einsteino:
I have been getting lots of pm asking, what software should a young Civil/Structural Engineer learn?
That would depend on a number of factors. if you work in an organised firm, the firm would narrow down your options as it would already have purchased multi-user license for a software, it is either you have proficiency in that software or you learn fast. Also you would likely have a designation that narrows your duties to a specific subject area.

On the other hand if you work for smaller firms or freelance, you would likely be allowed to choose what suits you and wouldnt get the luxury of specialising in a subject area. Nonetheless, your considerations should cover support, ease of use, intuitiveness of User interface, functions/features, learning curve, cost of software and most importantly the nature of the project at hand.

Civil engineering softwares can be grouped into the following;

Building design software: these usually are only able to handle buildings and are easier to use and comes with rudimentary detailing features. In this category you have Orion, protastructures, tekla structural designer, Etabs etc.

General Analysis/Design software: These are versatile software, they are flexible and leaves you to conceptualize whatever you fancy, while it handles the computation. You would have to be well grounded in analysis and design concepts to correctly use these. E.g STAAD PRO, Robot Structural Analysis, Midas, SAP 2000, SAFE, STAAD FOUNDATION.

Detailing suites: Most Engrs hate detailing, it is time demanding and sucks! even worse, an average joe wouldnt appreciate the effort/technicality it takes. You may be saying "but orion automatically generates details, tekla structural designer does too"..the tuth is you wouldnt dare submit their detail drawings without painstaking revising and editing it, except you dont know what you are doing or work in an environment where anything goes. atimes you would find certain details from it are just not usable and doesn't meet the standards of either your employer or client. This is where detailing suites come in, they are bespoke softwares that lets you detail in 2D whatever you wish, however you wish with the aid of intelligent codefied macros. example of these are Allplan, Cads RC, Autocad stŕuctural detailing.

Building information modelling software: These are 3D modelling suites that contains parametric data of elements of the project you have modelled, but have no capability of analysis/design. Its mainly for exporting/integrating with analysis software. they also have detailing features and are mainly used for steel projects e.g Tekla, Revit Structure, Advance steel etc.

other civil/Bespoke software: These are special need software, you may never need them depending on your career path. E.g
SACS, EPASWMM, Civil 3D, Water Gem, EPA NET, PLAXIS, ANSYS, Mstower, Tstower, All pile, CSI Bridge, PHA-PRO etc.


if you are a neophyte to CAD, start with the Building design softwares, a popular but unwise choice is Orion, you would be better off with Etabs or Tekla structural designer. when you have come up, get your teeth into Robot/Staad pro/Sap 2000 and pick either Cads Rc or ASD for your detailing needs.

to try most of the softwares out for free as a student, simply visit their website and register with your university email, you would be granted an educational license, at least for most of them.

Would learning a software make you a great engr? The answer is No! softwares only help you automate repetitive and redudant process, you need a very good grasp of the theories and principles of engineering, marrying that with proficiency in a powerful software and insights from seasoned engineers would make you a better and more productive engineer. A very good book to start with is "Three Dimensional Static and Dynamic Analysis of Structures"

austyne22ex:
Thank you sir! God bless U richly for this...but one quick question, Y did u refer to Orion as an "unwise" choice?

einsteino:

Ehm I am no sir, just some dude.. To answer your question, let me put it this way, Orion is what you learn as a beginner; it is a pretty decent software for basic RCD. but you dont want to be a beginner, you wouldnt also be employed to design basic structures only, and you likely would be doing STEEL too. so yeah, you would need to get your teeth into ROBOT, SAP2000, STAAD PRO etc. By the way Orion takes no effort to learn,requires very little structural and modelling knowledge to even use it when you compare it to the world that stuffs like ROBOT would throw you into. I figure when you need to switch, you would find it daunting cos you would be so used to simplistic Orion.

My biggest problem with Orion is that it shoves you from the actual structural concepts that your competence depends on and doesn't do much either. When you move to an analysis software, be it robot, sap2000 etc. like you would have to, you would find yourself asking do i apply a release here? what directions should this be released in? what load combination? do i consider out of plane buckling for this? you know all the structural concepts and criteria that you'd have to deal with on a project, would stare you in the face and Orion cant help you out.

Also when it comes to features, Orion is a very poor choice. ROBOT has a CFD based wind simulator that allows you get a more accurate wind load than conventional method would, you also have FEA, interoperability etc. I would rather ask one to learn tekla structural designer than orion. oops by the way CSC the developer of Orion, sold out to Tekla, so orion is dead now, what you have now is Tekla Structural Designer.

coolestchris:
how can I learn all this software effectively

micxwell:

You are so on point bro. I use to be one who uses CSC ORION. First I discovered that you'll lack behind on so many things you need to know as a design Engineer. Orion is shallow. I fell in love with SAP 2000 and ETABS. Ever since I started learning them, I feel like using hand calculations on many occasions, but EXCEL helps there though. Orion makes one lazy and shallow.

Gaspardd:
Civil engr reporting but i súck in all of those things.

Horlamidei:


Me too.......i only know how to use AutoCAD.......so sad of me!

hakeem4:
you could learn most of these softwares easily

Horlamidei:


How?

einsteino:

Ehm I am no sir, just some dude.. To answer your question, let me put it this way, Orion is what you learn as a beginner; it is a pretty decent software for basic RCD. but you dont want to be a beginner, you wouldnt also be employed to design basic structures only, and you likely would be doing STEEL too. so yeah, you would need to get your teeth into ROBOT, SAP2000, STAAD PRO etc. By the way Orion takes no effort to learn,requires very little structural and modelling knowledge to even use it when you compare it to the world that stuffs like ROBOT would throw you into. I figure when you need to switch, you would find it daunting cos you would be so used to simplistic Orion.

My biggest problem with Orion is that it shoves you from the actual structural concepts that your competence depends on and doesn't do much either. When you move to an analysis software, be it robot, sap2000 etc. like you would have to, you would find yourself asking do i apply a release here? what directions should this be released in? what load combination? do i consider out of plane buckling for this? you know all the structural concepts and criteria that you'd have to deal with on a project, would stare you in the face and Orion cant help you out.

Also when it comes to features, Orion is a very poor choice. ROBOT has a CFD based wind simulator that allows you get a more accurate wind load than conventional method would, you also have FEA, interoperability etc. I would rather ask one to learn tekla structural designer than orion. oops by the way CSC the developer of Orion, sold out to Tekla, so orion is dead now, what you have now is Tekla Structural Designer.

einsteino:

Ehm I am no sir, just some dude.. To answer your question, let me put it this way, Orion is what you learn as a beginner; it is a pretty decent software for basic RCD. but you dont want to be a beginner, you wouldnt also be employed to design basic structures only, and you likely would be doing STEEL too. so yeah, you would need to get your teeth into ROBOT, SAP2000, STAAD PRO etc. By the way Orion takes no effort to learn,requires very little structural and modelling knowledge to even use it when you compare it to the world that stuffs like ROBOT would throw you into. I figure when you need to switch, you would find it daunting cos you would be so used to simplistic Orion.

My biggest problem with Orion is that it shoves you from the actual structural concepts that your competence depends on and doesn't do much either. When you move to an analysis software, be it robot, sap2000 etc. like you would have to, you would find yourself asking do i apply a release here? what directions should this be released in? what load combination? do i consider out of plane buckling for this? you know all the structural concepts and criteria that you'd have to deal with on a project, would stare you in the face and Orion cant help you out.

Also when it comes to features, Orion is a very poor choice. ROBOT has a CFD based wind simulator that allows you get a more accurate wind load than conventional method would, you also have FEA, interoperability etc. I would rather ask one to learn tekla structural designer than orion. oops by the way CSC the developer of Orion, sold out to Tekla, so orion is dead now, what you have now is Tekla Structural Designer.

wasiy:
Poor me, need to Start to learn all this, as am preparing to registered as a civil Engr, in water, but will love to learn structural detailing and design
Engr Hakeem help your brother, kindly drop your contact pls, 07038194394

chomchom1:
Op pls create whatapp group for civil/ st please...

einsteino:
I have been getting lots of pm asking, what software should a young Civil/Structural Engineer learn?
That would depend on a number of factors. if you work in an organised firm, the firm would narrow down your options as it would already have purchased multi-user license for a software, it is either you have proficiency in that software or you learn fast. Also you would likely have a designation that narrows your duties to a specific subject area.

On the other hand if you work for smaller firms or freelance, you would likely be allowed to choose what suits you and wouldnt get the luxury of specialising in a subject area. Nonetheless, your considerations should cover support, ease of use, intuitiveness of User interface, functions/features, learning curve, cost of software and most importantly the nature of the project at hand.

Civil engineering softwares can be grouped into the following;

Building design software: these usually are only able to handle buildings and are easier to use and comes with rudimentary detailing features. In this category you have Orion, protastructures, tekla structural designer, Etabs etc.

General Analysis/Design software: These are versatile software, they are flexible and leaves you to conceptualize whatever you fancy, while it handles the computation. You would have to be well grounded in analysis and design concepts to correctly use these. E.g STAAD PRO, Robot Structural Analysis, Midas, SAP 2000, SAFE, STAAD FOUNDATION.

Detailing suites: Most Engrs hate detailing, it is time demanding and sucks! even worse, an average joe wouldnt appreciate the effort/technicality it takes. You may be saying "but orion automatically generates details, tekla structural designer does too"..the tuth is you wouldnt dare submit their detail drawings without painstaking revising and editing it, except you dont know what you are doing or work in an environment where anything goes. atimes you would find certain details from it are just not usable and doesn't meet the standards of either your employer or client. This is where detailing suites come in, they are bespoke softwares that lets you detail in 2D whatever you wish, however you wish with the aid of intelligent codefied macros. example of these are Allplan, Cads RC, Autocad stŕuctural detailing.

Building information modelling software: These are 3D modelling suites that contains parametric data of elements of the project you have modelled, but have no capability of analysis/design. Its mainly for exporting/integrating with analysis software. they also have detailing features and are mainly used for steel projects e.g Tekla, Revit Structure, Advance steel etc.

other civil/Bespoke software: These are special need software, you may never need them depending on your career path. E.g
SACS, EPASWMM, Civil 3D, Water Gem, EPA NET, PLAXIS, ANSYS, Mstower, Tstower, All pile, CSI Bridge, PHA-PRO etc.


if you are a neophyte to CAD, start with the Building design softwares, a popular but unwise choice is Orion, you would be better off with Etabs or Tekla structural designer. when you have come up, get your teeth into Robot/Staad pro/Sap 2000 and pick either Cads Rc or ASD for your detailing needs.

to try most of the softwares out for free as a student, simply visit their website and register with your university email, you would be granted an educational license, at least for most of them.

Would learning a software make you a great engr? The answer is No! softwares only help you automate repetitive and redudant process, you need a very good grasp of the theories and principles of engineering, marrying that with proficiency in a powerful software and insights from seasoned engineers would make you a better and more productive engineer. A very good book to start with is "Three Dimensional Static and Dynamic Analysis of Structures"