RISA also had better documentation and guides. The old UI in RISA was superior to the current VA UI, but I can't speak to the new RISA UI. I may still be in that adjustment period, but I think RISA had more functionality/options. It's intuitive, but it's different so there's an adjustment period. Since going out on my own, I picked up the IES suite as an economic alternative to RISA. Thanks for the encouragement! RE: RISA-3D vs Visual Analysis (and others) CrabbyT (Structural) 4 May 21 20:29 I really do need to make some time to write up the aspects of the interface that I believe can be re-arranged / improved. I've probably been too focused on my day to day work and learning all the intricacies of the existing interface and analysis capabilities. However, I am constantly impressed by aspects of it that I'd never realized were there. I don't know if it will ever feel quite as natural as the old RISA interface to me. With CSI / SAP I've had to change the way I think a bit to get real comfortable with the interface. But, "user friendliness" is not one of them in my opinion. I can see some advantages to it compared to the old one. It was designed by Debbie (who was project lead on the new interface) to be more like Revit. That's not true of the new RISA interface. Of course it was going to be my preference! My point is that much of it was written to align with the way I think. So, if I thought something was getting too complicated, I'd flag Bruce or Roger (neither of whom is with RISA anymore) and explain what I didn't like, why and what I thought would be better. Keep in mind that a lot of the RISA interface was designed while I was there. Hopefully you will have some influence with your current role to get SAP2000 to an interface that you love as well! RE: RISA-3D vs Visual Analysis (and others) JoshPlumSE (Structural) 4 May 21 15:07
I appreciate everyone's thoughts and opinions on this matter (and again, please feel free to give thoughts on other comparable software as well).
Are there any major difference that stand out between the two programs?
I wish they had a pdf tutorial to work through like RISA and SAP2000 but I will make do with their videos.įor those that have used both RISA-3D and Visual Analysis, what are your thoughts between the programs? If you had to pick one to use which would it be? Is there anything that RISA-3D does that I would miss if I switch to VA? (I do not use RISA Floor). It seems to be even more intuitive than RISA-3D, and just as robust (though I still have lots of exploring to do).
I downloaded the free trial and have been watching their training videos. The program that has really caught my interest is Visual Analysis, I have no experience with VA, I only know about the program because of eng-tips. (Does anyone here have any experience with this program?) Building models is nowhere near as intuitive as it is in RISA-3D (in my opinion) and I don't need more powerful analysis options enough to warrant the tradeoff in modeling speed.Īnother program I am considering is Tekla Structural Designer (the company I work for uses Tekla Structures for detailing), however I have not pursed that one too much as of yet. I started with the idea that I might switch to SAP2000 as it can do some more robust nonlinear analysis (depending on which level of the program you get), but after downloading their trial and running through the tutorial they provide, I am not going to pursue that any further. I say all that to say, I am seriously considering switching over to another software.
I was not overly impressed with the way RISA rolled out their major update and as much as I want to like it, I'm still not liking the version 19 interface. I also use RISA Connection and Foundation through the integration that they use, however most of work I do is in RISA-3D. I have been using RISA-3D since 2008, so I know the program very well (or did until version 18 came along ). That said, these programs are ever changing and adding new features (and bugs) and I would like to hear people's current thoughts, specifically about RISA-3D and Visual Analysis, but feel free to give some thoughts on other programs as well. First, I know that there have been many threads on the various structural analysis programs in the past, and I have read many of those.