Elements for mat design.
If you want to take if offline, or start another forum thread that's fine. http://communities.bentley.com/products/structural...

RE: Structural Sofwares

I'm surprised Sap2000 and Etabs haven't been mentioned so much in the discussion. I admit they can be a little expensive but for non-linear analysis (especially for seismic) they are probably up there with the best. I like the new release of Etabs (v13) as it can finally handle some non-linear time history analysis (NLTHA) and has an improved bi-directional link to Revit 2014, which is good news for the BIM minded people.

Regards,
JK7070

RE: Structural Sofwares

I would say that sap and etabs are excellent analysis tools but lack in features regarding the design. In combination with spreadsheets or other design tools, they can be the most productive program to work with. But on the other hand their use requires advanced engineering skills and experience, a fact that everyone should be aware of.

RE: Structural Sofwares

What skills and experience you need depends on type of work not on the software you are using. Software is a tool no matter how advanced or easy to use. Just because you can get output in some programs more easily compared to others, doesn't mean the work is done and your design is safe and economical.

kyut - search the forum - there are numerous threads on this topic. Or be more specific on type of work you do so you can get specific answers.

RE: Structural Sofwares

Quote (What skills and experience you need depends on type of work not on the software you are using.)


I disagree. There are softwares out there that only require you to just push the button, nothing else.

Analysis and Design of arbitrary cross sections
Reinforcement design to all major codes
Moment Curvature analysis

http://www.engissol.com/cross-section-analysis-des...

RE: Structural Sofwares

@johnbridge231, I think the point sasa2k was making is that even if the software is so easy to use that all you have to do is push a button (by the way I doubt that "all" you have to do is push a single button) you still have to have the knowledge and understanding to back up the results. I think this can be said for any design software.

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