Robot Structural Analysis - IBC

[CURVEB]

Is anyone having success using ROBOT with IBC loading and design codes? We are evaluating it for use as an analysis/design software and it seems very robust but also seems to primarily cater to engineers designing in countries outside of the US. I know it hasn't been available in the US for too long but there still seems to be a distinctive lack of usage here, especially considering most structural engineers have access to it through the Autodesk Design Suite.

Very curious to hear others' experience with this software.

 

[JAE]

We have a single license of it and I spent a bit of time working through it. While I'm used to several other programs (RAM, RISA, STaad, Strudl, etc.) Robot seemed like an alien language and I found it very non-intuitive. Of course we always struggle with new and different software, preferring the "old ways" but once properly trained in it we sometimes do come around.

I'm not sure with Robot, however. It just didn't flow for me but perhaps some more time with it might change my mind.

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

 

[PXC]

I had a 1 month trial with Robot and was happy to walk away from it. It seemed very cumbersome and not intuitive. Lots and lots of dialogue boxes. I came away thinking the graphics was very good for displaying the structure (cad engine) but very crude graphics for engineering input - loads etc. It seemed to have a lot of different engineering design codes built in. The one I was interested in covered most areas but again cumbersome input dialogue boxes. Interrogating the model to check input was painful. Sorry, too much pain for me.

 

[Brad805]

If you have any plans to move into the Revit suite I would look closely at this option. If not, I would go with what you like best after the trials. The reason I mention this is I know quite a bit about the struggles with the current interoperability options. While all the software companies like to tell you it all works flawlessly because of IFC, that is only partially true. As more and more of these software companies are taken over by the giants they tend to stop working on the links to their competition. Shocking, I know. Autodesk seems to be the big kid in the sandbox that dislikes playing with others the most.