RISA, ETABS, RAM, or SAP2000 ?

[peter]

Hello List,

This is my first post to this list and my questions are:

Can any of you express, pro's or con's to any of the above listed analysis programs.

I have been looking at purchasing one of them and at this point am look closely at RISA.

I am interested in issues like,

Affordability, power, deficiencies, and any other issues that would help me to make a better selection when I purchase; Problems importing or exporting with Revit Structure.

Thank you,

Peter Jamtgaard P.E.

[Steve_Stafford]

Peter,

As you are probably aware Revit Structure only collaborates with Robot Millenium, Etabs 9 and RISA. The other two you mention are not on the public "radar" except that RAM's executive once stated in our forums that his organization was seriously working on a relationship with Revit Structure. With Bentley's purchase of RAM it isn't certain at all what will happen between them now. Or at least I can imagine a change of direction :wink:

As for the interoperability and process I believe that the workflow and success of these applications for firms is still in its infancy and therefore you aren't going to get significant feedback on your questions. At most you'll find that someone has used one or the other with RS but probably not all three. I'm just guessing and replying to your message since no one has been able to yet.

Calling Marie, Olympio, Nicolas, Tom, Paul or anyone who might be able to respond?

[peter]

At AU they mentioned SAP and RAM, plus in talking with Carl Bass, he thought there are as many as 50 analysis programs that are working on interfaces with Revit Struture.


Thanks for responding.

Peter

[Steve_Stafford]

...At AU they mentioned SAP and RAM...I missed that! Not surprised though, I missed a lot!


...plus in talking with Carl Bass, he thought there are as many as 50 analysis programs that are working on interfaces with Revit Struture...That's very encouraging! I'm still very curious to see what happens with RAM and its new parent.

[peter]

I am actually look closely at RISA 3d. I don't have any of them yet.


Peter

[Paul Andersen]

Our engineers preference for most design projects is RAM. That being said we are keeping our eye on the current acquisition of RAM by Bentley and what impact that may or may not have on a future Revit Structure link.

We have been doing preliminary testing with the ETABS and RISA links. At this stage our impression is that the ETABS link may be a little more robust / mature but our engineers prefer the user interface of RISA (personal preference). Robot is another interesting option that at first glance seems to be on par with the RISA interface. If we had to pick today I believe we would give the nod to RISA3D and RISAFloor.

That being said any switch from RAM would be a costly one in terms of software, training costs, and initial lost productivity, so needless to say we are proceeding somewhat cautiously at this point and doing a lot of testing and research.

As far as 50 analysis programs developing links to Revit Structure that number would not surprise me one bit. We utilize some lesser known software packages (analytical and otherwise) that we have expressed interest in linking to Revit and have received nothing but positive feedback from the developers of these packages to generate these links. Some to our surprise are already in the works. It seems that the word is out that Revit Structure is for real and it's up to us to keep pushing for more links.

Good luck with your decision and hopefully you found something useful in my rambling. I'd be curious to know which way you go. I'll post back to the forum with more information as we progress further in our testing.

[ctaho]

In regards to RAM, check out this Autodesk press release. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=5957388&linkID=5495546

[Paul Andersen]

That is an older (if you can call 3+ months old) press release that is really just saying that RAM is developing the link to Revit Structure. With the recent acquisition (http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Corporate/News/Quarter+4/RAM.htm) of RAM by Bentley does anyone know if this is still a priority? Perhaps someone from the RAM camp could give us some information. I know they've posted on AUGI in the past.

[Tom Weir]

50 analysis programs?

It sure would be nice to know that even a dozen have made the commitment and are currently developing the links. Then we could be more assured that the program will succeed.

Tom Weir
Los Angeles

[tsbykatherine60220]

Peter,

Most of our engineers lean towards RAM, but there are a few here that are also quite impressed with RISA. If you're going to be around anytime soon just give me a call and I'll be sure to have a couple of our engineers available to talk to you about their experiences with both products.

As for pros and cons, like Paul mentioned ETABS is quite a robust package; generally I've heard it's more suited for taller projects. RISA is more of a general design product and you need to assign the properties to the elements you draw (e.g. draw a line, define it as a beam and add additional criteria to it); this is a pro and con like much of what I am saying, it allows you some broader capabilities while taking a little more work. RAM is more automated, you draw elements and they're already defined. RAM also has a cleaner output for AutoCAD than RISA; you can define offset distances, layers, font height and types and colors. The font types and colors will need to be adjusted once in AutoCAD since you can't choose "BYLAYER" for the color or an actual style name (just the shx file).

Hope this helps,

Rick McElvain
Arnold and O'Sheridan
Brookfield, Wisconsin

[david_peterson]

Which link works better? Which link allows you to do more. I want to go with the program that I can start a stick model and export it to a program, allow the engineer to add/move/subtract/respace beams and apply all the loading, and then send all the info back. Does one exist?

[narlee]

How about a lightweight program for a lightweight (me). I'm looking at BeamChek and StruCalc. Not looking for integration or anything. Just to do some basic stuff.

[KMGuillotte]

See my latest post at this link re: RAM/Bentley's intention w/ the Revit Link...

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=30345&page=3