you can get a 2 hour free trial of STAAD and then rent it for as little as $15 for 24 hours unlimited use. The free demo CD with tutorials is probably the best way to learn the commands but once you learn the basic program if you are an infrequent user the online rental is a good deal. The problem with the demo is that you are limited to six members in your structure.
I currently use STAAD/PRO 2001. The web site also has STAAD/Pro 2002. I am not sure about STAAD/Pro 3.1 but I believe it is just an older version that was used prior to 2001. Years before that I used STAAD III. The STAAD III that I used didn't have much of a graphical interface. You couldn't put in members by graphical input. You put in most of the commands and data by typing it in. REI use to have an internet connection where you could rent STAAD III and only paid for the computer time when you made a run. That went away when web4engineers opened up their web page offering the newer versions of STAAD and other programs.
I have never used STRUCT.ETC. STAAD.ETC is available on the web4engineers site at $7.00 for 24 hours and the writeup on what the program does. I haven't ever used it.
and there is a big icon on the startup page that says "STAAD Pro Tutorials". The one I just looked at wasn't interactive it was screen prints but it does take you through the steps. There was a whole page of listed tutorials for STAAD/Pro. A little research on google may find you some other sources.
I have been using STAAD for nearly 15 years. I was trained on using MIT STRUDL before that. I found the transition to be very easy.
The REI offers classes (STAAD certifications) all over the country. I suggest that you attend one of them if you never used the program before.
I am a strong advocate of engineers only use software that they have strong knowledge not only in the input, output reading. The knowledge of the theory and does theory commands mean.
they have the entire documentation online. Their is a category called Tutorials in that help file which you can follow. They also have a lot of Web-based tutorials as well.
