Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations cowski on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Monolithic Beam + Slab and Monolithic Column + Retaining Wall - Which Software?

Status
Not open for further replies.

kellez

Civil/Environmental
Nov 5, 2011
276
Hello evryone,

I am currently in search for a good structural analysis and design software.

At school i used SAP2000 but i want something more practical, that carries out Reinforced Concrete and steel frame design to Eurocodes and prepares documentation ready to be handed in for construction license application.

So i decided to try Robot Structural Analysis, mainly due to the Autodesk Building Design Suite, which is very good value for money and Robot seems to be a powerful software. I have started using it about 2 weeks ago and already i have discovered some weaknesses.



Modelling of monolithic beam + slab design

I tried to model and design an L and T beam, unfortunately with robot its not possible to easily define and model a T and L beam.

If you try to do this, the software takes into consideration the whole area of the rectangular beam + the area of the slab therefore taking the same area into consideration twice.

This makes the whole design more stiff, to overcome this they suggest to decrease the moment of Inertia I of the beam which i don't like, i expect more from an expensive software which i will count on for my designs. I expect it to be more intuitive.



Modelling of monolithic column + retaining wall design

Next I also tried to design a column that is embedded in a retaining wall, which basically is the same case as the beam + slab design above but vertically, again its not possible to simply define this with robot.

I am looking for a software that is able to easily model a beam + slab or column + wall. Does anyone know of any powerful software that can do this?


Thank you
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Hi,

I would like to specify that the issue i described above with robot is also the same within SAP2000.

Above i have asked if you know any software that can easily model a monolithic design. In case you don't know of any software that can do this and you are using a software that has the same issue i described above, please let me know the software. I want to understand if this is a common issue within all structural softwares.

Thank you
 
Shouldn't you post this in the structural engineering forum forum507 or directly in the SE software forums?

TTFN
faq731-376
7ofakss

Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529


Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com:
 
Hi,

I can't find the Structural engineers software forum

I will try the structural engineering other structural topics
 
Didn't say there was a forum called that, but there are a number of SE software forums:

forum1340
forum802
forum803
forum801

TTFN
faq731-376
7ofakss

Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529


Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com:
 
This seems like a reasonable forum for the topic to me, seeing as it is related to engineering software, but not one specific product.

It's because of issues like this that I prefer to use general purpose analysis software combined with my own design spreadsheets. I use Strand7 FEA software for my analysis, which has the capability to do just about anything required in analysis of solids.

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services
 
Hi,

As you said this is a general FEA software (Strand7 FEA), it can't do any design right? Well i really like the analysis and design softwares because the have design codes and can generate all you drawings especially now with BIM. It saves a lot of time, therefore you have more time to check your results instead wasting time drawing on CAD
 
There is also a FEA forum forum727, wherein various software have been discussed.

TTFN
faq731-376
7ofakss

Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529


Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com:
 
thank you for the reply, i will have a look in there before posting my question again
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor