Engineering Software

[cve60069]

Hello

I have been given a project to design a steel portal-frame building and I need a structural analysis program that will help me with my calculations. The programs I am used to cost 1000's of £/$ and out of my league. I could afford £500-£600 but the program must be able to "do the job". I have Revit and AutoCAD.

Any recommendations - please no selling.

Regards

 

[berkshire]

cve60069,
Since you are in the UK you could look at FEM Designer.They are not too expensive.
B.E.

http://www.femdesigner.com/

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor

 

[oldrunner]

Of course you could do in with the Hardy Cross method.

 

[GregLocock]

since you need to the hand calcs anyway, is it actually cost effective to learn a new program for just one job?

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[HuckleberryFinn]

Why not spend an afternoon creating a simple excel sheet that designs moment frames? It would be fairly simple to do a single frame with the DSM or with the Hardy Cross method.

 

[ajk1]

Yes, Hardy Cross is relatively easy to put into spread sheet form. I have done so. But I rarely use it! Usually just ask one of the young engineers to tun it on ETABS or similar program. I too am looking for a cheap program here in Canada to do 2-D frames. Let me know if you find one.

 

[FixedEarth]

Not sure if they have SI units, but try #7 bundle in

http://www.dcalc.us/ProgramDescriptions.html

A FRAME Spreadsheet is here:

http://www.steeltools.org/STEELTOOL...umentKey=af616a0a-216d-4669-914a-39029093f065

 

[msquared48]

To design such things as concrete and steel, it seems to me we should only need hardware, no software.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

http://mmcengineering.tripod.com

 

[1freewun]

Hello,
Try this site it is a free programme:-

http://members.ziggo.nl/wolsink/

Geoff