Most popular software (3 Viewers)

Bking

Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2011
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Hi everyone, Im currently doing my one day release HNC in civil engineering. Ive been testing the water sending a few emails here and there for potential trainee design roles. No luck as of yet. The HNC does touch on CAD but it is only the basics. I think Im going to study the city and guilds level 2 CAD course of and evening in the new year. Id like to have a play and a bit of a practise Ive got cad already as you get it free as a student, but Ive noticed scaffold specific packages? Can anyone recommend what most engineers use? Any information that could help me in the process, such as books, programmes or whatever would be appreciated.

Thanks again
 
Few designers on here im sure will give you an answer mate, the rest of us however think your speaking with fork tongue, the devils work and so thou shall be smyted by us of lesser sizes of hardhats and ran out the villiage by us peasant folk.....I do have an android phone but havent the karl fogharty what your on about ;)
 
haha fair enough mate, thanks for the reply. good luck with the phone
 
That should have said theres a few designers that will help you, sure your answers forthcoming , I on the other hand work from the neck down....can you tell ;)
 
Please revert to the E Guide from NASC. It is going to be the Bible, it launch's in a few weeks
 
Bking,

All of the scaffold design engineers I know use Autocad. The scaffold programs are for estimating and can 'draw' simpler jobs but you need Autocad to be able to edit them accurately. I wouldn't recommend doing a cad course though as it is relatively easy to learn once you start using it -the courses cover a lot of information behind the program that you don't need to know.
 
My vote also goes for AutoCAD but I don't know why you have such kind of problems
 
CADS Scia scaffold engineer is probably one of the best around but it's mega £££££ so unless you get on for a national or one of the larger design houses it's probs not an option. Auto CAD will do nicely as a second option and is still probs the most widely used, I would do the course if you have the option, I self taught and spent ages doing things the wrong or long way only to be shown years later a much easier way! Also beg borrow or steal any blocks you can get it will save you a lot of time making your own. As for the knowledge side if you can't get the tg20:13 technical guide? And even if you can! I still recommend the Stuart champion scaffolding book as a great source of info. Some of the data stated is now outdated but a lot of the principles applied and theory are still sound. Good luck.:cool:
 
BKing,

Autocad in 2d using Polylines, That is all you will ever need to know. Anybody who uses 3D software is just wasting time and in some cases a feckton of money.

Reason to use polylines is you can change the width of the line for example a scaffold tube works nicely at 0.48 if your drawing in 1:100 scale, or 48 if your drawing 1:1 in milimeters.
 
It depends on what you want to do. Design or detailing.

If you just want to "draw" pictures of scaffolding - use AutoCAD.

If you want to "design" a scaffold which can carry certain specified loads, or to carry out an "analysis" of an existing scaffold to find out its load capacity, you may require a structural analysis package.

These can vary from cheap/free 2D beam analysis programs to expensive 3D frame analysis FEM software packages.
 
It depends on what you want to do. Design or detailing.

If you just want to "draw" pictures of scaffolding - use AutoCAD.

If you want to "design" a scaffold which can carry certain specified loads, or to carry out an "analysis" of an existing scaffold to find out its load capacity, you may require a structural analysis package.

These can vary from cheap/free 2D beam analysis programs to expensive 3D frame analysis FEM software packages.

Agreed, CAD Smart Scaffolder or AutoCAD package is your best option, depending on exactly what your going to be doing with it, prices vary but you should be able to get advice from CAD themselves.
 
Top Bottom