What are the popular software for civil engineer currently?

[ccpe]

I used to be a civil engineer in China and back to Canada recently. Does anybody know the popular software / tool in North America? I knew AutoCAD must be one of them. And BIM will be one of them. Anything else?

 

[jayrod12]

It depends on what kind of civil engineer you're talking about. There are too many programs to name them all, and I don't know what's available outside my area of practice.

 

[BUGGAR]

AutoCAD and Microstation are still big. What do you use in China?

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

I'm seeing a lot of companies switching over to Revit.

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH, MA)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[Lomarandil]

Technically, BIM isn't a software package, it's a methodology (that is implemented using software like Tekla, Revit and others).

For structural analysis, I see a lot of RISA, SAP2000, and STAAD. But there are a dozen or so less popular packages (LUSAS, LARSA, LS-DYNA are a few) that typically have the same general capabilities and often have an area of specialization where they are very good, often at the cost of simplicity for users.

 

[Huaxingxing]

REVIT, RAM, SAP2000

 

[ccpe]

I used AutoCAD in China only since I was not a designer when I was in China.

 

[cyphos168]

Structure design
Staadpro - Steel & Concrete
CSC Orion - Concrete
Tekla Structure Designer -Steel & Concrete
Protastructure Steel & Concrete

Drafting work
Autocad

Embedded wall analysis and design
Deepexcavation
Wallap
Frew

These are just to name a few.

 

[ccpe]

Great. Thank you all for your contributions.

 

[medeek]

Drafting:

AutoCAD

Conceptual Modeling:

SketchUp

Structural Analysis (primarily wood for me):

RISA3D and RISA2D

Most of what I do is residential structural engineering.

A confused student is a good student.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson, PE

http://www.medeek.com

 

[prasadrmb]

Its depends on the type of analysis
Structural analysis - Sap2000, Etabs, Stad
Geotechnical - Plaxis, Geostudio
Drafting - Autocad

Structural Engineering

http://structuraldesignbs.blogspot.com/

http://eurocode-2.blogspot.com/

 

[Guastavino]

AutoCAD, RISA, MS Excel, Hilti Profis (FREE!), I have Revit but no clients that use it. Small shops in my area prefer AutoCAD. Revit isn't ideal for small renovation projects, which I end up doing a lot of.

 

[ccpe]

Most of these software must be very expensive. Did you already know how to use it or were you studying it while you were employed by the companies?

 

[cyphos168]

There is definitely a learning curve to learning how to use these softwares. Some easy some just darn hard.

 

[ccpe]

njlutzwe, I found Hilti Profis is easier to use than AutoCAD and more suitable for engineering design. Do you agree with me? But I am also a bit curious how they can fund their business since the product is free.

 

[jayrod12]

Hilti Profis is strictly for anchor design.

Autocad is strictly a drafting tool.

They are two different types of programs with different uses. You will need multiple programs to have a complete design package.

That being said, technically you could get away with zero programs like they did in the old days. Hand calculations and hand drafting were used to build the majority of the infrastructure in place today.

 

[gwynn]

@CCPE

All of the calculations in Profis are based on using Hilti anchors and/or epoxies. You should not use this program to do anything other than determine which Hilti anchor or epoxy, and embeddment depth to specify.

Hilti wrote the program after the changes to schedule D made the tables published in their hand books overly conservative, due to the the expanded number of variables in appendix D and the tables needing to apply to the most conservative case.

If you are using it to do anything other than specify Hilti products all potential liability is on you.

 

[Felix900]

Structural Analysis & Design for Buildings and other structures = STAAD Pro, Prokon
Foundation Design = Staad Foundation
Tower Analysis = Guymaster

 

[tempeng]

No love for Robot?

@ OP: These are quite expensive packages, are you looking to set up your own practise? Revit can be useful if you are part of a large design team eg. Architect, M+E, Structures etc. but for the smaller projects, not so much. If you are looking to be employed, the choices (outside of your own downloads) will be limited to whichever package your employer has invested in. AutoCAD and Microstaion are drafting staples though so you won't go wrong with one of those.