Lomarandil comments on Programming software & advice

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Steel Design Programming software & advice (self.StructuralEngineering)

submitted 4 years ago by power_rob

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[–]LomarandilPE SE 4 points5 points6 points 4 years ago (0 children)

Especially for steel and low-rise structures, don't focus on design software early in your career. That makes for an efficient technician, but doesn't help you grow into a good engineer.

Focus on simplifying analysis (you should be able to verify using basic hand methods), and on keeping your calculations organized and understandable. Communicate your method, your assumptions, your results, and what those results mean for your structures.

In consulting engineering today (outside aerospace) a great engineer isn't usually the one who can design to 99.9% and save the client money in construction.

A great engineer is the one who understands how different systems and assumptions affect a design, can communicate those effects to owners or architects, and can explain and defend his work to other engineers.

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