Software 2

[dancristescu]

I'm new at doing calculations and I intend to open my own office of residential structural design. I can run calcs by hand but I couldn't do it in an efficient and especially presentible way. Could anyone guide me towards Retaining walls software, software for wood members design and software for friction piles design? Most everyone I know uses RetainPro ... any coments? How about wood design? Any trusted and tried software available?

Thank you.

PS I also thank everyone who answered my Hip design question. I have found it very valuable.

 

[Lion06]

We use Enercalc for retaining walls.
We use Woodworks for wood member design. I should add that I only use Woodworks for PRELIM design because I have found some problems with some of the factors applied to the allowable stresses.

 

[GalileoG]

WoodWorks is great. I can't really compare it to other timber design software since WoodWorks is the only one that I have used, but I found it to be very easy to learn with its very friendly user interface. The "results" sheet in WoodWorks is very nice and presentable, includes all calculations and relevant information.

 

[271828]

dancristescu, I know you can't be talked out of business plans by some unknown guy on a message board, but...

Structural design programs are filled with limitations, bugs, assumptions that are only correct for some problems, etc. Some spit good looking numbers at the user, but are flat wrong. To use them responsibly, one really needs to be VERY GOOD at the manual calcs.

I think "barely" (paraphrasing, sorry) being able to do manual calcs and looking for software to do the work is a recipe for disaster. Sorry for putting words in your mouth, but that's sure how it sounds.