structural analysis software for 35 storey shear wall concrete frame - seismic

[jonathanpye]

I'm currently looking at SCIA, ETABS and ROBOT as the options available through my company.

I've heard good and bad reports about all 3, but havent used them myself and am trying to make a fully informed choice.

The options are all current versions, and I'm hoping to use a product which has a friendly user interface.

Does anyone have any opinion on these software products ?

All responses appreciate.

UK based Chartered Civil and Structural Engineer

 

[sponton]

I use etabs, i think when it works the way you want it, it's really good. Sometimes it does have small calculation issues though and there isn't much information online I'd say.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

I'm not sure question is fully flushed out.

35 stories and it will have concrete shear walls and concrete frames. And, seismic will be a consideration.

Are you looking for analysis results, design results, consideration of ACI seismic detailing provisions or what?

What sort of consideration are you looking for on the stiffness side? Are you looking for a program that considers cracking of the concrete? If so, then do you expect a simple elastic reduction in stiffness or are you looking for a materially non-linear analysis that changes the stiffness automatically as the load increases?

Are you looking for a program that considers long term creep? Or one that directly considers shrinkage in the analysis?

Will you be performing a dynamic analysis for this building? If so, then what type of dynamic analysis a simple eigen solution to come up with natural period, a response spectra analysis, or time-history analysis?

 

[jonathanpye]

'm not sure question is fully flushed out.

35 stories and it will have concrete shear walls and concrete frames. And, seismic will be a consideration. Seismic Zone 2A, so not particularly onerous.

Are you looking for analysis results, design results, consideration of ACI seismic detailing provisions or what? We are probably looking to output data at analysis stage, so we keep manual control over the structural member design, though we could look at automated design if we have some confidence in the software. I wasn't aware that software would consider the seismic detailing provisions... we will need to look into this further

What sort of consideration are you looking for on the stiffness side? Are you looking for a program that considers cracking of the concrete? If so, then do you expect a simple elastic reduction in stiffness or are you looking for a materially non-linear analysis that changes the stiffness automatically as the load increases? We are not pushing boundaries with the design and I'm expecting that there will be a fair amount of redundancy in our design solution, so I would have thought that a simple elastic reduction would suffice, though I guess a more rigorous approach might be more suitable... answer is I don't know yet, will have to look into this

Are you looking for a program that considers long term creep? Or one that directly considers shrinkage in the analysis? Yes, long term creep checks will need to be done, axial shortening also, and possibly shrinkage... some checks might be manual though.

Will you be performing a dynamic analysis for this building? If so, then what type of dynamic analysis a simple eigen solution to come up with natural period, a response spectra analysis, or time-history analysis? Yes, I am anticipating the need to do a response spectra analysis

Can you offer any assistance ?
many thanks

UK based Chartered Civil and Structural Engineer

 

[JoshPlumSE]

You're talking about using the EuroCodes as well, right?

I don't have much experience with your three options. Maybe a little bit of experience with ETABs, but not the other two. Even then, my focus was more on the steel framing and composite beam design. So, I didn't get too much into the concrete side of it.

My guess is that ETABs will be your best bet because it's interface is geared towards multi-level structures. Robot and SCIA, if I understand them correctly are more general purpose programs. If so, then it probably would be more tricky creating your model in that type of program.

 

[countervail]

I have worked with SCIA and robot in the UK. Of the two I prefer SCIA as the calculations and processes are open to manual inspection where as robot is a "black box". SCIA is also now probably a bit more user friendly on terms of the modeling process (it used to be a real pig).