There is nothing more rewarding for a civil engineer than watching his or her designs come to life.
Whether it is a highway bridge, water distribution system, or a residential housing development with a thoughtfully designed framework, the works of civil engineering are omnipresent in the background of everyday urban life.
Although the engineering work itself involves the application of calculations and theoretical insights from physics and mathematics to design functional and safe buildings, engineers spend countless hours before the actual construction on architectural design and mathematical modeling using various software solutions.
As such, computer-aided engineering is the key competence for any aspiring civil engineer.
Learning how to work with engineering software is an inevitable part of the profession – and rightly so: Engineering software does not replace the knowledge of an engineer, but only emphasizes it and amplifies it.
I will discuss the types of software applicable in architectural design, technical and structural analysis, and general coordination.
1. Drafting the Design: Technical Engineering Drawings
Before construction can commence, engineers have to devise a plan.
Engineering works require a large number of technical drawings to define their elements: blueprints, drawings, schematics, technical diagrams.
The process used to be completely manual – every single line, dimension, and scale had to be meticulously placed on the paper with the aid of a drawing board, rulers, pencils, and ink.
If a single dimension was misplaced or a scale was incorrect, an entire set of papers would have to be redone.
Software-assisted design processes allowed engineers much greater flexibility, precision, and productivity.
AutoCAD
AutoCAD is one of the oldest and most prolific pieces of design software in the field of civil engineering.
Used for two-dimensional drafting and design, AutoCAD can be used to draft building plans, structural details, site plans, and roadways, and utility lines.
By using AutoCAD, any engineer can produce accurate depictions of the engineered structure.
Dimensions can be specified to particular millimeters or feet, angles and distances can be calculated with trigonometric functions.
The precision and consistency of AutoCAD allows for seamless collaboration with architects, contractors, surveyors, and builders – they can all take the technical drawings and translate them into on-site constructions without difficulty.
The importance of a drafting software such as AutoCAD is difficult to overestimate.
The blueprint serves as a quality control mechanism, a reference point for all future computations, a standard against which all further progress will be measured.
By creating easily understandable technical drawings, AutoCAD streamlines the engineering process and minimizes the risk of costly mistakes.
2. Design and Analysis: Structural Safety and Stress
While a drafter’s task includes the creation of technical drawings, engineers have to analyze those designs using a specialized structural analysis software.
The engineer’s job is to ensure that the building will be able to sustain its intended loading capacity.
An engineer cannot just intuitively devise a structure – he has to examine the principles of statics and dynamics to estimate the behavior and integrity of the constructed (or projected) object.
It does not matter if the object is a building, a bridge, a water distribution tower, or even a highway – forces such as gravity will have to be considered in the design.
Computer-assisted structural analysis software help engineers predict the behavior of their structures by modeling them mathematically.
ETABS and SAP2000
ETABS and SAP2000 represent two popular choices of a software for the structural analysis of civil engineering structures.
Using these programs, engineers can model and analyze a variety of forces acting on a constructed object.
It is possible to see how load, wind, shear forces, and bending moments, as well as columns, beams, and moments behave within a structure.
SAP2000 is ideal for modeling buildings and bridges, while ETABS has a larger application range.
SAP2000 and ETABS allow for examining different configurations and member sizes and comparing results of those computations.
Civil 3D
Civil 3D offers similar tools to those found in ETABS and SAP2000, with an additional emphasis on civil engineering structures.
In other words, if the engineered object is not a building but a road, a highway, or an interconnection of surfaces, Civil 3D will provide better options for three-dimensional modeling of those structures.
Civil 3D is useful for engineers working with land development and civil infrastructure: roads, grading, drainage, and pipes are some of the objects that can be modeled using Civil 3D.
The software allows for correlating the designed object with onsite surveys and topographic surfaces.
This approach minimizes the risk of errors and design inconsistencies that would necessitate additional spending on the construction.
For example, a designer can use Civil 3D to view the proposed corridor in 3D, analyze the slopes, gradients, drainages, grading, and earthwork volumes – all of which contributes to the accuracy of the plan.
Engineering Judgment Trumps Software
Software applications are fantastic at performing calculations at the speed of light, but an engineer has to know what those calculations actually mean.
Engineering software does not replace, but only supplements the theoretical and practical knowledge of an engineer in the field – and there are limitations to what the software can do.
An engineer has to understand statics and dynamics well enough to judge if the results of the software make sense or not: are the support reactions realistic? What will the deflection patterns look like? What is the factor of safety?
All of these questions are best answered by a qualified, experienced, and competent engineer with sufficient technical skills.
3. Modeling & Coordination: Not Collisions, but Collaboration
No matter how carefully an engineer examines a structure using an analysis software, it does not account for discrepancies and collisions between various elements of the construction.
Where a piping engineer’s design ends where an air conditioning or electrical engineer’s project would begin, coordination issues are inevitable.
If a structure’s design did not consider pipes, reinforcing rods, or steel girders, not only time and money but resources would be wasted on having to fix those mistakes.
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
Revit is a BIM software system that is used for the development of three-dimensional information models of structures.
Unlike a technical blueprint or a 2D/3D model made in AutoCAD, a BIM model contains information about the engineering structure.
A BIM model includes all of the elements of a construction: walls and slabs, doors and windows, columns and beams, steel girders, piping, and ducts.
Modifications to the model automatically update all of the accompanying drawings, details, schedules, and sections.
This allows for more accurate, efficient, and effective information exchange between engineers and architects.
Improved Project Collaboration and ModelingRevit allows collaborating engineers and architects to work simultaneously on the same model.
This is especially useful for coordinating between various subcontractors and engineers, ensuring that their work does not conflict with each other.
By identifying potential issues early in the process, design engineers can make necessary adjustments before those issues result in more serious complications.
Beyond that, BIM software allows a level of organization that would be difficult before its advent.
Once the building or structure is completed, managers can use the model data for materials, equipment, and turnover.
Most Frequently Asked Questions
Engineering software transformed the architectural and civil engineering landscape forever.
From manually-created paper drawings to 3-D blueprints, from mathematical computations performed by hand to software-assisted modeling, simulation, calculation, and analysis.
Although the software used in the civil engineering field may change and develop, the purpose of civil engineering never will: making sure that the population of the Earth lives comfortably while using the natural resources sparingly and sustainably.
The work of engineers and architects should be aided by technology but will always be determined by precision, competence, and judgment of the engineering professionals.
1. Which software is suitable for a civil engineer student to start with?
AutoCAD is ideal to understand the basics of engineering drafting. AutoCAD allows learning how to make technical drawings, specify dimensions and scales.
From there, engineers can use ETABS and/or SAP 2014 to perform structural calculations and analyze stresses, moments, and load capacities.
Civil 3D can be used to model civil infrastructure objects for roads, highways, and other land structures, and Revit – for building development projects.
2. Is engineering software a replacement for hand calculations?
No – engineering software complements, but does not replaces manual calculations, training, and competencies of civil engineers.
Engineers need to understand engineering principles, behaviors, and patterns.
Software applications allow performing calculations quickly and easily, but they are only tools engineers use to verify their manual calculations and computations.
Hand calculations help civil engineers evaluate theoretical and practical correctness of their answers.
It is impossible to learn engineering by heart.
3. Do civil engineers have to learn all kinds of software?
No, not necessarily.
Engineers are to understand fundamental principles of civil engineering works: design calculations, architecture, surveying, engineering principles and construction.
The study of those principles provides a fundamental understanding of the process, which is then much easier to apply to engineering software.
Every engineering company develops a list of software applications useful in its scope of work – learning how use those applications come later, after a fundamental understanding of the underlying theory and principles is developed.