Which Structural Calc Software? 1

[siteturbo]

Hello:

We have a small engineering firm. We do civil and structural engineering. Believe it or not, we have done all of our projects in the past by hand or small custom spreadsheets. Most of our structural engineering are calcs for residential homes (wood) and small commercial bldgs (wood and steel), and retaining walls. We already use AutoCAD for our drafting needs.

Which software(s) would you recommend for us to use to structurally analyze these types of projects from start to finish? Does one software package do it all or do I need multiple programs to do everthing?

Our search thus far has not been productive -- I am hoping you guys can shed some light thru you vast experiences. Your recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thanks for you input.

--
H.E.

 

[youngstructural]

I only use one package when it comes to wood: WoodWorks Sizer.

http://www.woodworks-software.com/

Remember that most analysis packages use stiffness and matrix methods, which require precise modelling of the material properties. Since wood is a heterogeneous material and has variable physical properties depeding on which way you apply load (longitudinal, tangential, radial), it is rare to find a package which claims to model it well.

For a basic and easy to use, realible and no-frills structural analysis program I highly recommend Microstran.

http://www.microstran.com.au/

It's not as powerful as SAP 2000, and certainly not as well known in North America, but it is alot cheaper and I have not missed a function from SAP yet.

IF you get yourself into FEA/FEM, you should look into CalculiX... It's a free, open source package. Why pay money when some of the best is free?

http://www.calculix.de

One last thing: If you are not very experienced with structural analysis software, make sure you get some tutoring or negotiate to have some training included in your perchase. It's very easy to make (seemingly) small mistakes that make your analysis worse that useless! Remember the gold rule of computers: They are as dumb as their user, and garbage in equals garbage out.

Hope that helps,

YS

B.Eng (Carleton)
Working in New Zealand, thinking of my snow covered home...

 

[minorchord2000]

It sounds like you would love ENERCALC. This program contains a suite of individual programs all very user friendly with online updating. It does retaining/restrained walls, footings, etc.

 

[COEngineeer]

we use struc calc. Its not expensive and do the job.

 

[DaveAtkins]

I think the way you are already doing things is the best way to do things on smaller structures. You may need a frame analysis program (I use RISA3d), but do you really need a packaged program to design wood headers, shear walls, hurricane ties, etc? I do these types of tasks by hand or use my own Excel spreadsheets. I feel I have better control of my work that way.

DaveAtkins