risa 3d opinions

[jgeng]

Looking for opinions on risa 3d. Will be using it for mainly small size projects a lot of residential but want an all purpose program. How do you find its capabilities for small masonry or wood strucutres? How well does it do wood diaphragms and shearwalls? Will it do diaphragms on an inclined plane?

 

[DaveAtkins]

RISA 3D is an excellent structural analysis program. I use RISA to do the analysis, and I do the design by hand. It has FEM capability, so it can easily handle diaphragms (even on an inclined plane) and shear walls.

DaveAtkins

 

[ATSE]

I have been more than happy with all of their software, and have never met anyone who doesn't prefer RISA3D over their competitors.
Note that they don't have non-linear capabilities (vs. SAP).
Rare to get very robust solution and also very user-friendly, but RISA 3D does this well.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

I use it for all kinds of stuff - seems to work pretty good. Building 3D models can be a bit cumbersome - but they all are!!

 

[BadgerPE]

The new RISA 3-D makes analyizing shear walls and headers extremly quick and effective. They have a free demo on their website that you can download and I suggest you try it out.

 

[ST04]

I have noticed that Risa 3D is the most preferred in this web site, for me I have tried it for short period (I was capable of STAAD and SAP2000 when I tried it), for me I felt it is away from being user friendly (SAP2000 is not very friendly but you can model your structure in STAAD then export it to SAP2000).

At the end it differs from person to person,
For me I would highly recommend SAP2000 it has powerful non-linear engine and cable analysis (And cable element already defined with detailed settings it is really wonderful "STAAD has only 2 or 3 settings and doesn't have cable element and as I remember RISA too), and they have several software that are efficient such as (SAFE, ETABAS) have a look here:

http://www.csiberkeley.com/

Regarding user friendly I would say STAAD is the best, then SAP then Risa.

Good luck

 

[ST04]

By the way I don't recommend STAAD pro as a basic analysis software.

 

[JAE]

I used to use STAAD many years ago and then found RISA and it was love. STAAD may have improved but it wasn't all that great "back then".

 

[slickdeals]

ETABS all the way.

 

[Einsteim]

Same as JAE - we used to use STAAD, entering data line-by-line and whole nine yards. Now, using RISA 3D and like it very much. Easy to input, manipulate, re-run models. Go for it.

 

[PMR06]

I have only used RISA, but two of my favorite features are:

1. The ability to copy & paste input data from Excel. You can use formulas to do operations like find & replace text, temporarily store fields of data, etc.

2. The ability to import DXF files. I can quickly draw complex line geometry in AutoCAD and import it into RISA without hand entering any coordinates.

Other programs may have these too?