concrete software

huangyhg

concrete software
what are the engineers using for concrete design software?  i need both column, beam, and two way slab design software and intergration into one model. i am familiar with ram concrete and ram concept and i am happy with this combination but apparently it is not used much outside of the us, particularly in the uae.  i am leaning towards etabs and safe but i would like to hear what the opinions are for this and other software.

i'm an australian engineer and my office is using rapt, which is a widely acclaimed design package in this country...it doesn't intergrate the building into one model, but i believe the developers are working on a revit link for future releases.
i'm a relativley inexperienced engineer but i have found that simplifying the structure into 2d analysis helps engineer understand on how the structure behaves in terms of following through load paths...and the model is less likely to develop an instability thorugh incorrect modelling. however three dimensional analyses are important to obtain actions such as torsion in edge beams.
are you presently working in the uae.  
im tanzanian and im using prokon, its good but it works with 2d calculations. its a good program! try it.
modeling structure is good for very experienced engineers, it not good at all for juniour engineers, you reduce your thinking. and you become like a computer programmer and not a thinking engineer.
regards
practicing engineering is hard than studying it!!!
i prefer to design concrete beams by hand.  i use pcacol for columns.
i do use ram advanse for the analysis for beams (typically - obviously i wouldn't do this for a simple span beam, but for a retaining wall with a trapezoidal load i do), then just pull out the shears and moments and design by hand.  i then also check deflection by hand (again if it isn't an unusual case).
i created a spreadsheet to take in copy/paste data from risa and design the shear and flexural steel of a beam.

rapt, the australian software suggested by asixth above, is the standard for australia, and is available for the other major codes.  it is for concrete analysis and design only, applies to slabs, beams, etc. and to reinforced and full or partial tensioning.  good gear, produced by engineers who understand concrete.
does anyone know if rapt is approved in the uae?  anyone have experience with prokon?
for status of rapt in the uae, i suggest you email rapt.  just google the website where you will find the contact information.
mauleflyer,
yes, rapt is approved for use in uae. it is used by many consultants/pt companies there and also by companies in uk, asia and australia designing for uae projects.
i completely agree with godfreymgwasa, modeling structures in three dimensions is not only for highly experienced structural engineers, but also for high end computer savvy folks who understand what the computer is doing to the forces on the structure, to cite only one aspect.
i think the best approach to computers and structural engineering is to first understand the problems in paper, pencil, code and calculator an then compare your paper and pencil results, and the computer output.
i agree w/ rarebug -
i think it goes without saying that we should be able to compute by hand before moving to a computer model - otherwise how can we have any idea what we are doing as far as imputting and using results?  of course there will be load situations that will be too tedious or difficult to do by hand so it's nice to be able to use fem's or other.
as far as software goes, are you concerned about using ram elsewhere because they are not used to seeing it or because it doesn't have the codes that you need?  if you can design using a program that you are familiar with and that you trust, then that is the way to go.
i have been doing a lot of work in the middle east recently and we have used ibc 2006 for all of it so our software has been fine.  i just recently reviewed some work by another engineer over there and found their computer printouts from etabs to be pretty good. i don't know anything about using it though.