which of these softwares is the best in general? 2

[ledi101]

I want to buy a software for designing every type of structure and these are the posibilities i have:

Sap2000
Etabs
Straus7 V2.3
Ansys 8.0
Algor

Could you please tell me which of these is the best?

Thank to everyone that will respond.

 

[myabc]

For SAP2000 and Ansys 8.0, I think SAP2000 is better.

 

[Diquan]

Depends... but for general use i use SAP but one program that you're not mencioning is RISA, this is a very easy to use and learn program. ETABS is for buildings not for simple beams/columns check for that is SAP.

The rest i don't know them.

Diquan

 

[freddy]

my point of view:
- ansys has not so friendly user interface and I find difficult to use it
- sap2000 is my favorite (I do steel mainly)
- strand7 is good and excellent for more mechanical related jobs. I find editing not so smart as it could be.
- algor: I don't know it
- risa: not bad, though still too young to be compared with sap2000
- etabs: never used deeply, only little tests

I also want to mention Multiframe that, for easy and standard jobs, is great. It doesn't have response spectrum analysis and that hurts.



Alfredo - Mech
Structural steel design and detailing

http://www.mechstudio.com

 

[masomenos]

Depends on what you're doing. Programs like SAP2000 and ETABS have built-in design of steel and concrete, load combination options, and auto-lateral load generation based on design codes. Clearly better for design of steel and concrete. In addition, they have fairly extensive finite element analysis, dynamic analysis, and nonlinear analysis capabilities. However, in some areas, ETABS/SAP don't offer the analysis capabilities to the extent of an Ansys. For example, Ansys has more advanced material nonlinearity analysis options as well as the possibility of temperature dependent material properties. SAP/ETABS don't have the surface area meshing for mechanical design that you'll find in Ansys and Algor. But again, ETABS/SAP have useful floor/beam meshing and load distribution options that are not in Ansys or Algor. There is no best program for "every" type of structure.