Structural software

[Emmar02]

Can anyone help? I need some good inexpensive structural analysis and design software that will allow me to
- analyse and design up to 3D frames
- Come with American and UK libraries
- Have the ability to analyse and desgin to American and British codes
- Be able to do structural steel, RC, timber
- Have the option to add on a module that exports to AutoCAD.

Not necessarily interested in FEA or P-delta, but if this comes standard then it helps,

What are some of the packages available? I can spend maybe up to US$1000.

 

[DaveVikingPE]

If you can spend up to 1000 American dollars, then you can get some excellent software.

I recommend: Dr. Frame2D (

http://www.drframe.com)

for $400. It's an excellent frame/beam/truss/shearwall analysis tool - it should come with US sections, though you might have to build your own library of UK steel sections. You might also look into what Archon has to offer (I own a cope of WinWood, but haven't used it in several years)

http://www.archoneng.com/.

There's also the great stuff from Digital Canal

http://www.digitalcanal.com/

that does support importing to AutoCAD.