Structure analysis is incredibly important both in the construction industry and civil engineering. First of all, it facilitates the construction process by making the planning stage much quicker. Second, it saves resources and creates a surplus that can either reduce the cost of the project or be redirected towards improving the project. Either way, it goes without saying that a structural analysis reduces the margin of error, which can help avert both accidents and avoidable repairs and remodeling project in the future. With that in mind and without further ado, here are several most efficient structure analysis and design software for you to use.
1. MS Excel
While it is true that there are so many specialized tools out there, the fact that you can do quite a bit in MS Excel is impressive, to say the very least. Namely, this is a platform that you can use in order to make a table of comparison and it’s fairly easy to make graphs and other visual projections by using it. Due to the fact that you, most likely, already have the tool installed both on your phone and your PC and already know how to use it, the adjustment period shouldn’t take longer than several minutes or hours.
2. AutoCAD
When it comes to structural design, it’s incredibly important that you find something that can allow you to perform this analysis next to a visual model of the actual structure. The reason why AutoCAD gets at the very top of this list is due to the fact that it’s an incredibly beginner-friendly tool. Online stores like CAD Group have a lot of different versions and alternatives to this tool to offer and, if you have the budget and patience for it, you can get a more specialized tool. Needless to say, this provides you with a greater efficiency and accuracy.
3. MX Road
This particular tool is specifically designed for civil engineers, due to the fact that it’s built with the design roads in mind. This is also the main reason we decided to include it to this list, due to the fact that certain constructions and public projects may need a more specialized approach. By using this particular software, you can rest assured that every aspect of road design is covered, which reduces the margin of error by quite a bit. Outside of this if you have a more diverse specter of project types, an investment in this particular tool may not give you a great ROI.
4. Revit Structure
At the very end, if you need a holistic BIM software capable of making all of these analytical and design actions in one place, you needn’t look further than Revit Structure. The advantage of this tool lies in the fact that it provides you of full analysis and documentation as soon as you’re done projecting the structure in the design section. This means that you get an immediate analysis of the situation that gets automatically updated with every single change that you introduce. In the long run, this saves quite a bit of time and efforts, which was the main objective all along.
In conclusion
In the end, it all depends on your specific needs, your budget and your previous experience with these digital tools. Either way, this is absolutely necessary for a scenario where you want to get the most out of the project, as well as increase the efficiency of this entire system. At the very end, these tools are sometimes available on their own, while in some scenarios, they’re cheaper when purchased in a bundle. This too is something worth exploring prior to making a purchase.
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