The Structural Engineering Library is a collection of programs, we call them "calcsheets", that provide design and analysis of components of buildings. Walls, columns, beams, footings, diaphragms, and other common elements can be thoroughly engineered through the use of the programs in this package. If you are a typical engineer, whose work consists of a monthly flow of small and medium size projects, this package is designed especially for you.

 

As an engineer, you will find that each program combines the governing code provisions, mathematical analysis processes, and commonly available construction materials into a simple and effective "calcpad" style fill-in-the-blanks program. You can feel partially relieved that the software will consistently perform all the required checks that may be skipped over when doing repetitive hand calculations. You can enjoy the time to do more exhaustive design studies, come up with safer and more economical designs, and enjoy clearly documented calculations for review and archiving.

 

This software is not a "black box" program. Each calculation is designed to be a "visible calcpad" where you can work with the data and immediately view the resulting calculations. Automatic design is provided in most programs, but is intended to primarily automate tedious iterative tasks.

 

You, as an experienced structural engineer or architect, can quickly enter and change design sizes and view the results. You use your experience to quickly define a design and do quick modifications to refine it.

 

 

The "Calcpad" Approach

When the Structural Engineering Library was designed in 1983 our concept was revolutionary.....design it like an engineer's calculation pad. When an engineer prepares a calculation the finished product is a neat and organized sheet of paper that follows the design flow from load tabulation, force and stress calculation, to the final adequacy check of the structural component that will satisfy the task.

 

At the time all other competing program were aging versions of mainframe programs that had been modified to run on microcomputers. Many were the one "batch" design.....enter all the data, tell the computer to "run" the program and then open a crude file to review the results.  ENERCALC was unique in that the input and output was mixed on the same screen....easy to see at a glance. But the most revolutionary aspect was the tremendous speed it offered to prepare calculations.

 

This great speed was due to the fact that you could change a number and instantly all the results were available for viewing.

 

Moving forward the current Version 5.8 for Windows maintains that same fill-in-the-blanks approach with instant recalculation of results.  When using one of the 45 calculation modules all data input and output is presented on the same screen and viewed just by selecting a "tab" that groups the information. Whenever you change an input values the entire module is recalculated and the results immediately visible. Thanks to efficient programming and fast modern computers incredibly complex structural analysis and design is performed in a split second.

 

This instant updating also happens when you are viewing graphical sketches of your design or stress diagrams.....after any change the graphics are instantly updated.

 

 

A Typical Worksession

 

In order of occurrence here are the steps in using the software:

 

Start the program

3.        Editing or adding a calculation takes you to the calculation sheet for one of the 45 modules.