recommendations for programs to design steel tube trusses

huangyhg

recommendations for programs to design steel tube trusses.
i am looking for recommendations for an easy to use and inexpensive program or spreadsheet to check steel tube truss design as well as the overall building design.  i saw a thread from '05 (
could you elaborate a bit?
what do you mean by "check" steel tube truss design?  are you taking an existing tube truss and verifying that it meets certain code design strengths?  which code?  aisc? british?  canadian?  other?
also, what sort of budget are you looking at (i.e. what is "inexpensive" to you)?

hi bigswedeco
there are many eigenvalue matrix solution software out there.  i use both staadpro and the ies visualanalysis suite for differing reasons.  staadpro has become the industry standard...god only knows why, but it does do a lot of things and gets the job done.  most engineers that i know have a love-hate relationship with this software.   ok...mostly hate, but we still keep coming back to it for the nostalgia.  this program can be found on the bentley website and costs about $4,000.  you should be aware that an annual maintenance (extortion) fee is part of their revenue model, which is about $800. per year.  this will allow you to install the software on more than one computer and transfer the license between machines through internet switching.  we have had many "glitches" and slow support with regard to this new license transfer method however.  i only say this so you know what you would be getting into.
visualanalysis doesn't have quite as many bells and whistles as staadpro, but for 90% of our work, it's fine.  the thing i like most about it is that model generation is the fastest of any software i've worked with so far.  the base cost is about $3,000. the program will analyze and design with code checking for material types such as structural steel(including hss shapes), concrete, timber, and even cold formed steel.  the downside is that the software is not quite as stable as other packages out there.  i think this is the fault of the wonderful windows platform however in all fairness, but again, you should know that this frustration does exist.  they have a fully functional 30 day demo at
quote:
ok...mostly hate, but we still keep coming back to it for the nostalgia.
what's this "we" kemo sabe?  i never went back.
i've used staad, strudl-pro (similar to gt strudl), ram and risa.  also tried out test runs on robot and avansee.  i guess i don't know what you mean by "odd model generation method" in risa.  using either graphical input or spreadsheet input in risa is vastly faster and more intuitive than the old batch files you'd have to build in staad (maybe that's dating me a bit).  r in risa stands for rapid and it has always been, for me, the easiest and fastest program to input.  
but it's what i use most often so i'm sure there's some bias there.  for truss analysis you'd want the risa 2d product most likely.

jae
my apologies if you or other risa users were offended by my model generation opinion.  i've used risa on several projects when our clients demanded it.  it is indeed a good general use structural program.  however, having also used many other stiffness matrix programs over more years than i care to count, i simply found risa's model generation a little different now than it was back in the 90's as well as several other graphically based software packages i've operated.  this doesn't mean that i wouldn't recommend risa in any way , just that there is a slight learning curve to become comfortable with it, if one is used to the other packages on the market.  
i'm certainly not going to attempt to defend staadpro, even though its graphical model generation has strained to catch up with other software on the market.  i have to use it to design and analyze railroad bridges, since our clients demand it and that it seems to be the only software that has a predictable and transparent moving load generator that keeps wheels with multiple axles in aligned as they travel over the bridge.  several other software packages envelope moving loads, but without sufficient transparency for checking while others group wheels to produce the largest forces in   
no offense taken at all...   
ram advanse..... easy to use and very affordable.
i like risa - very easy to use and somewhat intuitive.  you can load up any section you want...
ram advanse...i second this suggested program.  it took me very little time to learn it.  each model generated took me far less time to finish than with staad (ack...update=glitch hunt...no love for me when it comes to staad), strucad, or risa.
ram advanse has by far the best graphical user interface of all the general fe programs i've used before.  it is so easy to generate a model along with loads  it has a truss generation module that would help you out a lot.