I recently started working for a small Commercial Structural Design engineering company. I have used RAM Structural System in the past in other companies that I worked for, for design of small to medium size steel buildings, using RAM Steel for floor design of steel joists and steel beams and RAM Frame for lateral.
The company that I work for now has RAM Elements. I have never used RAM Elements. Is RAM Elements mostly used for stand-alone beam and column design?
My basic question is what would be the best Bentley/RAM Product for design of gravity and lateral design of a 1-2 story steel commercial building with steel joist and beams supported on HSS columns? Appreciate if someone could share their views.
Thanks.
Ram Elements is more like STAAD, a general purpose Finite element analysis (and design) tool. It’s different from RAM Structural System mostly in how things are modeled by placing nodes in 3 dimensional space and connecting them with lines or plates. It does not perform composite steel beam design and is more limited in how area loads can be applied. Otherwise it can still be used to design steel structure (or concrete, or masonry or wood).
My suggestion would be to consider the Structural Enterprise License (SEL), With this license you can use any of the Ram or STAAD products you like for a single price which is just a little more than RAM SS alone. You can find out more here:
If Ram Elements is the only tool available, then we can also help you find success.