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UC-1 Series Structural Analysis / Section Analysis
Engineer's Studio® 2D Ver.3
A 2D linear elastic frame/truss structural analysis product.
Engineer's Studio® 2D Beam Model Live Load Analysis Option 
Engineer's Studio® 2D
Japan Civil Codes Uniaxial Section Design (Partial Factors method) Option
Engineer's Studio® 2D Japan Civil Codes Uniaxial Section Design Option
Initial release: '09.05.19 / Latest ver.: '17.12.07



US$2,320
US$200
US$1,430
US$1,001
Engineer's Studio Product Page
Engineer's Studio Product Page
Product detailsPrice/purchaseSamples

Product Overview
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Engineer's Studio® is a 3D material and geometrical nonlinear FEM analysis program that Forum8 developed the pre / post / solver in house.

Engineer's Studio 2D is a 2D linear elastic frame/truss analysis product that has been developed from the parent libraries to meet these needs. It is the successor to the well known product, UC-1 FRAME (In-plane). The user interface is very similar to the 3D parent product Engineer's Studio®. Hence users can invest in learning this new CAD style interface and rest assured that if required, these skills will facilitate the move to 3D analysis in the parent product.
  • Analysis tool specialized in 2D in-plane frame/truss analysis.
  • Material and geometrical linear static analysis.
  • CAD style intuitive user interface for creating nodes and elements graphically.
  • Full table editor support for all data creation and editing.

Related Information

Features of the program
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Engineer's Studio® 2D is a 2D in plane material and geometrical linear frame/truss analysis program.
Frame and truss elements can be freely combined in a single model. The user interface is almost identical to the Engineer's Studio®. The intuitive CAD style input and editing operations allow users to create and edit models quickly.

Features of the program
  • Creation of continuous beam elements and positioning of nodes (element resizing), frame elements, spring elements, and rigid body elements (*1)
  • Search function (node, frame, spring, rigid body) (*1)
  • Displays / hides in group unit. Calculates the max / min bending moment (*1)
  • Automatic creation of dead loadcase and horizontal seismic load
  • Calculates material displacement (*1)
  • Supporting points can be changed in the selected state. Loads will be kept even when the element is re-divided. (*1)
  • spring element can be connected to the main node of rigid element. Multiple elements can be connected to rigid element. (*1)
  • Moment loads can be input to beam elements supported by distributed springs. (*1)
  • Internal force like prestress can be input to beam elements supported by distributed springs. (*1)
  • UC-1 FRAME (in-plane) (.fsd), (.$o1) data files can be imported.
  • Mmax between the focused points of frame element is automatically calculated against basic loadcase / combined loadcase.

   * (*1): These functions are not supported in UC-1 FRAME (in-plane).

Structure figure of arch bridge model data
2 screens (dockable)
Load chart of BOX culvert model data
+ displacement chart image (2 images)
Displacement figure of
rigid frame bridge model data
+ section force chart
Tunnel model data structure
+ displacement map

Inputting section shape
Frame calculation can be performed after entering the section shape and auto-calculating section constant. Supported section shapes: rectangle, oval, circle, I beam, T beam, W T beam, super structure, super structure circular hole, block
Click to enlarge the image. Click to enlarge the image. Click to enlarge the image.
Inputting section shape
and reinforcing bar
Input screen of section calculation List of section calculation result

Elements
  • Euler beam element.
  • Truss element (available when both ends are pin in the Element Boundary Conditions)
  • Euler beam on elastic spring element (Defines fixed, free, or spring relationships between two nodes in each degree of freedom.)
  • Rigid body element


Supports
  • Node supports.
  • Multiple node support cases.
  • Multiple spring boundary support cases.
  • Support cases are specifiable per load case.


Loading
  • Translational and Moment node loading
  • Forced node displacements
  • Element distributed loading
  • Element point loading
  • Basic load cases, combinations, and envelopes


Japan Civil Codes Uniaxial Section Design (Partial Factors method) option
A separately sold option "Japan Civil Codes Uniaxial Section Design (Partial Factors method)" according to the 2017 Specifications for highway bridges has been newly added. The bending stress test, bending strength test, and shear strength test can be conducted by the partial factors method.

Click to enlarge the image. Click to enlarge the image. Click to enlarge the image.
Entry screen (about shear) Result screen (summary table) Report export
(result detail)
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Function Comparison: Engineer's Studio® 2D,UC-1/FRAME(in-plane)
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Flow of frame analysis



Engineers need to repeat the steps above until all checks pass.

Enhancement of Analysis Function Compared to UC-1 Frame (InPlane)

  • Calculation of member displacement
  • Possible to place spring elements at the main nodes in rigid elements
  • Multiple elements may be connected to rigid elements
  • Moment loads can be applied to distributed spring beam elements.
  • Element internal forces, such as prestress, can be applied to distribution springs beam elements.

Loading Moment to Distributed Spring Members

Ex) Applying moment loads to arbitrary positions of a BOX culvert base.

Loading
View of Bending Moment
    Blue: axis force, Green: shear, Red: moment

In UC-1/FRAME(in-plane) it was necessary to create an extra intermediate node and apply a node moment load. This is not required in Engineer's Studio® 2D.

Nodes for load are not required any more because moment load can be input to distributed spring material in the Engineer's Studio® 2D.

Operation Performance Comparison with UC-1 Frame (InPlane)

  1. Section property entry.
    • UC-1/FRAME (in-plane) Engineer's Studio(R) In-plane
      • Enter section properties. Area (A) and second moment of area (I).
      • Enter section properties. Area (A) and second moment of area (I).
      • Specify materials.
      • The auto-generation of dead loads is available by checking "Add section area x unit weight"

  2. Nodes entry
    • UC-1/FRAME (in-plane) Engineer's Studio(R) In-plane
      • Enter coordinate values for all of nodes.
      • Enter only the main nodes.
      • Auto-generation of the middle nodes is more easily achieved by dividing beam elements after creating them later. At that time the individual member lengths can be controlled.

  3. Member creation
    • UC-1/FRAME (in-plane) Engineer's Studio(R) In-plane
      • Create line elements by specifying two nodes in the table editor after setting up all nodes.
      • Assign section references to all members.
      • Select sections, click prepared nodes, and create beams like drawing frames.
      • Possible to undo during commands.

  4. Supporting point condition setup
    • UC-1/FRAME (in-plane) Engineer's Studio(R) In-plane
      • Enter node numbers to set supporting point condition and supporting point code.
      • Not possible to process collective setting for multiple nodes.
      • Select nodes to set supporting condition by clicking on them and select restraint conditions.
      • Remembering support condition codes is not required. Textual names are used.
      • Possible to apply the same conditions simultaneously to a set of selected nodes.

  5. Load value entry
    • UC-1/FRAME (in-plane) Engineer's Studio(R) In-plane
      • Enter load code, intended members, and load values.
      • Require retyping the load value after recalculating the load value at that position when the middle node is inserted.
      • Remembering load codes is not required. Select the load type from a list of names such as "point load" and "distributed load" and specify its direction and magnitude.
      • Auto-interpolation of trapezoidal distributed loads is done when an element is split.

  6. Data change, edit
    Ex) Insertion of intermediate beam (1/4 height above the deck slab)
    • UC-1/FRAME (in-plane) Engineer's Studio(R) In-plane
      • Create a node at the 1/4 position from the deck slab. Reconnect i and j nodes.
      • Calculate a load value at a newly added node (1/4 position) and setup.
      • Divide sidewall elements using the "divide members" function.
      • Connect the new auto generated middle nodes together with the CAD style element definition command to form a new element.
      • Note that all loading information on the sidewalls was preserved.

Comparison with Predecessors (time, in seconds)

UC-1/FRAME (in-plane)
[A]
Engineer's Studio 2D
[B]
Percentage Improvement
[B]/[A]
Section properties entry 15 25 1.67
Node coordinate entry 63 *1 17 0.27
Member creation 54 16 0.30
Supporting point condition setup 44 30 0.68
Load setup 240 228 0.95
Total of initial data creation 416 316 0.76
Data editing 340 40 0.12

*1 :
Only corner node coordinates were entered. The remaining middle nodes were entered when creating the elements.

*2 :
Numbers in the table represent seconds.

The model used in the above comparison is the BOX Culvert in-plane analysis shown in the picture on the right.
The self weight load case, 2 other load cases and combined cases of those are input.
Section properties and load value calculations are done outside the times quoted here. However note that the self weight load case is automatically calculated in Engineer's Studio 2D. Only the time of data entry and editing was compared.
The application operators used in this comparison have more than 5 years experience in this area.


The percentage improvement in usage times is shown in the graph on the right. The larger the model is, the greater the time difference becomes. Time is cost and so especially for larger models, the cost saving achieved by using Engineer's Studio 2D compared to UC-1/FRAME (in-plane) is great.
This is especially noticeable when editing the model.

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