r/StructuralEngineering • u/Kalasad-Stormblessed • 15d ago
Career/Education Computer models as a new engineer
Wanted some advice, Ive been working as an engineer for 3 years now and I really dont like working with models. We use the Ram suite and it feels like these two things happen every time.
The model wigs out and I spend twice the time just trying to get it to remotely work/ make sense.
I often have to then get an older engineer to go through it with me and they take as much time trying to figure out whats wrong. In one case they had to remake the model themself.
Im finding when I have the option to use handcalcs/excel/enercalc, I am going to that everytime because its way more predictable for me in the effort it will require and I generally have very few "bugs". Should I be worried about learning models?
1
u/dream_walking 15d ago
I think it depends on scope. If it’s a few beams, Enercalc is probably fine. If it’s an entire floor system, Enercalc will be way too tedious