I haven't used Struware, but have used the other two.
Every company I've ever worked for (15 years in building design east of the Mississippi) used Enercalc.
PROS for Enercalc: It's easy to use and does a lot of the basics. I have used it in a server; we had two licenses for 6 engineers. It's more cost effective than Tedds (not sure about cost effectiveness of Struware).
CONS for ENERCALC: It can be a bit of a black box as to what it's doing, more so than most other software I've used. And, because it is so easy to use, I've had more problems with "garbage in, garbage out". You should always verify design output by hand, but in some cases I thought Enercalc made it too easy (because of their automatic "defaults") to hit one wrong button and get a completely garbage result.
We looked into Tedds again briefly a couple of years ago, because I'd used it a couple of times and loved the functionality and customization abilities. But, it was so much more expensive than Enercalc, and we already had many spreadsheets in Excel, that we decided for the customized cases we'd just use an Excel spreadsheet.
In my opinion, if you're designing a low or mid-rise average commerical structure in a low-seismic, you could design those using the following four programs: RAM, RISA/STADD, Enercalc/Tedds/Struware and Excel. It matters what other software you are using, and what you'd need to use it for, as to which software combination is the right choice.
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Stephanie Slocum P.E.,M.ASCE
Founder
Engineers Rising LLC
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-13-2019 11:25
From: Erik Gibbs
Subject: ENERCALC vs. Tedds vs. Struware
Great question. I have used both Enercalc and Tedds and am currently using Tedds for my own business. My decision to purchase Tedds when I was first starting my business was based on the total number of different calculation types available, in addition to a 2d analysis program that is part of the standard package.
Enercalc is a lot easier to use, but from what I remember there were some issues when running it on a server....please correct me if I am wrong.
I am still using Tedds, since I am a sole proprietor and to switch to a different software package is costly. There are some issues with Tedds, especially when they send out updates. For example, I used one of their steel beam analysis calculation modules for awhile since the interface was short and to the point for the type of beams I typically design. Well when they sent out an update for 2019 that calculation module now has bugs, that don't allow me to calculate certain steel members. Very frusterating. Also the output is not the best since the way it is formatted uses a lot of paper.
Otherwise I prefer Tedds since it also has the flexibility of writing my own calculations and formatting the output in word.
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Erik Gibbs M.ASCE
South County Engineering
San Juan Capistrano CA
(949)310-7329
Original Message:
Sent: 05-13-2019 09:06
From: Tim Twomey
Subject: ENERCALC vs. Tedds vs. Struware
Hello Connor:
I have used Enercalc for over a decade and Canadian Wood Council suite for about 5 years. Without getting into too much detail, Enercalc does a satisfactory job of component analysis, but does NOT keep track of the system. Enercalc has not evolved much either: Their shearwall analysis only uses SEGMENTED approach, so you cannot do PERFORATED approach or combination. And, their torsional analysis only analyzes rigid diaphragms, not flexible or combination.
The Shearwalls program by CWC attempts to do what Enercalc does not, but is somewhat unforgiving once you set up your blocks.
I have tried a few spreadsheet programs also without complete satisfaction. You can try developing your own and I have a lot of ideas to accomplish this but never seem to have the time to "sharpen the axe." The real benefit to creating your own if you TEST it against manual calculations is the confidence you will have in YOUR solution. The challenge is keeping it simple enough but not too simple and keeping up with code changes.
Good luck
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Tim Twomey M.ASCE
CE
BESC, Inc.
Mendocino CA
Original Message:
Sent: 05-12-2019 08:48
From: Connor Dick
Subject: ENERCALC vs. Tedds vs. Struware
Hey everyone,
I am an assistant project engineer in the NY metropolitan area, mainly focusing on high-end residential as well as low to mid-rise residential & commercial new design. I am not part of the decision making for which programs my company buys or uses, so this question is more hypothetical than anything. But, I have been looking into the differences between some softwares and found out that there is not very good reviews to be found using a simple google search. I was wondering if anyone feels particularly strongly about one of the basic calculation packages (ENERCALC vs. Tedds, vs. Struware) and why?
In my first company, we relied heavily on hand calcs and some excel sheets, but neither were used company-wide. They did have an out-dated version of Tedds software that was no longer purchased. I tinkered with the software just to learn its functionality & purpose but was hesitant to use the outputs. I now use ENERCALC at my new firm. It has a lot of functionality, but there are bugs associated with running the program from the server when working remotely. Also, the output does not seem as detailed as I would like at times. I have never used Struware and have only come across the name in advertising within field-related magazines.
Looking forward to reading any feedback the community will have!
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Connor Dick EIT,A.M.ASCE
Project Engineer
Jersey City NJ
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