We have already talked about reasons for switching from your current connection design solution to IDEA StatiCa. But what is the reality? How much time and money will you save if you accept this challenge? Luckily, we do not have to guess because we have data from hundreds of engineers collected through our Effectivity Calculator.
IDEA StatiCa Effectivity Calculator is a FREE tool for estimation of the time&money impact of implementing IDEA StatiCa into your design and code-checking workflows. On top of it, we can analyze data provided by structural engineers and detailers and get valuable insights into how the engineering community deals (and struggles) with connection design.
Since January 2019, we have collected inputs from more than one thousand engineers/users. After we filtered out duplicities and incomplete inputs, we were left with 600 responses from structural engineers from around the world. Here is what they say.
68% of design time spent on complex connections
Based on the collected data from the Effectivity calculator, an average steel project consists of approx. 46% of simple connections, 32% of moderate connections, and 22% of complex connections.
Engineers spent approx. 17 minutes to design and code-check a simple steel connection, including the creation of all the necessary reports and outputs for authorities and other stakeholders. For complex connections, this goes to hours. Our data inputs vary a lot, with an average value of about 214 minutes.
What does it mean? Designing and code-checking of 20% of steel connections in an average project take almost 70% of the time dedicated to connection design.
Workflows matter
Connection design is a unique discipline that combines inputs from the analytical models (loading) and structural models (topology of the connection and its components). Structural engineers and detailers thus leverage data they already have in other applications.
