The RAM Structural System is the only fully integrated engineering software solution with complete building analysis, design and drafting for BOTH steel and concrete structures!
The RAM Structural System was developed with one goal in mind: to help structural engineers produce better designs, faster. By providing powerful tools that are automated, integrated, and a complete alternative to traditional design methods, the RAM Structural System has accomplished this goal.
The RAM Structural System is currently increasing the productivity of thousands of engineers worldwide in the design of a wide variety of institutional, commercial, retail, residential and industrial building structures, from one story buildings to some of the tallest structures in the world.
Used by thousands of design firms, steel fabricators, educators, and others; from one-person firms to some of the largest E&C companies in the world, the RAM Structural System is helping to redefine how engineers work!
Unlike most structural software packages that solve only specific and isolated problems, the RAM Structural System is a fully integrated solution. It enhances your work every step of the way, integrating gravity and lateral analysis and design with the creation of detailed and usable CAD drawings
Advantages
1. Complete Building Solution
In the RAM Structural System the entire structure is modeled, including decks, slabs, slab edges and openings, beams, columns, walls, braces, spread and continuous footings and pile caps. The structural members can be of any material, including steel, concrete, masonry and timber, and the model can include any combination of these. The complete set of floor and roof loads, gravity and lateral, of any complexity are included. This full structural model better captures the effects of member interaction.
2. Automates Tedious and Repetitive Design Tasks
The RAM Structural System performs the most tedious and time-consuming design tasks in a project. For example, member design loads are automatically determined, including distribution of floor and roof load to supporting members; application of beam reactions to supporting girders, columns and walls; column and foundation load takedown; inclusion of deck, slab and member self-weight; and calculation of Live Load reductions, and lateral load calculations for wind and seismic. In addition, designs are optimized for both concrete and steel.
3. Increase Your Profitability and Provide a Better Service to Your Client
Freed from the time demands of repetitive and extensive calculations, you will not only save time and therefore increase your profitability but you will be able to use your creativity and engineering knowledge to solve the issues that have greater impacts on the cost, performance and suitability of the structure. You will be enabled to investigate multiple options and differing schemes of framing layouts and member properties and materials in a matter of minutes. As a result you will be providing your client with a more constructible and economical product. In addition, you will be able to take on more projects and grow your business.
4. Deal with Changes in a Timely Manner
Time is a valuable commodity; prolonged schedules and delays during construction are costly. Much of the success of a project, financially and otherwise, depends on the engineer producing designs and responding to changes in a timely manner. With the automation provided by RAM Structural System changes can be dealt with quickly and much less painfully. The timely response to changes and the increased quality and completeness of the design and of the design documents will result in fewer construction conflicts and errors, and hence a reduction in the resulting delays; the entire project will be completed in a more timely manner.
5. Intuitive User Interface
Providing the best tools to you also makes you most productive and efficient on your projects. Therefore the RAM Structural System provides a simple yet functional user-friendly interface, which is especially tailored for structural engineers. This significantly shortens the learning curve for new users so that they can start using the program for real-time projects in a very short amount of time.
6. A Successful Reputation in the Market
RAM Structural System has been used by many engineers and designers in thousands of projects all around the globe, and it has already proved its success and its reliability for more than 16 years. Providing robust, efficient and productive tools and aggressively developing reliable programs for engineers, RAM Structural System has become the leader in the market for the analysis and design of building systems.
RAM Steel
As part of the RAM Structural System, RAM Steel is a powerful, yet intuitive, fully integrated software application that empowers structural engineers to analyze, design, and create structural drawings of the gravity load-resisting members in steel buildings.
RAM Steel is a powerful tool that allows structural engineers to quickly design the gravity beams, columns and base plates of a structure. It empowers engineers to:
Quickly model and design the entire structure
Explore design options
Make better informed design decisions
Predict costs and provide more economical solutions
RAM Steel computes tributary loads to all members, reduces live loads in accordance with applicable building codes, and designs steel composite and non-composite beams, steel joists and joist girders, castellated and cellular beams, steel columns, and base plates for every level in a structure. By automating the most tedious, repetitive and time-consuming tasks, the engineer is able to focus on the more critical aspects of a project, thereby providing a superior, more economical solution to the client.
RAM Steel was the first commercially available floor framing program for steel structures. Released in 1990, it continues to lead the industry as the most powerful and comprehensive steel building design program. It towers over the competition with leading edge technology and refined and enhanced capabilities.
RAM Concrete
RAM Concrete is the only fully integrated concrete analysis, design, and documentation package for structural engineers.
With RAM Concrete, you can efficiently model both gravity and lateral systems; perform complete gravity and lateral load generation and distribution, including live load reduction and skip loading per ACI-318; design and detail reinforcing requirements for beams, columns, and walls per ACI-318 or BS8110; and produce complete CAD files for floor framing plans, frame and wall elevations, and beam and column schedules.
RAM Foundation
Ram Foundation is an integrated module within the RAM Structural System that performs the design, evaluation, and analysis of spread, continuous, and pile cap foundations.
RAM Foundation quickly produces optimum foundation designs for the entire structure based on a wide range of customizable design criteria and user options. With its interactive tools, designs can be refined for both foundation dimensions and steel reinforcement. Once designed, foundation calculations, details, and foundation plans are produced with just a few clicks of the mouse, using RAM's customizable reports and dxf output capabilities.
3) Multiple Foundation Types
All three of the most commonly used foundation element types: spread footings, continuous footings, and pile supported caps, are supported by RAM Foundation. Different foundation scenarios can easily be investigated and evaluated with minimal revision time.
4) Design Optimization
RAM Foundation automatically sizes footing dimensions and reinforcement using the design criteria the user has specified and all relevant parameters from the RAM Structural System model. The program is NOT limited to performing design checks, which would require the user to iteratively find an optimum footing design.
5) Flexible and Advanced Design Criteria Options
RAM Foundation offers a broad range of user specified criteria. Engineers can customize the RAM Foundation environment to the specific needs of a project and use these settings as the default for future RAM Foundation sessions. In addition, RAM Foundation allows the user to specify numerous fine grain design options including
Design of spread footings and pile caps for either true design forces or for soil capacity
Specify thickness increment and plan dimension increments to be used during optimization
Ability to group spread footings of equal dimensions based on controlling reinforcing design
Option to keep spread footings square during optimization
Ability to specify a minimum number of bars in footings
Option to use the same number of bars in both directions for spread footings
Consideration of construction tolerance for piles
Ability to either explicitly define clear bar cover, bar spacing, and reinforcement ratio requirements for reinforcement or use the values required by the specified design code.
6) Flexible Editing of Designs
RAM's well known View/Update command exists in RAM Foundation as well. Once an optimized design has been selected by the program the user may change the footing dimensions, reinforcing, or material properties to fine tune the design.
7) Reports and Drawings
Ram Foundation offers a wide range of design reports summarizing the selected design criteria, user preferences, material quantities, design forces, and design results. Each report can be viewed on screen, stored in a text file, or sent to the printer. In addition, once RAM Foundation has performed the design for each of the footings in the model, a DXF footing design schedule can be created in Ram Manager to automatically generate drawings.
RAM CONCEPT
RAM Concept saves you precious time and money. Its finite element- based analysis provides major advantages over conventional strip methods, allowing you to handle complex floor design more accurately and with more confidence in the results.
No matter how complicated, an entire elevated slab or mat foundation can be designed more efficiently using RAM Concept. It easily accounts for steps, openings, complicated loadings, and other irregularities.
Developed for reinforced or post-tensioned slabs and mats, RAM Concept will save you precious time and money in the design of concrete structures. Its finite element based analysis provides major advantages over conventional strip methods, allowing you to handle complex floor design more accurately and with more confidence in the results. Also, when changes occur you can make them quickly and redesign the entire slab or mat instead of dealing with changes in many individual strips. The ability to model in slabs and mats quickly is provided by allowing you to import drawings to use as a background.
In addition, RAM Concept links with RAM Structural System and STAAD.Pro, which allows engineers to perform gravity and lateral analysis and design on multi-story 2 way slab (post-tensioned or mild reinforced) concrete buildings.
Increase Profitability with Faster Designs
RAM Concept is the most efficient tool available for designing concrete floor systems and mat/raft foundations. By quickly modeling the actual slab geometry, RAM Concept allows you to spend your time designing, not modeling. RAM Concept's design process is also highly productive, with automated design strip layout and integrated design of studded shear reinforcement (studrails). RAM Concept was designed to fit into an engineering office's workflow-it allows imports of drawings for ease of layout and exports of the final design for preliminary structural drawings.
Benefits:
Save time and money on designs
Provide smooth work flow from architectural drawings through structural drawings
Design More Accurately
Since RAM Concept allows you to model the slab geometry precisely you can avoid the approximations that are necessary in strip models. RAM Concept's advanced analysis fully considers irregular slab geometries so you can be sure your design is safe and accurate. RAM Concept's 3D analysis allows the slab to pick the most efficient natural load path which results in more efficient designs with less reinforcement. RAM Concept also automatically determines tributary areas and applies the appropriate live load reduction to each area of the slab-there is no need to use a single approximate or conservative live load reduction factor.
Benefits:
Have confidence that your analysis and design are accurate
Design more efficient cost-effective structures
Use One Tool for All Elevated Slabs and Mat/Raft Foundations
RAM Concept can design a wide range of structure types. This reduces the need to purchase and learn other products. RAM Concept can design post-tensioned, reinforced concrete and hybrid systems, elevated slabs and mat/raft foundations, one-way slabs, two-ways slabs, beams, and joist systems. Some engineers also use RAM Concept for the design of structural walls.
Benefits:
Avoid purchasing and maintaining additional software
Avoid learning curve for additional software
Handle Irregular Geometries Easily and Confidently
RAM Concept can easily and accurately model irregular slabs and support layouts, openings of any shape anywhere in the slab, arbitrary steps in slab surface or soffit, drop caps and drop panels, and a wide variety of other configurations. RAM Concept can use orthotropic slab properties to model one-way slabs, no torsion beams, reduced restraint with pour strips, and other structural behaviors. Model your slab the way it really is, not merely the way your design tool can model it.
Benefits:
Save time by eliminating the need to dumb down the structure to fit the software
Have confidence in the correctness of the analysis and design
Realistic Tendon Modeling
RAM Concept allows you to model tendons in their true positions. Banded, distributed, or arbitrary tendons with virtually any profile can be easily modeled. Tendons can be swept around openings and can terminate anywhere in the floor system. Tendon calculations (including friction calculations and elongations) accurately consider horizontal and vertical curves. RAM Concept's tendon loading analyses consider full 3D hyperstatic (secondary) effects, including restraint from shearwalls and stiff columns.
Benefits:
Accurately understand the effects of the tendons on the slab
Accurately predict tendon stresses and elongations
Determine tendon layout problems at design-time, not construction
Save drafting time-export a tendon layout plan
Most Accurate Punching Shear Analysis and Design Anywhere
Punching shear design is critical in slabs-don't take chances on your projects.
RAM Concept can check punching shear capacity for any irregular slab geometry. RAM Concept also automatically designs studded shear reinforcement (studrails) as required. Punching shear can be checked and reinforcement designed at columns below slabs and at transfer columns on floors and mats/rafts. These capabilities can save a day of design time on every slab.
Benefits:
Avoid time-wasting manual transfer of punching shear data between programs
Eliminate time required to simplify real punching geometry into standard interior, edge, and corner conditions
Have confidence that your punching designs are accurate
Save drafting time and avoid drafting errors-export a punching shear reinforcement plan
Full-Building Lateral Analysis Compatibility with STAAD.Pro, RAM Structural System, and Other Products
RAM Concept can design your floor system for the beam and slab lateral forces in any full-building lateral analysis. RAM Concept's "Lateral Self-Equilibrium" loadings ensure that your floor system can provide the lateral analysis load path from the full-building analysis. Analysis forces can be easily imported from STAAD and the RAM Structural System, or manually specified for other lateral analyses.
Benefits:
Design your slab for lateral loadings at the same time as gravity loadings
Ensure safe complete load path for lateral loadings
Create Professional Reports, Export CAD Drawings
RAM Concept allows you to customize a professional report that covers the design of the entire slab systems. Include any plan or perspective drawing that is viewed on-screen as well as information from text and table windows. Export any plan drawing to CAD.
Benefits:
Avoid manual report compilation time-create submission-ready complete reports straight from the software
Save drafting time-export the final design as preliminary reinforcement CAD drawings
Handle Changes Easily
Unlike strip programs, RAM Concept can easily update an entire design after a change is made. Need to move a column or to account for a PT strand breaking in the field? Need to account for concrete not coming up to specified strength or for bar cover changed due to change in fire rating? These changes can be accommodated and the slab redesigned and checked in a matter of minutes, not hours or days.
Benefits:
Minimize redesign time for the changes that inevitably occur
Integration with STAAD.Pro and RAM Structural System
RAM Concept integrates with STAAD.Pro and the RAM Structural System. RAM Concept can import geometry, loads and lateral analysis results from either program and can export reactions to the RAM Structural System for column design by RAM Concrete.
Benefits:
Avoid duplication in definition of structure and loadings
Avoid manual transfer of gravity column and wall loads on transfer slabs and mat foundations
Avoid manual transfer of reactions from slab design program to column design program
Ensure lateral load path compatibility without manual transfer of lateral forces
A RAM Concept user comments on how his firm increased their productivity tenfold with this integration.
"The project we were working on was a 32-story condominium with post-tensioned flat slabs in Miami, Florida, and with the improved link between RAM Structural System and RAM Concept we were able to do in one day what previously took us ten days. Our firm has found many benefits to using RAM Structural System and RAM Concept together. For instance, with our multi-story concrete buildings we used to have to spend a lot of time transferring loads from different programs and tracking our loads-both gravity and lateral-all the way down to the foundations. Now RAM takes care of that for us."
Alex Salmin, P.E., Chief Structural Engineer Trillium Structures, Inc
