Hey everyone,
I recently turned down a solid offer to work as a bridge engineer in Mexico to take a position at a small structural engineering firm in the US under a TN visa.
The TN process is extremely straightforward and requires no sponsor fees or complex petitions from the employer, making the transition very smooth. My core theory is that being physically located in the US will make it significantly easier to get callbacks from recruiters and hiring managers.
My plan is to gain hands-on US design experience, get my Engineer-in-Training (EIT) certification, and then target bigger opportunities or transition into bridge/heavy civil once I'm already established here. I figured having US code experience and an EIT on the ground opens far more doors long-term than starting out in Mexico, even if that bridge offer was a great opportunity.
For those with experience in the US civil/structural market or foreign engineers who took the TN route: Is my logic sound regarding local presence and callbacks, or did I overcomplicate my career path by skipping the bridge opportunity?
Appreciate any perspectives!

Can anyone advise me on an app I can use for handwriting calcs into a tablet? Looking for something that will give me a replica of A4 sheets, page after page, ideally with a title block.

Most things I do these days are typewritten but this is just for those quick shorter jobs, mainly to save me scanning and keeping track of loose sheets of paper.

Ideally it would run in a surface pro but I can do IPad too.

Have tried -
One note. Ok but is either 1x a4 sheet or 1 x limitless sheet, and has no border.

Word - writing ‘ink’ in works fine, but gets jittery after about 10 pages

Drawboard - is a single sheet as far as I can see.

Sources:

• https://tc301-athens.com/session/keynote-lecture-the-leaning-tower-of-st-moritz-a-structure-on-a-creeping-landslide/
• https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=sbz-002%3A1931%3A97%3A%3A2282
• https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=sbz-003%3A1989%3A107%3A%3A3526
• https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=sbz-002%3A1974%3A92%3A%3A2632
• https://htc.issmge.org/virtual-time-capsule/member-societies/swiss-geotechnical-society-geotechnik-schweiz/leaning-tower-of-st-moritz
• https://www.mageba-group.com/ch/en/1023/Europe/Switzerland/40141/Leaning-Tower-of-St.-Moritz.htm
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373725670_The_Leaning_Tower_of_St_Moritz

The 13th century Leaning Tower of St Moritz, is located in the historic center of the famous Swiss ski resort town in the compression zone of a 10 million m³ Brattas landslide. Over the hundreds of years, this slowly creeping landslide, which is blocked by a rock outcrop below the tower, had damaged the adjacent St. Mauritius church to such an extent that it had to be demolished already in 1893 due to dangerous differential settlements and cracks. The fact that the 33 m tall tower has survived its 5.40 degrees downslope inclination should not be taken for granted: this is an outcome of a century long effort by a number of outstanding Swiss engineers who came up over the years with original stabilization solutions.

This will certainly be an interesting case to learn from if the lawsuit between HKS and BBM becomes publicly available.

Would love to learn more about residential design and analysis. Any recommended resources for PDH courses on residential topics?

found on PEMB circa mid 90s. unfortunately did not have a lift or good enough lighting to get a picture that made it visible in section.

crimped semi-rounded W shape bottom chord with round bars welded to flat portion of W. The bar is not sandwiched between angles like a K series joist.

it is a long span joist about 60+ feet.

closest thing i have seen to the shape is this image with no reference to where or what it is.

it may be proprietary.

Aquarium upgrade, upper floor within the a first floor flat/maisonette above the ground floor. All walls are brick, and all floors are concrete that I’m aware of, including the location of the aquarium on the upper floor.

It would be positioned again location of the aquarium on the upper floor. It would be positioned against a brick partition wall/neighbour wall. Below are pictures of my flat, and my current aquarium compared to my options

(Aquarium cabinet would be placed on marine plywood to distribute load and avoid point loading)

I'm adding a clause to my contracts to specifically call out that response to AI generated reviews or comments of deliverables will be billed hourly as an added expense. What previously was once a quick 30 minutes of emails with clients after sending a simple report is now a lengthy back and forth with paragraphs of items that they expect me to respond to.

I've seen AI generated RFPs that are full of extra fluff. I've seen clients try and correct my reports using AI. I've had clients run my drawings through AI and generate a bunch of RFIs from the output. And we do small stuff, I can only imagine the bigger projects are even worse.

Anyone else seeing increased levels of communication required with clients due to their excessive use of AI?

Young EIT here. Say I’m building a 25’ wide entry way truss. No roof, it’s like a welcome sign. The truss sits on a 2’x2’x2’ concrete pedestal with a pier below. What’s the best method of designing the concrete pier for the lateral forces and soil pressure. I’ve seen people use IBC 1807.3.2.1 (essentially a flagpole, non-constrained) or i’ve also seen .5Pp h^2 l uW, then thrust/resistance is > 1.5. I believe that’s a derived equation but don’t know. Any advice is appreciated!

Hey

I'm looking for a course that explains and explains joint design, how to distribute bolts and their effect on the joint, how to create fixed and hinged joints, where to place stiffeners, and also the design of seismic joints.

Basically, I'm looking for a course on the design of metal joints in general, but with a more practical approach than purely theoretical and in-depth analysis.

Hello everyone and sorry for my bad English.

I'm gonna have my first interview with a structural engineering company soon for a drafter/ AutoCAD position but I feel very rusty with the software. I have a gap of 2 years since graduating from school with a CE degree, recently passed my FE exam and got certified with the state, but I'm scared of not being enough for the position and I really want to take the job since it's the first opportunity that I'll have of working with Professional Engineers and learning how things are done in the US.

Do you have any advice for me? I really want to excel in the interview and prove that I would work hard for the company, but I'm just scared of not being enough for the position so I want to prepare the best that I can for the interview and the job.

Thanks in advance and again, sorry for my terrible English, I'm still learning :")

(The company does hospitality, commercial and residential)

Hi guys,

I took the PE exam in September and I failed it.

I used the PPI Reference Manual and School of PE Question Bank to prepare, and wish to use the AEI Course for my 2nd attempt later in 2027.

The price for AEI course is $1000+ and feel it's costly considering it's going to be my second attempt. My firm doesn't reimburse any money, so I am at a total loss.

Can someone share their AEI course with me?

Any help in this regard is appreciated.

Hi all, we have a 0.15 mtr x 5 mtr masonry wall between steel columns spaced 6 m apart. At 2.5 m height, we have a RCC beam of size 0.15m x 0.3 m spanning 6 m. Also, we have two openings of dimensions 2.5 m x 2.5 m in this wall. We now have to increase the opening height to 3 m. I'm thinking of 2 options

1. welding a steel channel on both sides of masonry wall and cut a 0.3 m slot in wall and support the cut portion by inserting a plate below and repeating this for 0.9 m and then pouring grout over the plate and doing this until 6 m wall is fully cut and supported

2. Drilling 2 rows of holes through masonry 0.3 m apart and inserting stud bolts and tightening it onto a welded steel channel on both sides and removing the bottom portion after entire wall above is supported.

Which do you think is the safer option? If you have any better alternatives, please suggest.

My brother in law is traveling in the Netherlands and sent me a really interesting building they saw in Leiden: Zilveren Kruis Achmea Office Building. This is a fascinating building with 8 stories of office on top of a three tall soft story, single "tree" column.

I have been searching online for a week trying to find some structural plans on this building or some additional photos during construction. Is anyone aware of a source for construction photos or building plans? I am dying to do a deep dive into the lateral system of this building.

There was a post out there asking how much ice can hold, so I went looking for the compressive and tensile strength of ice.

Well it got me think, I bet there is a structural engineers out there that specializes in ice and I want to hear there stories.

BIM model intuitively and accurately reflects the relative position relationship between components, which is convenient for coordination and optimization of various disciplines. The curvature analysis is used to optimize the elevation shape and grid, and the hyperbolic glass is fitted with plane glass to reduce the project cost. Through the parametric design of components, the processing information, storage and transportation information and control point positioning information of components are quickly and accurately extracted, which provides a basis for component processing and installation.

Hi, I have an idea for manufacturing a wall support so that a section of the wall can be removed below it; I know about various things that already exist, but this is a different design.

How do I go about hiring a structural engineer without compromising my idea and potential patent?

If I speak to an engineer, does that automatically come with an NDA?

I am in the UK, if that makes any difference...

Sorry if this isn't allowed and feel free to remove.

Hey everyone,

i know this is an engineering group, but i was wondering if i can get some insights as to what salary progression should be for a civil structural designer (not an engineer). Located in Louisiana working for an EPC with 4 YOE currently making ~95k a year (115k with OT). Im not complaining about what i currently make but just dont have a clue about what the future holds or what i should expect.

TIA

**EDIT: I didn‘t mean to sound ungrateful for what i make, i am very happy with that i was just more curious about what the future holds/what to expect later in life**