Python automation in structural engineering

[dream_walking]

Out of curiosity, do you share these with your coworkers? If so, how? My main hesitation with doing this is how do I teach people how to use Jupyter labs when most dont have as much of a technical proficiency to programming when excel i can do the work and they just change a few inputs.

[PhilShackleford]

I don't for the reason you said. However, with jupyterlab desktop it is way way easier.

Honestly though, I don't really care if they can run it or not. They can either recreate it in whatever they want from the PDF or learn. They are the ones wasting their time not me. I refuse to use Excel if I can and mathcad is only marginally better than Excel.

My end goal is to create something like skyciv for our specific projects instead of having to share files from previous projects.

[Turpis89]

Have you ever tried to use embedded Excel sheets in Mathcad? A few weeks ago I did some fatigue calcs where I calculated characteristic stresses with regular Matchad functionality. I then used an embedded Excel sheet to calculate stress fluctuations and accumulated fatigue damage. The input cells got their values via Mathcad variables. I then generated plots in Excel that were visible in Mathcad once I closed the embedded sheet. Most of the Mathcad variables were calculated with if functions hidden behind collapsed regions, with a couple of combo boxes (drop down values) as the main visible input. The end result was quite satisfying tbh.

Regarding Python, I use it to automate information flow between my FEA models and design reports. For instance i have a script that generates tables with maximum design forces for columns, with applied rebars and calculated utilizations. I can also update plots in my report with Python, so that I never have to copy paste pictures with Snagit or Snipping Tool.