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Structural Analyis Software Recommendation 2

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VAStrEngr

Structural
Jan 4, 2010
67
I would appreciate if anyone who currently uses any type of structural analysis software could provide some reviews and/or suggestions for a reliable software package that I can pitch to my company.

We are a multi-disciplinary engineering firm (50 employees) and our structural needs range from the design of small buildings and frames to large storage tanks and pipelines. Any software package has to be versatile enough to handle a large variety of designs and include all the major building materials (wood, concrete, and steel).

We currently use a very dated version of RAM Advanse but given the pace that technology has progressed, I would like to explore options for whatelse might be out there.

I have heard of the Risa software and some of the other big names but would like to hear from people who use the software before looking into it too far.

Thank you.
 
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"If RISA were to disappear off the face of the earth, I would quit my job and become an architect."

Hilarious...I might just use that arguement when pitching it to the powers-to-be in my company.

"If you don't buy RISA, I'll only be as good as an architect to you."

No offense to any architects here...
 
We use staad and the only thing it is good for is for finite element analysis for matslab foundations or very complex concerte structures. Many of our designs revolve around a simple concrete deck over steel beams with a lot of point loads (equipment) throughout the design. What should be an easy model becomes almost impossible to do when considering beam/slab connectivity. Staad suggested moving the slab off of the beams and putting in mini-columns to support the slab. An extremely lengthy process for a simple calculation.
 
Does anybody know the differences in price between all these packages for a single license as a comparison?
 
Please note that there are other structural softwares intensively used in the industry. Please see the following links:



These are 3-D structural analysis and design softwares. The analysis side includes plate elements as well (Space Gass). Design side is the screening the members in accordance with the design code requirements. If you buy complete softwares these will include all the design code listed in their catalogues. They have elastic buckling, vibration analysis (natural frequency and response spectra) modules in addition to the master slave contraint option, and they are very handy. You can see the other features by connecting to the links.

They are very user friendly, and you will pick up in a short time. I am a user of the last 15 years.

Hope this gives some idea about other softwares around the World.

Regards.

Ibrahim Demir
 
My company purchased Tedds about a year ago to replace Enercalc. The greatest advantage of Tedds is that it's not a black box. The printed report shows every step of the calculation. You can modify the built-in calculation modules or create your own (but I haven't taken the time to figure this out yet). The biggest down side to Tedds, in my opinion, is that there are some calculations that we do routinely but are not included in the package, particularly in masonry design. If you're considering Tedds, you should carefully review the list of calculations included, keeping in mind that they add a couple new ones every month.
 
TEDDS is not a structural analysis package; it is an elec calc pad.
STAAD is a crappy DOS program with a clumsy graphical interface. I used it when I worked for Bechtel.
In Australia we generally use Microstran or Spacegass & both beat STAAD hands down.
 
sdz - we are looking at TEDDS right now - it has all sorts of structural applications. The rep didn't show us any electrical aspects.
 
I have been using GTStrudl for many years (25+) and it is a good general analysis/design for most structures. If you are in the nuclear power plant area, it is one of the few programs that is QA/QC qualified by the NRC. I attend the annual user's group meeting and there are users in the bridge and building industry. I learned it using the command interface where you generate joints and members and specify the loads and boundary conditions. It has a Graphical UI but you tend to use what is comfortable. I don't do much FE work but GTS has a decent library of elements.

Before GTS, we used ANSYS for a brief time when we had a card reader to run on a timeshare service circa 1985. Before ANSYS we used STARDYNE from CDC in the 1970's and spent about $50,000 per month to analyze transmission towers and substation frame structures using a card reader and JCL (Job Control Language). "It must be right if it is printed on green and white" was a popular saying for those old enough to remember tractor feed line printer paper that we went through by the box. At this time an Engineer just out of college was making about $1000 per month.

When GTStrudl came out on a PC (we were using a MicroVAX with a dumb terminal to run GTS before that), some other users in the office were using STAAD to analyze power plant frames so I had a little exposure to STAAD, but overall I prefer GTStrudl.

_____________________________________
I have been called "A storehouse of worthless information" many times.
 
JAE, SDZ - Tedds has a word application that is similar to MathCad but not as powerful. It is more like a spreadsheet in word. It recognizes units and variables but does not preform integrations or solve system of equations simultaneously. It is good for organizing calcs and creating your own. It's easy for someone else to follow the calc you've created as well as apposed to a spreadsheet where you don't always see the equation that is used. It is also possible to incorporate an excel spreadsheet but I have not tried it. The Tedds library is also pretty good in that you can easily follow what the program is doing. I would like to know what others think of it as I don't have much experience with other programs besides enercalc. Also I would like to know how their Fastrak compares to RISA.
 
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