Software Development

[mark1234]

Hi all,

I have an idea of incorporating structural analysis into a working software package. My goal is to display essentially "construction" type plans from this software, or close to it. Basically, I would like to know how others have written software and displayed results in a program like Autocad.

Would Autocad require a fee for writing the program from say Visual Basic, or Autolisp?

Has there been success in writing programs outside of Autocad and importing drawings into these programs and then export back into Cad to display plan type results?

If languages within Autocad is used as the primary language, is Microstation left out?

Do you guys have suggestions on "sub-routines" already created which may aid in this type of interactive software analysis and Cad type drawings?

Thank you all in advance for any advise.

Mark

 

[JStephen]

I'm sure not an expert on structural software. But I'll offer my two cents anyway.

I'd say what you are trying to do either:
a) Has been done, or
b) Would take a number of people a good long while to accomplish.

I know they have structural software that will show the structure in 3D, as built, and in deflected shapes. Of course, you don't normally detail all the bolts and connections into those things. And that may be one of the obstacles to actually going back and forth from drafting programs to design programs, is that you don't want the same level of detail in each.

I know they have finite element programs that will take 3D CAD models (usually not AutoCAD, though), and generate the meshes for the analysis. It sounds like what you're wanting would be somewhere in between those two. You don't want to run a structural design on a building, and wind up analyzing every thread on every bolt.

 

[PLB]

I have tried to do a similar thing but, on a more limited basis. I wrote a LISP program that would allow the user to select points in the Autocad drawing and answer questions to design simple span beams. The program designs the beam and creates a text file with all the calculations in it. It also draws a single line as a beam and labels it with the correct size. I felt that using this type of program as a "one-shot" beam sizer saved a lot of hassle. I think going back and forth between the design program and Autocad will make the program huge, cumbersome, and frankly, never-ending. I have also seen structural engineers who continuously recheck the design. Eventually, you have to stop. By using a single pass design program, you can get a quick answer and move on. Also, if the spans or loads change, you can always rerun the LISP to get a new design.

Hope this helps,
Paul