Structural Graduate - Canadian design learning help
Structural Graduate - Canadian design learning help
(OP)
Hello,
I am working as a structural graduate in a Canadian company and am graduated in different country (3-4 years ago). Most of my work is to do structural drafting. I never got design opportunity.
I want to learn Canadian code for designing steel and reinforced concrete structure.
I am writing here to seek help from well experienced structural engineers here. If they can guide me how should I practice structural designing myself.
I don't want to go to university again but I want to learn myself and for my future growth.
Thanks :)
I am working as a structural graduate in a Canadian company and am graduated in different country (3-4 years ago). Most of my work is to do structural drafting. I never got design opportunity.
I want to learn Canadian code for designing steel and reinforced concrete structure.
I am writing here to seek help from well experienced structural engineers here. If they can guide me how should I practice structural designing myself.
I don't want to go to university again but I want to learn myself and for my future growth.
Thanks :)






RE: Structural Graduate - Canadian design learning help
Not Canadian, per se, but will point you in the right direction.
RE: Structural Graduate - Canadian design learning help
RE: Structural Graduate - Canadian design learning help
Did you have design experience in your home country?
RE: Structural Graduate - Canadian design learning help
jayrod12, no I don't have any back home experience. I graduated back home and came here in Canada.
I designed only few times here, concrete foundations and steel beam. But never got further designs because of lack of steel code knowledge.
RE: Structural Graduate - Canadian design learning help
RE: Structural Graduate - Canadian design learning help
1) Guy expresses interest in design work.
2) Mangers say "hell yeah! we love ambitious staff".
3) It never happens on the clock because production staff are kept 1.15% busy at all times.
4) These guys have families so there's limits to what they can do evenings and weekends without supervision. And "faux design work" never inspires the same confidence as real work somehow.
5) It goes nowhere.
I developed a workaround that might be of interest to you. Try this:
Your company probably has stuff that needs to be modeled before it's engineered. Concrete slabs etc. Volunteer to do that modelling, even if somebody else does the final design. It's a natural fit with drafting because:
1) BIM integration with structural software and;
2) it's more cost effective to have drafting personnel do the modelling if they're capable of it.
In a few months, you'll probably find yourself doing a lot of structural modelling and less drafting. Play your cards right, and somebody else will be drafting for you in a year or two. Expect to donate some of your own time while you're ramping up on the modelling.
I'm a huge book guy myself. And, if having read about interesting stuff meant getting to do it, I'd probably be rubbing elbows with Bill Baker. Or the ghost of Fazlur Khan. It never seems to work that way however. People need to see you doing work for it to count. With their own eyes and on somebody's dime. In the US, you might get some mileage out of passing the FE/PE exams in your spare time. That has less return on investment in Canada, however.
I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.