Structural Engineering Software Programs Used In The Industry

Discover the top structural engineering software programs used in the structural engineering building industry.

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Mat Picardal is a structural project manager at DCI Engineers. This video and this channel does not necessarily reflect the opinion nor beliefs of DCI Engineers. All thoughts expressed are purely his own observations and experiences.

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[MatPicardal]

What structural engineering software do you use?

[DavidRamirez-wwkv]

Hi Mat. I used to work in the structural engineering field back in1983 and 1984, as a design engineer. Wow, have things changes! We did all calculations by hand and used the steel and concrete codes for design guidelines. We did drawings by hand which was slow.

[TonyA-exsj]

I use Ideastatica(for steel connections), Etabs(for buildings), Robot structural(liquid reteining structures), SAP2000(for coldformed systems), SAFE(for shallow foundations), and RAM Connections (for steel connections). Greetings from Nicaragua.

[georgegr]

SAP2000, ETABS, Autodesk Robot, Sofistik, Scia, Abaqus, Tekla. Most of them are widely used across Europe. Till now I have tried the first 3 for my undergraduate studies and I am planning to learn Sofistik or Scia to combine them with my master's dissertation. Keep up the good work on your videos Mat !!!!

[MrCbrehaut]

Great Video. We use so many programs but it all depends on what projects we have and how specialized we become in our careers.

I was and offshore structural engineer for 15 years and we used SACS for all our steel structure design. The oil and gas industry is dominated by SACS. We also used many excel and mathcad sheets for local member designs and Abacus for FEA modeling when we had a really challenging thing to look at that traditional software couldn’t handle.

It takes a long time to become good with software and we can never forget to check ourselves with the basics that we learned in school. Structural programs are amazing but one character in the input file of many thousands can totally change the behavior of a structure and that can equal to misrepresentation of it.

Now the fun part. Structural software can be very expensive and a burden for a company to have lots of it. This is one of the challenges being a SE and we have to know how to do these problems by hand because fancy software is not always going to be available. Do not watch this video then relax in school because you think software is going to so it all for you. You must have a good understanding of the fundamentals so when the program produces a erroneous result you recognize it.

Also, just like when Microsoft or Apple does and update then messes up and then comes another update. Structural software is the same.

[Grace-mwdw]

I mainly use ETABS and SAP200 for building analysis. Excel for member design. Filipino Civil Engineer here 😊

[francisberin]

General Building: ETABS
General Analysis: SAP2000
Steel: STAAD Pro
Concrete: Midas Design+
Anchors: Hilti Profis
Retaining wall: ASDIP Retain
Wood: Tekla Tedds
Coldformed: CFS
Mark-up drawings: Foxit Phantom
BIM: Revit (not used)

[lisakaminski]

I'm in the oil and gas industry working for an owner and so I don't generally need software that can do entire buildings. I use RISA3D, RISAFoundation, Dimensional Solutions (great for reinforced concrete), Caesar II (for pipe), Struware -CodeSearch (it's like ASCE7 and the IBC in Excel format for determining loads... Highly recommend... Super cheap), HILTI PROFIS and RISAConnection. RISA can do some FEA too so thats pretty nice.

[juliusnsantiago]

Etabs-for stability, shearwall, column and beam design.Steel design
Safe for floor and foundation design.
Autocan and BIM for drawings!

[anantvats]

I am young Civil Engineer from India and I use Staad Pro/Etabs for Structural analysis and Design. Revit for Modelling of structure. Staad Foundation, SAFE and SAP 2000 for different elements like Foundation and Slab. Excel Sheet for any particular element design. For steel design I prefer either Staad or ETABS. AutoCAD for Drafting purpose. Also CSI Bridge, and MX Road for Bridge and Road works

[jonhauirae]

Excel the most useful tool in civil engineering

[AAbuBakre]

Staad Pro for analysis + Fitzroy Scale for design is what I use....Might seem tedious but you get to appreciate the Design processes

[victormikhaltsevich]

Very good info. Personally, I heavily rely on Revit Structural packet, also Hilti for footings. Definitely interested in checking out RAM concepts and PT slabs. For connections, I have actually been using FEA from inventor and fusion, since you can easily import 3d joint model back into Revit as part of joint family.

[fernandovillalobos]

Mostly SAP2000 for analysis, but I'm trying to introduce Robot to my office. Lots of spreadsheets programming, but this requires a lot of time if you have a different condition so you have to adjust the spreadsheet to make it work.
Revit is my go to for modeling and drawing, once you get used to it your productivity increases a lot, especially when preparing construction plans.

I have never heard of bluebeam revu but it looks incredibly intuitive and that's great to communicate with steel contractors or so, to make sure that your design is clear to everyone.

Thanks for the video

[ratandazo]

Hi #MatPicardal I like structural engineering, I'm Civil Engineer. This topic about Structural Softwares is amazing, because I didn't know all alternatives that you showed. Congratulations for this information for all us! Greets from Quito-Ecuador!

[Hitngan]

BIM Revit is the future. Get to know it.
Being a Geot I use SlopeW, Plaxis, Wallap and VDisp.

[seabeloseabelo]

as a structural engineer in Botswana (africa), i used AutoCad & Prokon. i recently start learning Etabs, it is easier and user friendly but i am still struggling interpret its results

[brandon]

Please do a video on end releases vs boundary conditions and weak axis and strong axis bracing. I get all this very confused and it’s very important getting this right in design software.

[nolynnco]

Super cool that you work at DCI. Two of my three company owners used to be Principal Engineers at DCI, I've learned a ton from them. I have used pretty much all the same programs as you and maybe that's why haha

[RafaelArteman]

Hy! greetings from Brazil!
Im civil Engineering student and here in Brazil a very popular software for general design and structural analisys is the ALTO QI EBERICK. We have another one called TQS for general design and structural analisys too. REVIT is very popular here too, a lot of architects and civil engineers use it.