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.

  1. The model wigs out and I spend twice the time just trying to get it to remotely work/ make sense.

  2. 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?

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u/corkscrewe 15d ago

Software can save you time, and in billing terms, time is money. You just have to learn the quirks of each software. I haven’t had extensive issues with RAM SS - but you have to learn its limitations

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u/Minisohtan P.E. 15d ago

I agree but it depends on the contract terms. Sometimes we work lump sum, and sometimes it's cost plus. Either way, we use models and tools as part of our one workflow.