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The Best Structural Design Software and Top 5 Best Software for Structural Analysis and Design - YouTube
Channel: Brendan Hasty
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today i'll be going through the main
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software used in the structural
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engineering filter
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if you stick around to the end i'll give
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my top five softwares that'll help
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improve your design workflow improve
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your design efficiencies
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and just make engineering plan enjoyable
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these are not the standard softwares
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you've heard before so please stick
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around at the end to find out what they
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are
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my name is brandon an instructional
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engineer based in australia and i
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produce videos that help grow your
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career both technically and
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professionally
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so if you do like that please subscribe
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there's a variety of software's out
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there and not every software is made
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best for its task so it's worth knowing
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what they are
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and what's the best way to try and
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utilize these softwares and
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these are generally breakdown into a
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number of different categories these are
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either lateral design
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slab design frame design or elemental
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design
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there is other softwares out there but
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these are more replacing hand
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computations and not really imparting
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the benefit of computational analysis
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so how about lateral design there's a
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software called etabs that is the main
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software used in industry today
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this is an fe analysis that allows you
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to model a whole building
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so you can design the slabs the columns
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and the walls
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etabs is relatively simple to use and
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all i use it for is
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exporting the lateral forces outside
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that structure
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i use other softwares to design the
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other element inside that structure
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all i'm really using this software for
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is to get the lateral forces out it's
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really where it shines
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another software that i use day in day
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out is wrapped in ram concept
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now what is wrapped rapt is really a
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simplified slab designs
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module that makes designing of concrete
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structures really simple
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it does both rc and pt design with a
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simple interface you quickly oversee
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where your stresses are
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where you need your reinforcement and
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how to play with tendons
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so through this i'm able to quickly
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iterate where my drapes should be by
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pulling them up or down and seeing
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how it's imparting inside the structure
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i generally do a couple of wrap runs
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before applying it to a more complicated
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software like ram concept
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ram concept is a program developed by
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bentley that allows for the 3d analysis
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of flat plate slabs
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he does both similar to wrap both post
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tensioning
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and rc design but it allows you to work
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inside that 3d space as you can see here
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we're spinning around a 3d model of side
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of structure
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so we're able to model steps and folds
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so we're able to drape
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drape our tendons through inside our
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structure it's really simple to use
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and really where you spend most of your
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time is both modeling
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the reinforcement and the
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post-tensioning inside your structure
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and setting up your design strips
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hence i said you first start off with
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wraps so you can have your first guess
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of what
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post-tensioning you need and by starting
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off with the simplified program like
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wrap
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you're able to check whether your model
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is behaving correctly as well
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where you listen to spending most of
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your time with a program like ramp
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concept you're setting up your design
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strips
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so if your design strips are not set up
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correctly you can really produce
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garbage results so where your column
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strips and middle strip should be
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is where you should be setting for
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design strips frame design
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there's a number of different softwares
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that can be utilized there's a micro
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strand stad
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space gas or skysiv i'll be mentioning
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this glossier later in this episode
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the one i'm currently going to mention
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now is space gas this is currently what
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i use quite a lot
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space case allows you to easily frame up
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a steel frame structure
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modeling all the portal frames sway
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frames and still
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still design so generally where do i use
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this type of software
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is in a side a still frame structure
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where your concrete structures which are
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relying on shear walls
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i generally use a program like etabs
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where these big steel frame structures
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which is where etabs doesn't model so
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well
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i'm generally using a program like this
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to model the behavior inside that
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structure
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this will not only allow you to design
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the members but also their connections
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as well
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when you need to draw more detail than
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else of a single element
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or the vibrational assessment of a side
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structure this is where
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strand 7 or sap comes into play sap is a
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program offered by
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csi and is really specific for that more
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detailed assessment oversized that he
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tabs which is general builder modelling
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sap allows you to model individual
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elements and really drill down on that
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inside the assessment
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similar to strand seven strand seven
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allows you to really drill down on how
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internal stress inside that structure so
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if you need to look at the stress inside
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an element or joint
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that's where strand seven really comes
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into play another program
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that is more elemental design is safe
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safe is more designing for your raft
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slabs
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it allows you to link up to the forces
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coming out of etabs to design that raft
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this is really where it comes into play
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is designing the rough supports as it
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allows for spring actions and liftoff
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loads
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with the move to a paperless design no
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list would be complete without
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mentioning bluebeam so
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where does bluebeam is a major pdf
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editor adopted by the industry today
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there's a number of cover features where
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you can utilize it to calculate areas
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you can do it to do counts on products
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you can also manipulate drawings to get
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our drawings
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sometimes you'll be doing editing in pdf
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to modify drawing that's already been
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released
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just so you've got comments on it you
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can modify that drawing to get answers
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back quickly
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now as promised i'm going to give my top
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five engineering softwares
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now number five is gossip this is a
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software i've just started playing
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around with
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so what is gossip it really replaces my
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space gas that i was talking about
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earlier
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so why do i replace this over space gas
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it allows you to have a cloud-based
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analysis
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of frame elements so if you know this
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critical answer inside a meeting you're
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able to utilize scholarship to get those
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answers quickly
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and through making an api call is you
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can automate this through
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say in excel or other programs to call
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those apis get the answers that you need
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skysiv allows you to design not only
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steel sections
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but also concrete sections as well and
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will also do
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basic wind design as well to a number of
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different codes
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another benefit of skysiv is that it's
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not really a black box like many other
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softwares are it allows you to drill
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down on the computations of every design
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as you can see here it's got full
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working examples of how they've got to
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the answers they've got to
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so what factors they've used out of the
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code and what type types of codes
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they've also used
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skyscraper also has the broad range of
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designs as i said earlier so you can do
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either timber design
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concrete design even steel design so
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that's some of the benefits you have
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from using this software
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and and some of the big aspects as i was
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saying is really that api
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and this not being the black blocks like
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many other softwares are
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number four now this is mathcad
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so where do i utilize mathcad this
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really replaces hand computations and
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where we should be doing a bulkier
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design
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mathcad should be getting more and more
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popular with the push to go paperless
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and as it is invaluable it is allows you
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to produce a dynamic spreadsheet
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that that you can see all the working
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out so as you can see here
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you've got every variable working across
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you so it's exactly like a hand
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computation in the way it's laid out
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so this is where i really receive any of
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those single calculations that you're
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doing so if you're just calculating a
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wall a column or floor is a singular
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element
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something like mathcad is better is that
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you need to work out what the answers
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are
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you work through by hand if you're
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displaying to someone they can actually
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work out the process you went through to
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get to that answer
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now a couple of things you need to know
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when you're starting to use
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mathcad that will help you out so if you
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need a greek symbol
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the command control g will change that
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letter into the equivalent greek symbol
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if you needed your subscript that's just
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control
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minus that will give you a subscript or
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forward slash that will be square root
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at the moment you can only do subscripts
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when you're defining a variable it
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doesn't allow you to do superscripts
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just something to watch out for when
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you're defining your variables
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when you need to design that variable
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you need to use colon
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you can not just as equal as that will
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equal the function that you're trying to
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equate to
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so to define that variable you write the
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variable four then use colon to define
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it
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so this program basically replaces a lot
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of different softwares that are out
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there
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that just do these single standalone
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answers
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but as it's not a black box as you've
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had to write it from scratch and laid it
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out efficiently
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you know exactly what's happening what
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the answers are and how you got there
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and it's really easy for someone else to
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check as well so if you're also trying
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to show off to your managers it also
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looks impressive because there's a very
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neat example of a computation so you can
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spend a little bit of time to make it
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look neat and impressive
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and then you can use it multiple times
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as it is a dynamic in nature
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number three now this is excel i feel
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that most people use excel incorrectly
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as i generally use it like as what i was
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mentioning that i use
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mathcad for as excel has cells in there
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they can be hidden you don't necessarily
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know what each cell is calculating so
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they can be errors inside your
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spreadsheet that
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is easily missed over so where should i
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utilize excel utilize excel
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for its big database so it allows you to
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pull data in from other areas
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and process that to other into other
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elements as well
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so where i utilize excel is both
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processing data in and out so using it
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as a database transfer
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but also for using it to prototype
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design workflows which i'll talk about
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later
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so people are using excel incorrectly so
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you can also benefit from utilizing
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the vba script through utilizing the vba
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script you can really unlock more of the
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power of computing
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through doing that mass calculations
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you're able to increase your design
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efficiencies through processing
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from from a design analysis software
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into excel
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so where do i see the bigger benefits in
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using excel it's from pulling the
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answers out of a design analysis
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software post processing and
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designing inside excel then pushing it
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out to a rivet type software
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now this is where the biggest problem is
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happening as you'll soon find out
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eventually you will break excel as
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you'll be going through that design
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workflow you pull so much data into
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excel
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you'll make it take so long to run for
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example i had one software where he ran
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and it took hours to run it came up with
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the right answer
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but if i've got to walk through a
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computer from for hours it's really the
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incorrect software to be used here
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so as i said earlier i use this to
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prototype
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my designs as if i see a design workflow
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that works really efficiently i can
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really drill down and build the
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interface out
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before spending a lot of time developing
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any other programs which i'll mention it
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later
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number two now this is rhino with
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grasshopper this is really where the joy
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of engineering occurs
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it's also a light way to move into
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programming as well
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so where's the benefit of rhino
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as you can see with rhino it's very much
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a way of
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transferring geometries between elements
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what it also allows you to do is also
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link up different element software so if
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you have a geometry coming out of one
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area
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you're able to post it post process
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through a program like
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rhino grasshopper there's also an
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edition that's coming out soon released
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by rhona which is called rhino inside
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what this allows you to do is link
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directly up to your ribbit model
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for those who don't know revit this is
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the main engineering software that we
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use for drafting purposes especially in
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the 3d space
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so you're able to grab that model that
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you've got from the architect and
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post all the geometries straight out of
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that model
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to get you your analysis to your
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analysis of as quick as possible
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what also allows you to do is link up a
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number of different software so if
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you're pulling answers out of one
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software into another
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because it's got different modules that
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people are built on you can grab these
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from this location
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one tip when you're using grass up with
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rhino he's going to a
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place called food for rhino now what
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this is
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it's this it's a forum where people have
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released
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either paid or free free to use modules
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that help you utilize the power of
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grasshopper more efficiently
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so it's a place to go you can get these
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modules you have to install and they
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have little elements in there
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as you can see it's really a soft way to
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generate
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into programming language as well as you
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got these little batteries as they call
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them which are these little modules that
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have inputs and outputs
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and you have the strings going from them
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so you can see the flow of data through
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the system
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and and again as it's not as it's not a
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single use sometimes it would be but a
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lot of time you can
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write scripts that would be used
[717]
multiple times over and over again
[719]
to get you better answers so you can
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spend a bit of time to make something a
[723]
bit more
[724]
user-friendly and make it more variable
[726]
across other projects because you can
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utilize it over and over again
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so as you can see here you can really
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pull out the geometries outside of
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structure
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passing geometry in from from a program
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called revit
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and passing it out to a design where
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it's really benefit here as well is when
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you need to show off your design to an
[742]
architect
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or someone that's not engineering based
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as you're able to use that graphic
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interface to explain the problems that
[748]
you're having with inside your structure
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there's really a powerful tool for both
[752]
displaying design problems
[754]
analyzing it and passing geometries in
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and out number one
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now this is python it's a programming
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language this is really a game changer
[762]
for structural engineers
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most people come across this is when
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they break excel they
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try to pull too much data through that
[770]
excel software
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it hasn't crashed but it's taken way too
[773]
long to run and say there's got to be
[774]
efficient way
[775]
so most people come across trying to do
[777]
a programming language
[778]
such as python because of the way that
[780]
they're trying to process data
[782]
from one example i had a program that
[784]
took hours and hours to run
[786]
i parted ported it to python over a
[788]
weekend
[789]
and that one process that was taking
[791]
hours to run was now seconds
[792]
this is really a benefit from where
[794]
python is driven from
[796]
it's a big data processing system
[799]
so it not only allows you to overcome
[801]
the bottlenecks of excel
[802]
you can also automate those repetitive
[804]
tasks so you've got something that's
[806]
going over and over again to check
[807]
something especially in iterative design
[809]
you can port that into a program like
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python
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python is also a software that you're
[814]
able to strap onto
[816]
programs like etabs as there is an api
[819]
call that you can program into python
[821]
to get out those repetitive tasks you
[823]
can pull the forces all the way out from
[825]
from your etabs
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port them into your design and even port
[828]
them straight out to a rivet type
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software
[831]
ram content is also about to come up
[832]
with an api that can be programmed
[834]
through python
[835]
so what this will allow us to do in the
[836]
future is do our load run downs
[839]
more efficiently through porting it
[841]
through that api and programming it out
[843]
to the other
[843]
situation now i'll go back to
[847]
my my design so there was one design
[849]
where i had an etabs design that we had
[851]
critical load cases
[852]
so what i did it what i used python 4
[855]
was to find the most efficient design
[857]
i i needed on one tower i had 72 win
[860]
cases
[861]
so if i had to calculate more think
[862]
about all the processing power i needed
[864]
so in python i was able to filter out
[866]
all these critical cases
[868]
design it up into the critical loads and
[870]
just
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really drill it down to the critical
[872]
cases for my design there
[874]
thus reducing the amount of computing
[875]
power that i actually needed now some of
[877]
my tips for trying to learn
[879]
learn a program like python firstly try
[882]
and build standalone modules so just
[884]
for that element just to do one thing so
[885]
whether it's just calculating
[887]
the moment capacity of something it's
[888]
working out where your reinforcement is
[890]
build standalone modules so they can
[892]
build on top of each other what this
[893]
also allows you to do if you're building
[894]
out these modules
[896]
you can pull these out and use them in
[897]
other areas as well there's a really
[899]
good form out there called stack
[900]
overflow as well
[902]
what this allows you to do is to ask
[905]
questions out there it's an amazing
[906]
community that will try and help you out
[908]
most time you may be able to find your
[909]
answer without even asking it so if you
[911]
get stuck
[911]
if you're searching on for stack
[912]
overflow to find those answers if the
[914]
answer is not out there
[915]
you can always ask inside that forum
[917]
you'll find someone that will really
[918]
there to help you out it's really a
[920]
great community of open source software
[922]
and people are always willing to help
[924]
and when you're starting out as well
[926]
there's another program called colabs
[928]
this is offered by google it's a free
[930]
cloud based
[931]
python interface for both writing and
[933]
running scripts
[935]
as this cloud-based if you're out and
[936]
about you can still run it if need be if
[938]
you've written it
[939]
efficiently and collabs also allows to
[941]
have multiple people working on the same
[943]
script at the same time
[945]
so you can collaborate more easily
[947]
especially across space which is even
[948]
more important in today's society
[951]
another area which i strongly recommend
[953]
if you're getting into a cider
[954]
programming language
[955]
is looking at version control there is
[957]
services out there like github that
[959]
allows you to do this
[960]
i'm sure if you've written a lot of
[962]
excel design sheets you've always come
[963]
across this
[964]
where's where you've updated the excel
[965]
sheet but you potentially haven't
[966]
updated it somewhere so you're always
[968]
coming back to try and find that updated
[970]
spreadsheet
[970]
and sometimes when you do that update
[972]
you have broken something so thus you
[974]
need to revert back
[975]
and you have that pain of saving over
[977]
that one design spreadsheet and instead
[978]
of versioning it properly
[980]
where github allows you to roll back
[982]
that change
[984]
so really look at version and control so
[986]
when you're just starting out
[988]
yes i would focus you towards excel so
[990]
you can get a feel of how you play and
[992]
manipulate data
[993]
but i would encourage you to try and
[994]
learn more like a programming language
[996]
like python
[997]
as it really will unlock the pro
[999]
processing capacities of your computer
[1002]
now as i said i use excel to try and
[1003]
prototype those design workflows to
[1005]
manipulate and play around so i can
[1007]
throw it to other people quite easily
[1009]
through like a beta type situation or an
[1011]
alpha as you
[1012]
as you might like to call it where they
[1015]
play around with it see whether it
[1016]
breaks or whether whether i like it
[1018]
where they don't
[1019]
before i spend the time to programming
[1021]
it in a program like python
[1023]
and python is really where all the
[1024]
efficiencies happen in excel
[1026]
as it reduces those repetitive tasks it
[1028]
allows you to pull those designs and
[1030]
process data allows you to copy from one
[1032]
area and process
[1033]
out the other it's really where you can
[1035]
start to enjoy engineering
[1037]
as it reduces those repetitive tasks you
[1039]
can spend more time on the things you
[1040]
like
[1041]
spending more time on those critical
[1042]
design elements such as sheer walls or
[1045]
or outriggers or mega column designs
[1047]
focusing where you should be spending
[1048]
your time instead of those tasks that
[1050]
are just time consuming
[1051]
so what do you think about the software
[1052]
i mentioned in the top five
[1055]
that i have do you have any do you think
[1057]
should also be in the top five
[1058]
please comment below and if you did like
[1060]
this video please like comment subscribe
[1062]
look forward to seeing you next week
[1066]
that's number three
[1068]
[Music]
[1071]
number three
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