RISA 3d v 18 - New format 9

[JAE]

A whole new format/interface coming - looks a lot like Revit.
Here's one video sample. There are several others:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMFPAbHUwEM

Check out Eng-Tips Forum's Policies here:
faq731-376

 

[MR_E30]

Mimicking others in this thread. DL'ed 18 and was surprised by how it looked relative to 17.

But, going back to 17 (thankfully it wasn't uninstalled) as it just flows so much better for me. 18 is far too clunky/slow with the solutions and in-model selection.

 

[flight7]

My firm downloaded v18 on two machines last week. Our IT department was able to work out some licensing quirks without too much trouble. I didn't upgrade my workstation yet, but I'm hearing that there are problems with walls that have sloped tops (as at a sloped roof). Also the new version of 3D doesn't allow for switching to RISA Floor to do gravity design, which seems like a strange and important omission.

 

[JAE]

The "R" in RISA is supposed to stand for RAPID.

 

[bones206]

This summer I brought to their attention that the concrete member optimization wasn't working. In other words, if your concrete member had a UC > 1.0, the program wasn't upsizing the bars, it just reported the UC using the original bar size. I have to wait weeks for IT to get around to installing the new version, so can anyone confirm that the optimization bug still exists or has been fixed? It's not stated in the release notes, but you never know.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

When I worked for RISA, there was frequently some tension between the engineering side (me) and the marketing / sales side related to the release notes.

I tried to make sure that anything significant that was changed would be reflected in the release notes. The reason being that I originally worked for an engineering firm with very strict QA/QC policies.

The sales group (which is now running the company) didn't like it when the release notes highlighted the fact that there were "bugs" in the previous version of the software. I had enough standing that a release note about a bug was never truly removed. But, maybe it was re-written, downplayed or combined with another more generic release note.

Given who's running the company right now, I don't personally think the release notes will be very comprehensive or informative related to corrected bugs. Certainly not in the way they used to be. Don't know how this compares to what other software companies are doing.... It may be the newer attitude is closer to what others do.

 

[bones206]

Josh, I figured as much and the marketing spin doesn’t bother me too much. It only starts to be an issue for me when they switch to a subscription license without a corresponding improvement in product development and responsiveness.

 

[WEJ83]

Started first project in 18 a few days ago. So far not a good experience at all. Very slow and clunky. Always waiting any time I push a button. Many quirks in the display and just use overall. Doesn't interface with the other programs in the RISA family. This version does not appear to be ready for distribution from what I've seen so far. RISA and Josh and Bruce and their team have always been great to work with. Sad to see them go. I hope the issues with 18 are corrected soon. Together with the new subscription model it's beginning to look like we may have to at least explore other options soon. What was a great and affordable tool for a small office may not be anymore.

 

[bootlegend]

Together with the new subscription model it's beginning to look like we may have to at least explore other options soon. What was a great and affordable tool for a small office may not be anymore.

We've started discussing that in our office a well. I'm not ready to abandon ship yet, but I'd like to at least know where to look for the best piece of driftwood.

 

[brisa]

Just finished the webinar titled "Experience the All New RISA-3D". Oh boy. The moderator ran through that webinar faster than a speeding ticket. Maybe slow down a bit when launching a whole new user interface. Yikes!

 

[Ingenuity]

Just finished the webinar titled "Experience the All New RISA-3D". Oh boy. The moderator ran through that webinar faster than a speeding ticket. Maybe slow down a bit when launching a whole new user interface. Yikes!

I participated too...way too fast. I shall need to re-watch the webinar to gain any useful tips.

I am also looking at alternatives to RISA, as now (under new ownership) they only permit subscription-based for new users. Looking at Visual Analysis.

 

[bootlegend]

We've been trying version 18 over the last few days. We have found it to be very slow to manipulate data in version 18. Sometimes excluding members creates a problem and the data is never sorted causing a program lockup that I can only abort using the task manager. The expanded equation views work on my computer but they don't seem to work on my coworkers computer. The report printing often prints a section over another so that they are not legible. His key manager had to be updated, mine did not. Just a bunch of quirky problems to the point that it isn't really usable.

Is this what others are experiencing?

 

[dauwerda]

I used it for 2 days and felt it was so clunky and slow I uninstalled it and went back to version 17. In my opinion it was nowhere near ready to be released. I'm intrigued by some of the features they added, but I think they will lose more users than they will gain due to them pushing it out before it was even close to ready. Perhaps if they actually did a true beta release I would be more forgiving, but I didn't see anything indicating that this was their intent. I am already beginning to miss the days of JoshPlum and the true engineers running the show at RISA. We will probably be considering other options in the future if RISA continues on the path it is headed.

 

[bootlegend]

We've gone back to version 17 as well.

I also saw no mention in the release notes that they had fixed an error we found with their single angle calculations. RISA support acknowledged it was an error and that it would be fixed too. In the past they would email you to let you know that it had been fixed if you reported the error.

 

[JAE]

In my opinion it was nowhere near ready to be released

This is surprising because historically RISA has been slow to push out new versions - and when they do the software has had minimal errors.
This is compared with RAM who always seemed to push out updates, revisions, etc....many times a year...only to follow up with multiple corrections.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

I'm busy tonight so I'll need to revisit this; I want to collect my thoughts more anyway and experiment with more things.

Short version is I'm not impressed; some UI quality of life changes are appreciated but the overall usability of the program has decreased overall. Creating a simple 2D frame now is twice as long and I ran into multiple bugs or quirks. Reported them to RISA and supposedly they'll be addressed shortly but it definitely seems like this wasn't ready for prime time.

Agreed with the above that I'm definitely not jumping ship yet but RISA's done a bad job if I'm considering looking around at what else is available.

Ian Riley, PE, SE
Professional Engineer (ME, NH, VT, CT, MA, FL, CO) Structural Engineer (IL, HI)

 

[JoshPlumSE]

This is surprising because historically RISA has been slow to push out new versions - and when they do the software has had minimal errors

Historically, this was probably true. But, remember it is pretty much a different company now. New management, lots of turnover in staff. What has been historically true before may not be true going forward. In my opinion, this latest release is probably the best judge of how the company will perform going forward.

Caveat: I'm one of the "turnover in staff" that occurred when new management took over. So, I'm not exactly an unbiased observer. Especially concerning opinions about the new management. Also, I now work for one of their competitors. Therefore, understand there is certainly some bias in my opinions.

 

[AFreeM]

Hi JoshPlum (Structural)!
I really liked your review of the programs "Risa 3d Alternate?"

https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=439252.

Is it worth updating? We must look for an alternative RISA-3D v.18 - New format ?


Amicus Plato, sed magis arnica Veritas

 

[JAE]

I’ve used RISA since the late 1980’s and have always loved it. V 18, we found is glitchy and messed up our work flow so we are currently sticking with v 17 with the hopes that they get the bugs worked out soon.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

I think what I said still applies now.

The only change really is that I now work for CSi / SAP. I think a lot of the problems I had with their interface have gone away now that I'm using it regularly. I think this can probably be said about most of the programs (even RISA). Once you get used to a particular interface and how that program does things, it's difficult to switch. You lose some productivity during the switch. That's true whether you switch from the old RISA interface to the new one. Or, from RISA to SAP or whatever.

 

[Seppe]

Generally speaking, I like the updates and the new feel of the software.

The "selection" method has now changed such that, by default, members are unselected as opposed to selected. This will take some getting used to. V17 (and previous) was great in that you could unselect a member/node simply by clicking on it or using one of the line/window batch functions, resulting in a still slightly visible phantom version of the element(s); very handy when wanting to cut through congestion to focus on an isolated element or group of elements but still have a flavor for the overall spatial assembly. Now there is no "phantom" feature, so you either have to select and lock a member to get it out of the way (removes it entirely from view, no phantom/shadow), or flag it as inactive, which is of course not ideal.

All in all, I don't have any major qualms with the UI after having worked in it for a couple weeks.

That said, there are still some troubling bugs to be worked out, significant enough to erode confidence a bit. While I love RISA's effort to provide expanded Detail Reports, as recently as this past week the program was reporting the wrong equivalent rectangular stress block for reinforced concrete sections, and was calculating incorrect Cp factors for wood design so as to result in an overestimation of flexural capacity (and a corresponding lower reported UC). These are obviously important items that need to be addressed sooner than later.