"Struware - Code Search" Software reviews

[thaidavid40]

Does anybody here have enough experience using the Struware's "Code Search" software to relate their experiences using it, and give a review of it, with your opinion as to its worth and utility? I'm trying to decide if it is a worthwhile purchase for our small engineering office.
Thanks
Dave

Thaidavid

 

[thaidavid40]

I hear nuttin' but crickets! I was hoping there were some folks out there who owned this software, and would be willing to give their unbiased opinions of its value. Anybody willing to step up to the plate and give it a go?
Dave

Thaidavid

 

[TLHS]

Never heard of it.

It's like a bunch of other spreadsheet based things. If it's set up to meet your workflow and you have the time to go through and verify that it gives you the correct answers, go for it. They seem to have a full demo.

Personally, I don't need a fully generalized code load generation spreadsheet. When they're locked down I can't add the custom things I need to add and I can't copy sheets out to put into my analysis sheets. So it's not necessarily all that helpful.

If you're doing low rise buildings and stuff that's cookie cutter code work it's the sort of thing that would likely save you a bunch of time. But it's also probably something you've already made for yourself. If you haven't, then this might be something you want?

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Half the time when I'm forced to dig into the code I tend to do a little extra reading which helps me brush up on often underused sections of that code and/or identify areas I misunderstood or haven't been utilizing fully. Plus it helps with familiarity with the codes that update every 12 seconds (Looking at you AASHTO and ICC).

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[thaidavid40]

'Preciate the responses, guys.
Dave

Thaidavid

 

[Warhamer]

The software finds some use with Modular Buildings. From use and review, it does well for your "simple" buildings. When checked against hand calculations usually I am only seeing a difference to a tenth of a psf. It has tabs for Wind, Snow, and Seismic. Other tabs include seismic anchorage for MEP, Snow Drifting, Wind on other (signs, etc.), and wind on rooftop structures. I really cannot comment on the latter stuff, as I mostly use and see the Basic Wind, Snow, and Seismic Pages. It does allow wind loads to be generated in Vasd or Vult pressure levels.

Overall, it is good for saving some time as the load generation portion of the project and tries to automate as much as it can. Like any computer program or spreadsheet it is still very vulnerable to garbage in and garbage out. Also I cannot really comment on anything larger then One and Two Family or smaller Commercial-style projects, as to how well it can help.

My primary use is to check against loads in calculations review for 3rd party Plan Review in Modular Program States and any calculations requested from the PE's I work with.

EIT, Modular Building Industry

 

[spats]

I use the spreadsheet program, and I find it very helpful. They do a pretty good job of keeping it up-to-date, and it generally seems to produce the correct answers. I have noticed one glitch in the components & cladding positive wind roof pressures it generates in certain circumstances. It lists the GCp plus/minus GCpi values correctly based on area, but the psf pressures in the table are incorrect.

All in all, it is a good spreadsheet for wind & seismic, but is also useful in tabulating design dead loads for floors and roofs, as it has built-in weight of materials tables that you can customize to fit your needs. I would definitely recommend it. It is worth the price.

 

[RobertHale]

I agree with Warhamer's assessment. I think it is fairly solid in what it does do. My company has a license for it and most of the engineers here use it at least to generate the components and cladding load table. I think one of its flaws is that it only gets you half way to things like MWFRS wind loads (eg it will give you pressures but you have to go outside the program to combine the pressures with areas to get real forces). Personally I got frustrated with it and developed my own sheets to verify loadings out of software like RAM.

 

[spats]

Warhamer may use it for modular buildings, but it is far more capable than just doing "simple" buildings. I pretty much use it for just about every job I design. I'm not sure what RobertHales frustration was. If you had to create something like "Code Search" from scratch, it would take a bunch of time! It does want a password to unprotect sheets, but they may give it to you if for some reason you want to customize the spreadsheet. As I said before, it's definitely worth the price. I have saved untold hours using "Code Search".

 

[ARKeng]

Our office uses it frequently (probably daily). It's certainly great for the dozens of 1 to 3 story buildings we do every year. It'd be helpful for certain things beyond that... like someone said above, for a verification tool if nothing else. It's a very cheap solution to wasting tons of time writing our own spreadsheets just to have them be out of date when the code changes. Honestly, I'd say 95% of our use is the Wind and Seismic tabs, but I've used the snow loads some (we don't do much in snow-loaded areas). I haven't used the dead load tabulations much as we already had those things created and they don't radically change from some old job we can pull them from quicker.

It's a fairly simple tool, but we've easily saved the $300 we spent on a site license many times over.