ENERCALC Engineering Software originated as a set of in-house programs in a small engineering office to beat the cost burden of the competitive design profession. In 1981, a set of Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet templates were developed to automate the repetitive design of tilt-up and small office buildings. The software proved so much time saving and was so easy to use it was decided to market it in the newly founded microcomputer industry. The entire set of 26 spreadsheet "templates" were named the Structural Engineering Library and shipped in three 360K 5 1/4" diskettes and ran on a 4.77 MHz 8086 IBM PC. Typical cost of this state of the art engineering hardware & software system was $6,000!

 

As years went by sales of the product increased. For engineers to purchase a technical software system based as an add-on to a spreadsheet program was a testament both to the intelligence of the users and to the easy and simple design of the software package.

 

In 1986, Lotus Development introduced a package for programmers to link their programs to the very guts of 1-2-3. Called the Add-In Toolkit, it offered a unique opportunity for ENERCALC software designers. A decision was made to rewrite all 40 of the current engineering "templates" in the "C" language, and link these powerful programs to simple 1-2-3 "templates". The Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets would become data entry/output screens driving powerful processing programs.

 

Our first application of this technology was FastFrame 2-D introduced in 1987. FastFrame transformed a simple, off the shelf spreadsheet program into a powerful finite-element analysis system, providing full graphics. Users were amazed that the previously complex batch processed frame analysis systems were reduced to entering a number in a spreadsheet and INSTANTLY the entire frame was recalculated. At the 1987 Lotus Developers Conference in Boston, MA, the actual authors of Lotus 1-2-3 were stunned to see their "business tool" doing complex analysis for multi story buildings (complete with graphics)!

 

The release of the Version 4 series of the Structural Engineering Library in 1990 completed the transformation of all programs to the "C" language (still using the Lotus 1-2-3 interface). New features included material databases, automatic-design algorithms, reference drawing graphics, a project manager, graphics printing, and other accessory features.

 

With the decline of usage of DOS and Lotus 1-2-3 , ENERCALC rewrote the entire "user interface" portion that provided the calculation screens and printing. Keeping the same "look & feel" to ease the change for users, our programmers wrote our own user interface program, as simple and fast as 1-2-3, complete with support for hundreds of printers. Version 4.4 for DOS was released in August of 1994, and produced a large increase in ENERCALC's user base. The performance was crisp and fast, the "look & feel" was even better than 1-2-3, and many of the program capabilities were improved. Version 4.4 for DOS has become known as the "Volkswagen of structural engineering software... simple, enduring, yet designed right to get you almost anywhere

 

The Structural Engineering Library 5.0 for Windows was introduced in 1996 as a completely new rewrite of the legacy systems of the previous 15 years. Although much of the proven "C" language engineering calculation programs are retained, the rest of the system was redesigned and written from scratch for the modern Windows and Pentium based computer systems.

 

We've completely converted the entire software system to a fresh, new Windows based system. The project manager is the central building point to which dozens of different types of calculations can be combined. The core of your new software has been designed in a totally modular way, where adding new "calcsheets" is a matter of creating new screens and linking the engineering code. You've invested in yet another enduring system, designed from a more fundamental position to ensure a long and productive life.

 

In the 8 years since then (as this is written in late 2003) the Structural Engineering Library has been substantially refined and has seen an enormous in users nationwide. You can be assured that with 20 years of history and a substantial structural engineering software system your decision to standardize on the Structural Engineering Library will be one of your most cost effective decisions and investments.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Michael D. Brooks, P.E., S.E.

President & Founder

ENERCALC Engineering Software