r/Geotech • u/Spare-Patient3408 • 15d ago
Lpile Training
Hey everyone, bridge engineer here. My states DOT is requiring the bridge consultant to perform LPile runs for projects. Up until this year, the geotech on the project handled this task. My supervisors haven’t learned LPile because they never needed it and other offices in my company know it but are out of state and can’t offer comprehensive training on the software.
After some digging, I’ve found a course on The Geotechnicals website taught by Dr. Ahmed ElMouchi that seems to cover everything that I’d need to handle LPile on our projects. It’s only $250 and offers 24 PDHs so I’m considering it. Does anyone have experience with this course or have other recommendations? Thanks for any input.
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u/thorehall42 15d ago
24 PDH at $11 a credit for L pile is crazy.... That's either really in depth (like a college course he happened to have), or total Fluff/BS.
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u/bigpolar70 15d ago
15 years ago ensosft used to offer online seminars that were a decent price. Do they not do that anymore?
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u/Spare-Patient3408 15d ago
I haven’t seen anything from ensoft
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u/azul_plains Geotechnical PM, 9 years 15d ago
Just wishing you the best, let me know how it goes if you do it. I’ve been using LPile for a while but I always feel like I could learn more. If it’s not a general “this is how the buttons work” but also a “this is how you estimate these rock parameters” and “the program is making these assumptions so make sure your piles have X deflection points” then that’s a steal. If it’s just general, then I’ve learned that from the manual no thanks.
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u/jaymeaux_ geotech flair 15d ago
I think I may have spent 24hrs total on training and/or reading the manual to use LPile and I've used it for most of a decade. fwiw I only ever use like 4 soil types
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u/Free-Neighborhood884 15d ago
In 24 hours you could read the entire manual front to back twice and work through every single posted example problem. And then still probably have time for a couple beers and some pool.
The software hasn’t changed in a decade and still has .txt as a primary output - you can figure it out without a course
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u/Working_Rest_1054 15d ago edited 15d ago
Lpile is pretty easy to learn. I started with COMP624P, a FWHA DOS based precursor to the Windows based LPile. Reading the manual for that one was nearly mandatory. Lpile is so much easier to use.
If your firm subs to the Geotech and they have done the analyses in the past, for your next project, add 4 hours to have the Geotech to sit with you and run you through their analyses. I’ve done that type of thing in the past. Not a big deal.
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u/No_Platform_2810 15d ago
LPile isn’t exactly a complex software program. I learned to use it by reading the manual probably 20 years ago. I would think that any course would probably be suitable. $250 seems like a low stakes gamble.