STAAD Pro 2001 and Guyed Structure Design

[UWmad]

STAAD Pro 2001 has just released their latest version to the public. Has anyone had experience using this version of the software with guyed stack designs? Research Engineers indicates that the software now handle guy wires through non-linear analysis. Additionally, the software also allows stack designs to remain stable even after the guy wires are made tension only members. This improvement has finally eliminated the issue of guy wires taking compression in previous versions of STAAD.

My findings have shown a substantial difference in the outcome of the design using the new STAAD Pro vs the Older versions.

What are your opinions? Is Staad Pro 2001 output realistic for guyed stack design?

 

[meca]

I have not used the latest version of STAAD Pro, but I have used STAAD Pro 2000. I am somewhat skeptical of Research Engineers claims, because I have seen them make similar claims in previous versions of their software.

My biggest issue is with the non-linear analysis, which they have told me on several occasions that their software would support. In the prior versions they calculate the cable stiffness based upon the pretension, and then the remainder of the analysis is performed using that calculated stiffness. This is not a non-linear analysis, and I would be curious to see if they have truly corrected this problem.

As a point of reference, I have just added a Guy Wire supported stack design program to my website (

http://www.mecaconsulting.com).

You can download a demo for FREE, and compare to STAAD Pro 2001 results. I would be interested to hear what you find out. I would do this myself but I am no longer a STAAD User.

 

[QAQC]

Your are correct. STAAD continues to assume that cable stifness is constant and does not change with cable deformations nor cable stress.

 

[meca]

QAQC...Are you using STAAD Pro?

 

[QAQC]

meca: No, not in production, but yes to compare its solutions with other programs. Results? Solutions often different than those produced by very high quality structural software.