Structural Engineer ? Software Developer - who else has this career path???

[triplej333]

I recently accepted a position as an engineering software developer for a large post-frame building manufacturer. Very unique company in the sense that they specialize in long span buildings and have customized software that estimates, engineers, details, and essentially SELLS the buildings.

Who else has a structural engineering background with a software development career path???

Just looking for community.

 

[DrZoidberWoop]

A lot of us have had to learn to code to keep up with this industry. The outsourcing of steel detailing to places like the Philippines, South American countries, and Europe have led to the rise of software developers, focusing on BIM. To be fair tho, they're basically glorified 3D modelers, and not classic draftsmen. This gets very frustrating at times.

The other aspect of it is, nowadays, most firms I know generate their own codes in Visual Basic (to interface with Microsoft Office products) or C# (Tekla OpenAPI custom software) to automate simple tasks. I suck at it and can only generate basic programs, but that's the specialty of another guy in our group.

I'll also add the fact that many large companies are using structural engineering software based on archaic coding practices and ancient operating systems (I know my company does. At least in the estimating department) and will be looking to up their technological competence. There are absolutely communities out there that you can use as resources, and I'm sure someone can chime in here to recommend some:

 

[klaus.]

I learned and used Fortran at my time at University ( long time ago )
But until today i write ( little but good ) programs that makes everyday life easier at the office....
But it is more a 'hobby' ....

 

[JoshPlumSE]

Well, I was never a programmer per se. But, I have worked (at both RISA and CSi) with many folks who have this background. Some where structural engineering students who did a lot programming in college, practiced engineering for a few years before transitioning to engineering software. Some where PhDs who went straight from academia to engineering software.

In my experience, the first type are really good with understanding what practicing engineers really want out of their software and how it should look / behave. But, then the 2nd type is much better at programming the difficult mathematics and algorithms that these program rely upon.

 

[Ron247]

I never chose it as a career path, but have always been involved with programming to some degree at most companies I have worked for. Started with Punch Cards and am currently trying to learn Python. I already program in Fortran and Visual Basic.

Some advice, don't always look for a complex wonder program to make your mark. You would be surprised how many opportunities exist in a company to improve the bottom line with a very simple program. The 2 most financially beneficial programs I wrote were simple bubble sorting programs. One took me 3 hours from the time I spotted the need to handing a finished product to a co-worker who hated doing the task I coded in Fortran. The co-worker told me he used to spend about 20 hours every week on the mundane task. Now he takes the same text file and processes it in 2 minutes. As far as I know they still use the program that I coded in 1994. It is less than a page of Fortran.

The key is "What needs programming" and "How to program it AND output it usefully."

 

[triplej333]

Responses much appreciated. I was introduced to programming at age 7 and have always loved it. I've always used it as a tool to improve efficiencies, never for a dedicated profession. It turns out the 3 guys I interviewed with are all self-taught (as I am) so I should fit in quite well.

@DrZoidberWoop - good to know the reasons that these opportunities exist, thank you for the info

@klaus - that's how it has been for me, too. I learned Visual Basic to create a fantasy football program that reduced my time from 90 minutes/week to 20 minutes/week. Then my boss saw it and had me create some design tools. A few months later and here I am...

@JoshPlum - that's basically my story, a few years of practicing then switching gears. Some of my professors in my master's program code 24/7 (basically) and they are ninjas at it. I'm lucky to still have them as contacts/resources.

@Ron247 - solid advice. I think they'll start me off with something very simple rather than just having me dive into the main program. There will be some legacy transitioning from VB6 to VB.net that I'll likely be involved with fairly early on as well.

Honestly, I'm not looking for recognition or validation by doing this. I just want the environment I'm in to utilize computing power to allow everything to run as smooth & efficient as possible. It has been SO painful to watch people repeating mundane tasks. Even worse having to do it myself...

 

[NorthCivil]

My experience at uni was that a huge portion of students chose civil/structural over mechanical/electrical because either:
-they found software/programming too frustrating
-they didnt want to keep going on difficult maths/physics

Maybe 30% chose civil/structural because of a genuine interest in construction/infrastructure, and prevailing economic influences of that region/particular year (construction was booming).

This has carried over into my office experience where the majority of engineers I work with find even mathcad too difficult/demanding to learn, instead wasting enormous hours with extensive hand calculations.

If I could go back and do it over again, I would have studied in electrical/programming. old schoolmates working in that field are on salaries that are multiple times those of my own, and I'm generally a pretty successful engineer from my civil cohort. plus, all the additional baloney that you get as per the other thread "main problems you encounter as a structural engineer"

 

[KootK]

old schoolmates working in that field are on salaries that are multiple times those of my own

Really? We steered our eldest that way for similar reasons but I did't realize that it had the potential to be that bad/good. Was thinking more on the scale of 50% more money and better quality of life in other respects as you said.

Programming's kind of my skill/interest sweet spot as well. I've always worried that programming on its own is too ripe for outsourcing to be a reliable career. I suppose that's the power of combining it with electrical etc is that it amps up your leverage substantially.

 

[NorthCivil]

Koot

I should add the caveat - those that stayed up north are in the 50%+ band

Those that made the jump to Seattle or San Francisco are in the $$$. Which isn't that hard to do. The smarter classmates of mine in the frozen north were hired straight out of university on 100K+ USD base salaries + stock options, bonuses, relocation packages etc. old schoolmates working at the big outfits in seattle/SF are well into the 250K+ salaries once they hit their 30s. and thats just as employees. For those with an eye for enterprise, an appetite for risk, and a good idea, the sky is the limit

 

[KootK]

Thanks for that. In retrospect, emerging technology's always a good place to be. I love much about structural but we're still mostly just rocking Newtonian physics. When the aliens make contact, they probably won't be reaching out to me for the technology exchange. You know, unless they need a good box to park the ship in.

 

[Celt83]

Just looking for community.

This forum is likely as good as any for the community aspect. Be mindful of you may be contractually limited as to what you will be able to discuss with us here. Sounds like from your last post that you have landed in an environment of like minded individuals, which can be great for mentorship and development.

As a self proclaimed amateur on the programming end, get in a habit early of verbose commenting of your code and ask your coworkers if they have any defined style rules that should be followed.



Open Source Structural Applications:

https://github.com/buddyd16/Structural-Engineering

 

[Bowsers]

i've used python to interact with SAP2000. I've fully automated a lot of the load generation and report generation. The load generation can take an hour or 2, and if not done right can be finicky to track errors down. Easier to automate.

 

[SarkTower]

I've always been an advocate of "if you need to do it more than once, write some code". I've built up a fair library of code over the years and made the transition into full time developer in the early 2000s. My current employer also has some "proper" software developers, but they tend to work mainly on informational systems - Logging systems, shop floor data capture, reporting, etc. leaving me to the proper engineering side. Having these guys here has improved the quality of my code though.

My coding has progressed from GW-Basic, VB4, VB6, VB.NET and C#. I probably code 60/40 between VB.Net and C# now.

In terms of advice, if your interfacing with another application like 3d modelling software, keep your code as generic and separate as much as possible. I spent a couple of years developing applications for StruCad... Vendors also have a habit of "improving" their systems - removing features that you may rely on.

It's a great opportunity to really dissect design standards and question every detail you use.

Good luck.