mrMikee
Structural
- Apr 23, 2005
- 528
I am looking for a low cost structural analysis program. I am reluctant to ask this here because the FEA question has been asked many times before, usually ending up with discussions of very powerful and expensive systems. My needs however, are fairly simple.
I need a program to model and solve mostly 1D and sometimes 2D members. I need to model x-braces which requires tension only elements to be available, a somewhat sophisticated feature for low cost programs. Also I need the capability to solve for many load cases. It would be nice to have the basic loads such as D, L, W, E (wind and seismic from all directions) and be able to develop many combinations from these. I don't really need code checking because I usually do this with Mathematica, and actually prefer to do the stress calcs by ''hand.''
I expect the answer to be somewhere between CADRE which I already have, and RISA-3D which I like but costs $2000. I actually do like CADRE but its resolving for many load combinations takes too long. You have to unload and reload the model and solve for each load case, then cut and paste results to a spreadsheet. See thread551-123530. Other low cost programs that I have tried seem to share this shortcoming.
I will be using this software to design elevated bins for cement, sand, and gravel, and other structural things for concrete plant and quarry industries. These structures carry heavy loads, are relatively high compared to base dimensions, have poor work point details, and require large openings for mixers, conveyors, and places to drive trucks through. These structures can sometimes be a real challenge.
Can anyone make a recommendation?
Are there medium priced programs?
Should I forget about this and just buy a code checking program?
Any help here would be appreciated.
Thanks,
-Mike
I need a program to model and solve mostly 1D and sometimes 2D members. I need to model x-braces which requires tension only elements to be available, a somewhat sophisticated feature for low cost programs. Also I need the capability to solve for many load cases. It would be nice to have the basic loads such as D, L, W, E (wind and seismic from all directions) and be able to develop many combinations from these. I don't really need code checking because I usually do this with Mathematica, and actually prefer to do the stress calcs by ''hand.''
I expect the answer to be somewhere between CADRE which I already have, and RISA-3D which I like but costs $2000. I actually do like CADRE but its resolving for many load combinations takes too long. You have to unload and reload the model and solve for each load case, then cut and paste results to a spreadsheet. See thread551-123530. Other low cost programs that I have tried seem to share this shortcoming.
I will be using this software to design elevated bins for cement, sand, and gravel, and other structural things for concrete plant and quarry industries. These structures carry heavy loads, are relatively high compared to base dimensions, have poor work point details, and require large openings for mixers, conveyors, and places to drive trucks through. These structures can sometimes be a real challenge.
Can anyone make a recommendation?
Are there medium priced programs?
Should I forget about this and just buy a code checking program?
Any help here would be appreciated.
Thanks,
-Mike