I feel ABAQUS, SAP , ANSYS and Staad pro are the best recognised software for structural engineering but ABAQUS is quite effective in soil - structure interaction kind of problem..

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I feel ABAQUS, SAP , ANSYS and Staad pro are the best recognised software for structural engineering but ABAQUS is quite effective in soil - structure interaction kind of problem..

I would say OpenSees and SeismoStruct when it comes to macro-modelling and nonlinear structural analysis. ABAQUS, ANSYS, and MSC.Marc comes to mind for their sheer robustness for analyzing more refined/detailed models. Please note however that these recommandations are not for the design of structures.

I echo Omer's mention of SeismoStruct for pure analysis (nonlinear pushover, nonlinear dynamic response history, etc.). For structural design where dozens (if not hundreds) of load combinations need to be assessed, material and section databases are a necessity, and code-based load generation is important, SAP and STAAD are excellent. Visual Analysis has come a long way over the years and is starting to catch up.

Timothy Huff Ömer Odabasi Karthigeyan . S Bassam Tayeh What do you think about ETABS in particular?

ETABS is specifically for buildings and is produced by the same company which produces SAP (CSi). If you are doing only building design, ETABS is probably an excellent choice, though I have not used it extensively myself. For bridges, CSi has CSiBridge. So, regarding the CSI line of products: for building design - ETABS, for bridge design - CSiBridge, for general purpose structural analysis and design - SAP.

I have nothing to add to Timothy Huff 's response!

There are several available commercial software for structural design: ANSYS, ABAQUS, ETABS, SAP, OPENSEES, MIDAS, COMSOL. However, none of this can be just defined as reliable or not reliable, they are all based on some theories and numerical methods. We need to understand the structural design principles and assumptions which the softwares are based on before using them.

MIDAS is a good preliminary design software, which has the built-in codes verification function. It can also couple the construction process, which is critical in designing.

ANSYS , ABAQUS and COMSOL are multiphysics programs.SAP is more for bridge design, OPENSEES is basically for seismic design purpose.

There are many commercial programs available for structural design: ANSYS, ABAQUS, ETABS, SAP, OPENSEES, MIDAS, COMSOL. But we can not say this program is reliable or unreliable, it all depends on some theories and numerical methods. We need to understand the principles of structural design and the assumptions on which the software is based before use, and the results depend on the accuracy of the designer's use of the program

Dear All, I found the following opinion about ETABS in another forum. Do you agree with it?

https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-know-if-my-ETABS-modelling-and-analysis-results-are-safe-in-any-way-What-specifications-should-I-check

I would highly recommend looking at RFEM from Dlubal, very fast to learn (you can look up a lot of tutorials on youtube), very intuitive and powerful.

It is depends on the problem you solved....

I recommend CSI programs i.e.

ETAB SAP AND SAFE..

also STAAD program

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For structural analysis and design of buildings, ETABS and Staad Pro are the widely used FEA softwere.

However, for specialized research ANSYS and ABAQUS are the best. You may also consider MIDAS, LUSAS, COMSOL, SAP etc.

It depends on types of problem to be solved. For nonlinear analysis, opensees or seismostruct will be good choice. For analysis and design of buildings mainly, Etabs, SAP or Staad.Pro are widely used. For bridge CSi Bridge is used. Other famous FEA softwares includes ANSYA, ABAQUS, etc. To consider soil-structure interaction, ABAQUS will be a good choice. For displacement based performance analysis Perform 3D can be used.

in my opinion, I believe that ABAQUS and MIDAS higher version has more options compared to other structural analysis and for the common task and simplicity, ETABS and SAP can be used also for other alternatives...

ETAB and SAP2000 are very good programs for analysis and design of Structures and also STAADPRO.

I think the best validation comes from the projects and industries that find specific analysis programs acceptable and economic. In the (US) nuclear industry, which requires QA and verification documentation, GT Strudl and STAAD.Pro are commonplace. In my current international fusion research project, ANSYS and STAAD.Pro (with RAM) are used for equipment support structures.

HILTI Profis is also used for embeds and baseplates. We have also used Robot (AutoDesk?) for buildings.

I agree with Dr Sanabria,

ANSYS very Good program for analysis of Structures, but we can not use it for design

Im using SAP2000 And ETABS for Analysis in my opinion, they are sufficient.

For Structural analysis there are many. SAP2000, ETABS, PROKON are some examples. When it comes to research level Ansys and Abacus are leading. But it's better not to use software for Structural design

@Madujith Sagara Chandra What do you mean by "it's better not to use software for Structural design"?

Aryan, I think he was referring to the fact that ANSYS and Abacus are primarily analysis software. STAAD can do both as it has a built-in library of structural shapes (properties) and does code checking (eg, per ANSI/AISC N690, for nuclear structures). It does have its limitations when you push the FEA envelope.

I would like to add that some software can handle multiple load combinations better than others. STAAD excels at this, as it can also combine load cases by means of SRSS or the Newmark method (eg, 100%X + 40%Y + 40%Z, etcetera ). This alone could be critical for choosing a worst case (economically, meaning in timely fashion) during the design process.

Staddpro and Abaqus

ETABS and Staad Pro are the widely used softwares for structural analysis and design of buildings.