Just in case anyone missed it (I didn't read it until just today), make sure you read Melanie Lawson's terrific article in this month's Structural Engineer magazine. Titled "Manufacturers Turn: Structural synergy ," the article describes how the structural design process of a new high school in Murrieta, California was streamlined using Bentely's RAM Structural System .
As someone who used RAM Structural System for design as recently as last year, I can attest to just how well the RAM analysis and design components are integrated together. In fact, as a user, one hardly even notices they've gone from one program to the next. The workflow is clearly laid out and all the data is pulled from a single model, which helps to reduce errors. As with the new Murrieta high school, structural elements of different types and materials can all be analyzed, designed, and - with the use of tools like RAM Connection - even detailed.
What's going to make this even better? All of Bentley's Structural Team products are all getting integrated together, linking to one another or through Bentley Structure and the Integrated Structural Model (ISM - coming soon!). It doesn't matter if the model starts in RAM, STAAD, Bentley Structural, even Revit - the data moves between applications and the engineer can choose the best tool for their needs.