Structural Design Program

[JSPILLER3]

I am relatively new to the structural design industry, however my company is looking to purchase a design program to aide and expedite the process. All the work done now is completely by hand with drawings created in Autocad. The difficulty of the calculations vary, and it is almost entirely steel design, with a sub-catergory for rigging and reaving. I have experience with GTStrudl (went to GT) and have seen Risa 3d, SAP2000 and Midas but have limited to zero working knowledge of them. I assume these are all reasonably compatible with Autodesk, but I am looking for reviews and advice regarding available design systems. I have also researched Scia but have found useful information regarding the system hard to come by.

thank you all for your help it is greatly appreciated.

 

[ToadJones]

If I had gone to GT, I think I'd feel compelled to use GTSTRUDL!

I have always used STAAD...not many here seem to like it however.

 

[bookowski]

I would not recommend Scia, there are better programs out there.

SAP is very good but it may be overkill depending on what you need. You can do almost anything in SAP but for that reason it is a little cumbersome if you are trying to do something very basic. Etabs is basically SAP but with a focus on building structures, it has a lot of useful additions to sap that make doing buildings really easy - it's not so great for non-building structures though.

Risa a good all around program and cheap compared to sap. For buildings it doesn't match up with Etabs but it's good enough most of the time and it's very user friendly. It's great for doing small stuff - a simple truss, small frames etc.

One thing to note is that the above (and a lot of others) are analysis programs that also handle member design. They do not however handle design of connections, base plate, footings etc etc. I don't know if you need that or not. You can make a lot of that yourself with spreadsheets.

You can download a free trial of RISA that is only limited by model size. Maybe give that a try for a while. There are also loads of other programs out there.

 

[Once20036]

It's not clear to me if you're looking at 20 story steel buildings with seismic detailing or misc metal handrails. Something like SAP is definitely overkill for handrails.

I`m a fan of RAM elements for the random stuff that comes up around the office.

 

[fancypants]

It would be best if you could describe how you will use the software .

 

[JSPILLER3]

The primary use will be to verify and/or identify member sizes with regard to designing conveyor belts. IE. simple repeatable modular tables. Truss sections spanning bents. Bent design and foundation loads(not full design of the foundation), and multiple story towers. Ease of conversion between Metric and Imperial useful(including member prop), dynamic analysis and seismic a must, Natural Frequency beneficial. Connections, and Base Plate thickness would also be helpful, but as mentioned excel tables are effective (though potentially cumbersome) for that as well.
Thanks again, I hope this helps clear some things up.

 

[fancypants]

In that case (bang for the buck) i would suggest RISA 3D. I have used SCIA a whole bunch and can attest that RISA is a better product.
You will be without connection design.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

I like RISA3D

You can buy other connection programs

 

[steellion]

Another recommendation for RISA-3D.

 

[JSPILLER3]

Seems rather clear and most other reviews hint that as well. Thanks you have all been extremely helpful and I really enjoy this site. good work.

 

[Teguci]

I am currently using STAAD to analyze an almost failed material conveyor truss (80 feet between bents). Seems the original design assumed pinned connections but under designed welded connections for the diagonals.

STAAD is a little clunky but I like it for noodles. My biggest complaint is that it is set up with the Y axis as vertical. Thats as bad as flipping the moment diagram upside down!

 

[msquared48]

RISA 3D

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[bookowski]

And RISA now has RISA Connection. You can buy it as a standalone addition to RISA or as part of a bundle with their other products. Although again you can probably develop your own spreadsheets for this. I still say try the demo and see if it makes sense for what you will be doing.

 

[connectegr]

Another vote for RISA. We also have STAAD, but nearly everyone prefers RISA. I will probably drop the maintenance on STAAD next year.

http://www.FerrellEngineering.com

 

[DWHA]

RISA. But as others mentioned, try the demo.

 

[ErZaZee]

Teguci you can check the configuration/orientation of the vertical axis of STAAD.

 

[Teguci]

I have, in the past, properly reconfigured the axes in STAAD. However, the analysis gives me a warning everytime because some features do not properly work with the corrected axes.

 

[tumbleleaves]

Mathcad is the appropriate program.

If you are working by hand, have your methods and know how, Mathcad allows you to set up templates to be used over and over and over...and over... Very intuitive and it follows your hand calc's.

You will need to supplement it occasionally with something like Risa and some specialty programs, for say things like retaining walls, and concrete columns, but otherwise Mathcad is it.

I strongly recommend Mathcad for structural engineering. It's just more all purpose, versatile, and transparent than the "structural" programs.

Disclaimer: I no longer do engineering design and do not have Matchcad installed.

 

[SteveGregory]

I have used STAAD and RAM Elements and for your usage, I would choose RAM Elements for ease of use and good tech support.

 

[RUS777]

I work in the aggregate business and here we use RISA.

Just make sure you are familiar with the software as it ignores some of the Lb and K values making your desing inadequate.

BTW, Just completed a stacker model in RISA3D, very neat.