Uniform load on soild structure

[jamurray]

We are designing a test on an existing structure of a water pipe to determine if the current standards being applied are necessary to maintain its stability and safety.

We have encountered a difficulting concerning how to define a uniform load on a solid stucture. We are unsure if this task is even possible. If you can help aleveate this minor problem please assist.

Thanks

 

[arniec]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you cannot put a pressure load on solid elements in STAADIII/Pro-2000,2001 or 2002. It will only accept nodal loads - so i hope you don't have an irregular mesh because it'll be a pain deciding where to put every load and assigning a value to it.

I certainly would not recommend using STAAD for analysis of solid problems - i use Robot Millennium and this has surface load generators and supports the ACIS solid format so you can communicate with popular solid modelling CAD packages. Also there is an automatic mesh generator to take the pain out of manually creating the mesh.

ac

 

Seems like we have another STAAD basher.

 

[arniec]

Seethru,

Why am I called a STAAD basher, because i point out that the software is physically incapable of performing a function. thats not my fault, pal! speak to the donuts who write the software, get them to put this functionality in and I wont bother to bring your attention to the fact that YOU CANNOT PUT PRESSURE LOADS ON SOLID ELEMENTS - as was asked by jamurray.

If I was just writing a part knocking STAAD then OK but i qualified this first by an informative statement. Get a life!

ac

 

[lippie]

arniec is correct...STAAD's solid elements cannot handle pressure loading.
arniec is incorrect of being classified as a STAAD basher...he states, "Why am I called a STAAD basher"

The answer is because you use terms like "speak to the donuts who write the software"

And why do you use a software like STAAD (and know so much about it) if you hate it so much...little short on the engineering skills.

 

Everytime someone speaks ill about one program, and praises another, it immediately makes me suspicious of their motive. In this day and age of corporate greed, why should I believe that arniec's motives aren't above suspicion? If you love Robot, that's your business, pal. But when you use a facility that is missing in STAAD as an excuse to promote Robot, that makes me suspicious. Like that fellow Bill Polhemus at seaint. It is common knowledge that this guy is under some kind of employment for Visual Analysis (hosts their user group or something), and yet, with no rhyme or reason, he takes shots at STAAD whenever he can. Why should I believe that he isn't doing it for his own personal goal. Isn't it in our best interest if there are a lot of good competing programs out there?

 

[arniec]

Only trying to draw attention to the fact that there are packages out there that are better for this type of work than the aforementioned - I happen to use Robot but I am sure that every other package that deals with Solid Elements is better than STAADs.

My motives are unquestionable - I run a small consultancy and therefore have no shortage of engineering skills. I have had problems with certain software in the past and chose to go to my present supplier and have had some success. I try to promote good practice within this area of engineering and didnt think that I was coming across as a 'STAAD basher' in my first point above, given that I merely pointed out that the software cannot perform the function that was required and mentioned an alterntive.

As for being in the same mould as Bill Polhemus then, to the best of my knowledge, this is an unfair comparison - i have no employment relationship with any software company (I certainly dont host a user group) and I dont take every conceivable opportunity to knock STAAD (just now and again - I try to get a strike rate of once a month) :-D

However, if i can answer a question and recommend an alternative now or in the future then I will continue to do so and in oreder to do this I will recommend something I am happy with. If people don't like my remarks then that is tough and I am sure that jamurray wont be rushing out and buying another bit of software just cos I said what i said.

Now lets get on with doing some work and stop wasting time on this thread.