Does anybody know of any simple-to-use beam sizing software, windows or Mac?
I used to be in an office that used one called BeamCalc on windows that had a pretty easy interface, but cannot seem to find it online anymore, at least not the one I remember using.
I occasionally need to size ridge beams and/or headers or central floor beams. I would like something where I can just select a species, or LVL or glu-lam and type in the span and load (continuous and/or point loads) and get a dimension. I don’t want to have to deal with fiber-sress in bending and shear-moment and formulas. Just a stupid-simple graphical interface would be nice.
Steve
Replies
What you want is not available for free.
It's engineering, son, plain and simple. Just like you cannot do your own Rx prescriptions by plugging your symptoms into a web profile, neither can you engineer your structures that simply.
You don't want to rob us engineers of our needed revenue, do you?
The "lite" version of STRUCALC might work for you, but you probably know that already. If not, go here and see about it.
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"A stripe is just as real as a dadgummed flower."
Gene Davis 1920-1985
Hi Gene,I'm not looking for free. I'm willing to pay for a program. Heck, I'm happy to pay an engineer too, but sometimes when I'm looking for a size on a simple beam with a uniform load my engineer is just too darn slow. And for LVL's for a uniformly loaded ridge beam, I know I'm just waiting for the rep to take three days look it up in a darn table. I've already found those tables.Plus the last time I needed to size a beam I gave my engineer a 3D exploded view of the load path and tributary areas through 3 stories, and he told me 3 2x12's would be fine. I knew it wouldn't. I had room for two 16" LVS and used them, and it still deflected 1/2" in 8 feet, but it was all I had room for.The beam calcultor program I used in the past was complicated enough to be useful, but simple enough to understand if you were not an engineer, particularly for simple uniform load or simple point loads. For point loads there was a graphic representation of the beam and you located the position of the point load and what it was, chose a material and allowable deflection, and that was it. Uniform repetitive member loads were even easier.Steve
Edited 4/9/2009 12:36 pm by mmoogie
steve , i have a current version of beam calc.. when i get back to office i'll look it up and tell you how i got itMike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Thanks, Mike.
Keybeam (http://www.keymark.com) would be another to look at. It's the platform a few of the I-joist company use. You can run solid sawn and engineered wood.
steve...... the one i use is actually called Beamchek
here's a link...
http://www.beamchek.com/
my version is 2.3Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
That's the one. I recognize the interface. Thanks.
Go to the tji web site and go to intergarterd resources. I think you will find what you are looking for.
Thanks. I've downloaded the trial version and will give it a look.