Analyzing Structural Drawings and Course Study on STAAD.Pro

Structural design is the systematic review of the stability, robustness, and rigidity of structures. Structural analysis and design are necessary for developing a structure that's potent enough to resist all applied loads without collapse. A software that helps structural engineers in this endeavor is STAAD.Pro.

If you're keen on designing and analyzing structural drawings with STAAD.Pro, take a look at these basics to get started.

 

What Is Structural Analysis?

Structural analysis is the study of behavior or effects on a structure when subjected to actions of external forces. Forces comprise various types such as seismic loads, dead loads, imposed loads, and many more.

To perform structural analysis, we implement various tools of basic and advanced mechanics. Some methods that we follow include: 

• Equilibrium Laws
• Conservation of Mass and Energy
• Energy Theorems
• Slope Deflection Method

These methods are profoundly quantitative and analytical in nature.

 

What Is Structural Design?

Structural design is discovering the right sections of structural components to bear the forces and loads we subject them to without inflicting damage. Some structural designs include: 

• Beams
• Columns
• Slabs
• Disc plates
• Bracing
• Bolts
• Stiffeners
• Welds

 

Why Do We Need Structural Design?

 

We might wonder that this subject did not have any traces of existence in the medieval eras; however, structures and monuments from those eras have withstood the test of time, thanks to the fundamentals of design.

Although we are now in a different time period, the reasons why we require the aid of structural designing remain just as critical: 

1. It is a core subject.
2. It reinforces the buildings with extra safety and integrity.
3. It makes the construction economically feasible by knowing the precise amount of materials required.

 

Applications

Structural design and analytics are used across various domains that include:

• Steel and Metals industry
• Power Sector
• Material Handling and Mining
• Automobile and food industry
• Real Estate
• Commercial Complexes
• Infrastructures like flyovers, bridges, and airports

 

What Is STAAD.Pro?

 

STAAD.Pro is an analysis and design tool used for structural designing in civil engineering. It is a very renowned software used across the globe in sectors such as colleges, individual professionals, and various other firms.

STAAD.Pro finds its most common uses in structural consultancy companies. The software is immensely versatile and widely implemented for analysis and design on an extensive scale. We can design beams, slabs, columns, and many other structures conveniently with STAAD.Pro tool.

 

Reasons for STAAD.Pro's Popularity

Here are the reasons why professionals prefer to work on structural design with STAAD.Pro:

1. The software is user-friendly and has a graphical interface for convenient interaction.
2. STAAD.Pro's Editor has a Command Interface, making it very useful for customizing models at a quick pace with high efficiency.
3. This software is economically feasible, as the yearly subscription fee costs about ₹1,25,000 with an AMC of ₹27,000 per year while other software charges ₹8-9 lakhs subscription fee each year.
4. STAAD.Pro renders effective optimization and support for primitive hardware configurations.

 

Course Content

Here are the contents of the course that we would be studying -

1. STAAD.Pro at the Fundamental Level: You would gain expertise on ways to use STAAD.Pro at the ground level.
2. STAAD.Pro at the Expert Level: After acing the ground level of STAAD.Pro, you would then learn to use the software on a professional scale.
3. Essential Concepts and Theories of Analysis and Design: Knowledge of STAAD.Pro alone would not help you create advanced drawings. Thus, it's necessary to learn about the fundamentals of analysis and design.
4. Codes and Standards (Indian, American, European): Designing follows the American or European standards, while the oil and gas industry implements the American standard.
5. Industrial Norms and Standards: You would study the default standards and guidelines that you must follow while working on a construction site.
6. Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets: Designs are convenient to create on Excel spreadsheets as it can save you the time of rendering the same design again for a different project by allowing you to copy the entire project and only tweak the inputs.
7. Live Examples and Technical Reasoning: The course would teach you about the objectives of learning structural analysis through live examples and reasoning for enhanced retention.
8. Industrial Steel Buildings, Sheds, and Frame Structures: This covers trestles, girders, and many more.
9. Case Study: To check your implementation ability and your grasp on the course topics.

 

Job Roles (Entry Level)

Structural Design and Analysis is a core subject in Civil Engineering. Thus, it is natural for us to anticipate decent jobs and roles offered in various sectors.

Some of these job posts include:

 

• Employed at the Grassroots Level

These jobs are entry-level jobs that offer posts such as a junior engineer or an assistant engineer. Your job would be to assist the designers and draftspersons in preparing the final drawing for the infrastructure.

Your superiors would provide you with inputs in the form of drawings from various departments such as electrical, architectural, or mechanical. The layouts could be of an electrical building or compressor building.

By studying these drawings, you would learn the data paramount to constructing a robust building and search for any errors or shortcomings.

 

• Study and Report Structural Issues

Your job would be to study and analyze these drawings and realize all the data required for construction and fill any missing pieces of data by gathering information from various sources.

If any issues regarding the structural design were to pertain, you would have to approach your superiors to provide you with the necessary information such as the dimensions, elevation of the structure, and design.

Provided the infrastructure requires some equipment or extra material to facilitate its construction, your job would be to realize the amount of that material required and ensure its judicial implementation. 

You would receive most of these fundamental insights from either electrical or mechanical departments.

 

• Provide Design Inputs for Drawing Preparation

Once you have received all the data needed to facilitate further construction, your job would be to apply the concepts and analysis studied in your course.

You would work on structural design with STAAD.Pro as well as Excel spreadsheets to deduce necessary variables. You would provide the design inputs to the draftspersons or designers who would then use AUTOCAD or other tools to prepare the final drawings.

The design inputs provided by you to your superiors would include the sizes of the beams, columns, or foundations. You would have to develop hand-sketches to deduce all these parameters.

Once the designers send you the final drawings and layout of the building, your ultimate job would be to test and corroborate the final design by checking if the markings are all right, the dimensions are correct, and the structure of the sections are error-free.

 

Final Words

If you're considering a career in structural engineering, a hands-on course is the best way to get started and learn the ropes. Get yourself enrolled in the program provided by Skill-Lync on Structural Design with STAAD.Pro and upgrade your skills today!

 

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