Concrete Design Software - Unified Model

[bookowski]

My experience with concrete buildings & software is having separate models (and software) for slabs, columns, and lateral. Usually slabs in Safe or Concept, lateral in Etabs, and then design of walls and columns in some standalone program (similar for foundations).

I see Adapt advertising 'Edge' and CSC with 'Orion' as complete unified model solutions - slabs, lateral systems, columns, footings etc. This would be great if it worked well, curious if anyone is using this and it's working out.

 

[KootK]

I haven't tinkered with those toys but I certainly share the desire for better integration. My company is focussing on translator software that hits the API's of the commercial packages ETABS/Revit/Grasshopper etc. It's early days but the results have been promising so far. Much of it is just fine in Excel with VBA routines. We've also had dealings with an engineer in Australia that does nothing but develop translator software. The overarching goal is to be somewhat independent of any particular software package which would be nice.

I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.

 

[bookowski]

That's interesting, so do you mean you would be working in an in-house program that then reaches out behind the scenes to run models in the various softwares and coordinates all the bits? I have seen some companies, such as arup, playing with similar things for oasis talking to grasshopper etc. but it seemed to look nicer than it actually worked.

I have some excel setups that do mini versions of this - for example for column loads and designs to reach out and grab safe output files. But this is still a lot of work and requires making sure that all the various models are correct.

Seems like a unified model will eventually come, just curious how close these guys are getting now. I'm wondering how they break apart lateral from gravity when for most situations you are not counting slab stiffness in your lateral model, and the variations in base modeling etc. for lateral vs gravity. Also curious if they stage the loading somehow, otherwise full models show much different load distribution than individual models because of the greater shortening at cols vs walls etc. Would be really nice if it was all worked out. Maybe I'll test drive a trial version.

 

[KootK]

That's interesting, so do you mean you would be working in an in-house program that then reaches out behind the scenes to run models in the various softwares and coordinates all the bits?

Eh... not quite so fancy. We're making algorithms so that you can point to a Revit model and have it create an ETABS model etc. If you know the API well enough, this can be done quite robustly. Also, it seems that the various software vendors are gradually moving towards a common format. Kind of like ASCII for structural software.

I think that part of what holds back a unified software package is that, in truth, we might not really want it in our heart of hearts. The simplifications that we take to use the separate packages often speed up design and detailing even if they slow down model creation and analysis. Once we finally have a single model that accounts for gravity, lateral, temperature, column shortening, and construction sequencing... will we actually want it? I do on an academic level for sure. From a productivity standpoint, I'm not so sure.

I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.

 

[PMR06]

Anyone here had luck with RISA package? RISAFloor for slabs, RISA3D for lateral, RISAFoundation, etc? We are evaluating it for unified solution to building design. I'm a long-time user of RISA3D and would love a RISA based solution, but am curious to hear real-world, production experience.

Thanks in advance