30 Dec 2021

What is STAAD Pro and STAAD Pro Use in Civil Engineering | Ekeeda

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What is STAAD Pro and STAAD Pro Use in Civil Engineering?


If you’re from the field of Civil engineering, it is very rare to find that you haven’t heard about STAAD Pro software in your academic or professional life. There are so many people who heard about this software; however, they don’t have much knowledge of it. Therefore, our blog will discuss everything about STAAD Pro software, its features, capabilities, advantages, limitations, and most importantly its use in Civil Engineering.
About STAAD Pro Software
STAAD Pro full form stands for Structural Analysis and Designing Program. STAAD Pro is a structural analysis & design computer program that was being developed by Research Engineers International (REL) at Yorba Linda, California in 1997. Today, STAAD Pro is one of the popular and widely used software for structural analysis and design across the globe by Civil engineers. It supports all types of various steel, concrete, and timber design codes. Using STAAD Pro, civil engineers can design any type of structure, and later share the synchronized model data amongst the entire design team. It ensures on-time and budget-friendly completion of structures and designs related to steel, concrete, timber, aluminium, and cold-formed steel projects, irrelevant to the complexities. STAAD Pro helps structural engineers to automate their tasks by removing the tedious and long procedures of the manual methods. It allows civil engineers to analyze and design various types of structures on virtual platforms. Structural engineering firms, consultancies, various departments of construction companies, and government firms use STAAD pro extensively.
Today, many online platforms and apps provide certification in STAAD Pro that gives complete knowledge on this designing software. To learn this dynamic software, you don’t need a special degree or something; however, having a Civil Engineering is a must to pursue this course. It’s better to do some research and check the reviews and ratings before you enrol for this course online.
Suppose you plan to make a career in structural designing; however, you don’t have sufficient time to attend traditional offline classes. In this case, you can opt for an online certification program from a reputable institute or tech educational platform for STAAD Pro training.  It is really helpful for individuals who are working as professional or full-time students. Online training will offer the flexibility to learn at your own pace and convenient location. You decide your learning hours and the best time suitable for it.  If you want to reap all the benefits of STAAD Pro software, make sure you choose a reputable institute, app, or online platform in India. It should have a proven track record of producing industry-ready players with cutting-edge skills and professional knowledge.
Ekeeda – India’s leading tech educational platform with years of experience in providing various high-quality academic and professional courses offers STAAD Pro certification online for aspirants. Learn at the comfort of your home. Take a trial today –
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Once you complete the certification with Ekeeda, you can confidently design structures anywhere in the nation or world using over 80 international codes, and help your team reduce the burden of learning various software applications.
Thanks to the REL, civil engineers can now work on this flexible modelling environment and advanced features such as dynamic change revisions and management. With STAAD Pro, you can 

  • Lower the total cost of ownership - Engineers can design any form of structure including tunnels, bridges, flyovers, runways, petrochemical plants, and more

  • Increase Design Productivity – With STAAD Pro, you can streamline your workflow & reduce the efforts and thus, eliminate the chances of more errors.

  • Reduce Projects Expenses & Delay – You can provide accurate and budget-friendly designs to your clients and quickly make changes if required as per their needs and requirements.

It uses the various forms of analysis from traditional 1st order static analysis to 2nd order p-delta analysis and geometric non-linear analysis or a buckling analysis. It also uses various forms of dynamic analysis from modal extraction to time history and response spectrum analysis.
Role of STAAD Pro in Civil engineering
STAAD Pro is a software widely used in the field of Civil engineering. It has more flexible and advanced features than Auto CAD, being used in the construction industry. AutoCAD allows candidates to work on two-dimension models; however, STAAD Pro will let you work on three-dimensional models. It requires lesser manual calculation and thus, you can save time and energy.
Importance Of STAAD Pro in Civil engineering

  • In recent years, STAAD Pro has become an integral part of structural analysis & design solutions mainly using an exposed API called OpenSTAAD to access and drive the program with the help of Visual Basic macrosystem included in the application. Also, OpenSTAAD functionality is used in applications that themselves include suitable programmable macro systems.

  • Additionally, STAAD Pro also has added direct links to applications such as RAM Connection and STAAD Foundation. It provides help to engineers working with those applications that are handling design post-processing which is directly not handled by STAAD Pro itself.

  • STAAD Pro does schema analysis of the CIMsteel Integration Standard, version 2 commonly known as CIS/2, and used by a number modelling and analysis applications.

Purpose Of STAAD Pro In Civil engineering

  • With the help of STAAD Pro, civil engineers can easily analyze & design civil engineering structures such as buildings, bridges, dams, canals, sewage systems, plane and space trusses.

  • STAAD Pro can generate loads such as wind, or earthquakes as per building codes of selected countries. 

  • STAAD Pro can be used to design steel and reinforced concrete buildings as per the codes of selected countries 

  • It can carry out linear elastic (static & dynamic), and nonlinear dynamic analysis 

  • It has a simple and easy-to-understand interface which makes learning quick for aspirants.

  • At present, STAAD Pro is developed by Bentley Systems Inc. It was originally developed by Research Engineers Inc. in California.

  • STAAD Pro was one of the earliest structural analysis and design software that was designed with user-friendly GUI and support for building codes of various nations such as India, the US, the UK, and other developed nations.

Some common industry benefits offered by STAAD pro are as follows: 

  • Civil engineering users will get a flexible modelling environment that will help them with the precise and best structure.

  • You can choose numerous design codes & learn to use an appropriate code for the structure by taking up a certification program or online course.

  • This building design software has the latest and advanced features, thus, designers can choose from various tools and calculations.

  • Open STAAD is open architecture offered by STAAD Pro which is a resource library for the STAAD Professionals. 

  • Though it’s an exclusive structural designing software, you don’t need highly advanced skills to use it. Even certified STAAD professionals can use it.

Let’s discuss the capabilities of STAAD Pro in detail: 

  • To Analyse gravity and lateral load - Using STAAD Pro, engineers can design and analyze simple/complex structures for a wide range of loading conditions, including ones that are gravity-induced such as dead and live loads, skip conditions, in combination with the lateral loads such as winds and seismic.

  • Check designs for cold-formed sections – To design light gauge steel members with the help of a comprehensive cold-formed sections library with no need to use a separate special-purpose application.

  • Complying with seismic requirements – To design & detail seismic-force-resisting systems, generating seismic loads according to the relevant building code. Consider these forces in the design of elements and, where required, the design of frames & the larger structural system. To enforce the ductility requirements of the selective design code in element proportioning and detailing.

  • Create finite element meshes – Through element generation, civil engineers will be able to decompose the physical elements like slabs, mats, or walls into a series of plates or solids. To efficiently generate finite element geometry for complex objects with openings. Optimize the finite element analysis by choosing various plate shapes based on the requirements. 

  • Design & Analyze with finite elements: To complete building analysis, design, and drafting for the entire structure accurately. Later, use our state-of-the-art finite element analysis. It helps to reduce or eliminate the time spent to get the results. 

  • Design & Analyze structural models:  Engineers can design the total structure, including decks, slabs, the slab edges & openings, beams, columns, walls, braces, footings, and the pile caps. With STAAD Pro, you can automate many of your time-consuming, tedious designs & analysis tasks and thereby produce practical system & component designs that will be document ready.

  • Design beams, columns, and walls – To optimize or analyze beams, columns, and walls for gravity and lateral loads. It helps to quickly obtain safe and economical designs. To produce designs in compliance with Indian requirements and many international design specifications & building codes.

  • Design lateral resisting frames: Perform extensive building-code checks for seismic and wind forces on the braced frames and moment frames. To quickly obtain safe & reliable designs for all the company’s structural projects.

  • Design for international design standards: To extend the reach of your business practices & take the advantage of global design opportunities with the help of a wide range of international standards and specifications in our design products. To complete your designs with perfection, thanks to the extensive support of India & international standards.

  • Generate design loads and load combinations: To apply code-prescribed wind & seismic loads to the structure with the help of built-in load generators. Calculate the various loading parameters based on the structural geometry, mass, and selected building codes. To combine these lateral load cases with the gravity, and other types of loads using combination generators.

  • Integrating slab & foundation designs: To design slabs and foundations through specialized applications by integrating them within the master analysis model. To create design calculations and reinforce drawings. To add the design information in BIM models through ISM.

  • Integrating steel connection designs: It helps to design structural steel connections within a single integrated environment. You can transfer joint geometry, member sizes, and joint forces from the 3D analysis to the steel connection design application directly with the help of this software. It will also allow for the efficient reuse of information and help to reduce the amount of rework required when the structure changes.

  • Model reinforced concrete: You can model reinforced concrete shapes such as concrete beams, columns, slabs, walls, spread footings, and continuous footings, all with parametric behaviour. To change the concrete shape, cause the rebar to adjust automatically. You can even model reinforced concrete shapes which includes the curves, slopes, or other shapes with the help of intuitive commands.

  • Model structural steel: STAAD Pro lets you design the model structure of the steel shapes such as beams, columns, and braces, based on country-specific steel tables or user-defined shapes. You can model steel connections, either standard or custom, and automatically adjust them as per the requirements based on the connecting members and come up with a unique steel design. Also, with STAAD pro you can model comprehensive steel plate-work, including gusset plates and chute work.

  • Produce structural design documentation – You can create the structural design documents along with the necessary plans & elevations being used to convey the design purpose. The changes made to the 3D model will be automatically updated in the documentation.

  • Share structural models – You will be able to transfer the structural model geometry, and design results from one application to another. It can later synchronize changes over time. You can even share the structural model, drawings, and information with the team members for final reviews.

  • Utilize international section profiles – With STAAD Pro, you can design your structural model using a vast array of international section profile databases at no extra costs. You can even take the advantage of global design opportunities around the globe.

Advantages of STAAD Pro in Civil Engineering

  • Adopt for a faster technique of designing the various structures

  • No need for any form of manual calculation and devote time on it

  • Suits for almost all types of design materials such as Concrete, Steel, Aluminium, etc.

  • Gives accurate results in Shear Force, bending moment diagram for each & every beam, and structure column that you will try to do manually.

  • Gives accurate results for the Number of reinforcements used longitudinally, Shear Reinforcement.

  • It will help you to make improvements and quick corrections in structure, section, dimensions

  • Civil engineers can design structures for any type of loads such as Dead or Live loads, wind loads, snow loads, area loads, floor loads, and more. 

  • You can design from a simple beam structure to as tall as skyscrapers and analyze whether it will fail or pass at the applied load

  • You can import various interesting designs from AutoCAD to STAAD.

  • It’s simple, intuitive, and easy to learn

Few Limitations of STAAD Pro Software

  • It is not suitable for brick masonry work

  • It will not show the projected amount of material used

  • Is not useful for costing and getting estimates

  • You need proper skills such as civil engineering degree for typical designs. 

  • And few others

No wonder, Ekeeda’s certification in STAAD Pro will help you become a pro-expert in analysis and design of 3D structures, introduce you to STAAD Pro V8i software, and much more. Enroll for the STAAD Pro certification course now!
Things to Know Before You Learn STAAD Pro Software
As discussed, STAAD Pro stands for Structural Analysis and Design, and the software is widely used to develop & analyze various structure designs like tunnels, bridges, dams, culverts, or petrochemical plants. If you become a brilliant and dynamic Civil engineer, make sure you have good knowledge about the latest software version. It is used to analyze the various structural designs once their load, force, and displacements are taken into consideration.
Choose a reputable STAAD Pro course online, and you will learn how to use this amazing software at a professional level. The concrete, timber, and steel industries are growing at a rapid race across the nation under various multimillion projects and processes. You can choose from numerous institutes or online coaching centers that offer professional courses in STAAD Pro. Once you pursue certification programs you can have excellent career scope in fields such as architecture firms, construction companies, and various government agencies across India.
Hope you will find this article useful and you must have set your heart on learning STAAD Pro. You must have understood the purpose of STAAD Pro in Civil engineering. Don’t forget to share the importance of STAAD Pro in Civil engineering with friends.
So, what are you waiting? To explore the STAAD Pro certification courses, chat with our experts, and find the best certification that fits your Civil engineering career needs. These courses are designed by industry experts with the latest technical updates on the software. Through video lectures you can gain knowledge and skill right the comfort of your home. It has curated nearly 20 hours of curated content and upon course completion you can get internship opportunities with top companies in India. We offer course at pocket-friendly prices to the aspirants.
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