Free structural design worksheets 3

[NedGan76]

Hi,

Here are some free and open source structural design worksheets, I've developed. I hope they can be useful. You can download them from my GitHub repository:

https://github.com/Proektsoftbg/Calcpad/tree/main/Examples/Structural Design

To use them, you will also need to download and install Calcpad:

https://github.com/Proektsoftbg/Calcpad/tree/main/Setup

It is open source environment for developing engineering calculations. It is very simple and easy to use. Just write your formulas and text on the left side and see how calculation notes will look on the right. Finally, you can print the report or open it with MS Word with MathType formulas inside.

I would appreciate your comments and recommendations.

 

[As-Lag]

Nice work mate.

 

[dold]

Good stuff. I'll check it out. Another user Celt83 has a github also with quite a few projects in it. [URL unfurl="true"]https://github.com/buddyd16/theToolbox[/url] I'm preeeeety sure that is Celt's but not 100% sure. Either way, you should check it out.

 

[BulbTheBuilder]

NedGan76 (Structural): I love what you've done. I am currently learning python to develop such worksheet. If I may ask, what language is this? I am newbie in all this but making it a personal goal is have some small projects done by the end of the year.
I am yet to run a copy of your worksheet but do you've clauses stated by certain equations or concepts? Example, although I see EC2, is there any note to say it's from 9.2.1?

dold: Yup, that's from Celts83

 

[NedGan76]

BulbTheBuilder_EI: Thank you for your kind words!

Calcpad uses its own language. I designed it to be as simple as possible and no programming skills are required. Just write your formulas and 'comments' in single quotes. Optionally, you can include Html in comments, but not necessarily. There are also a few keyword for conditions, loops etc. And it natively support units in equations.

The report is generated automatically, so no need to worry about it. If you need to generate UI for data input, just put question marks "?" on that places.
You can also use keywords like #hide, #show, #pre, #post to select what and when will show in the output.

I am also developing a cloud platform, so you will be able to publish these worksheets as web applications like this: Link
I can open this platform so that everybody could share on it. But there is still a lot of work to do before that.

Python is indeed a great language, but it is more difficult to learn and use. And much more powerful of course. However, it will take much more efforts to do such worksheets, unless you use something like Jupiter notebooks.

 

[BulbTheBuilder]

NedGan76 (Structural)(OP): You're welcome.

Calcpad uses its own language. I designed it to be as simple as possible and no programming skills are required.

That's really cool. Easy yet efficient.

Personally, I used to use MATLAB when I was doing research and was in school. But since the license isn't free I am trying to find different alternatives. It's be a while since I did any "programming" but I hope I am able to catch up quickly. I am going to try and start basic projects like moment of inertia of built-up sections, calculator for feet-inches in python...just for fun and it how it goes in the future. I have a book reading on python as well.

I currently just work longer hours so I don't really get time to practise often but 3 days a week (2hrs) is enough for me at the moment.

 

[Celt83]

Great work on this! Will be following on Github.

Bulb: check out GNU Octave its an open source alternative to MATLAB with mostly the same syntax so those familiar with MATLAB can hit the ground running.Link

I'm making a thing:

http://www.thestructuraltoolbox.com

(It's no Kootware and it will probably break but it's alive!)

 

[NedGan76]

Thanks!

TheStructuralToolbox also looks great. Nice job. I gave you a star.

I can see that you are doing it in the "classical" way:

You need scripts to perform calculations, input forms to enter values, html templates to fill the results and get calculation reports. That is how, you actually write the formulas twice - once for the calculation scripts and second time - for the reports (with LaTeX to be rendered with MathJax). Although using Flask, you still need some backend code for each problem.

It was also the way I used to work before. Then it occurred to me to create a framework to handle all this stuff automatically. So what I do now is simply to write the code as it will look in the calculation notes. Wherever I need an input, I just put a question mark, e.g.:

------------------------
"Simply supported beam
'Length -'L = ? ft
'Load -'q = ? kip/ft
'Bending -'M = q*L^2/8
'Shear -'V = q*L/2
------------------------
The platform automatically renders the input form, reads input values, parses the formulas, calculates the results and generates the report. And all that from this little script. It also natively supports units in formulas, as I mentioned before. The best thing is that all that 'programming decorations' are striped off the code, so you can really focus on the contents.

Code:

Input:

Output:

So you will need several times less code for the same thing than the classical approach and develop much faster. Also, you can involve other structural engineers to help that are not familiar with Python, JS, C#, etc.

The Calcpad platform itself is created with ASP.NET Core MVC and the code is in Github. It is designed for anyone that needs to create cloud/web structural apps. Even if not familiar with .NET, I can help to deploy and set up for use.