Structural engineering, steel detailing and automation

AutoCAD & CAD

Steel detailing speeds up in AutoCAD when title blocks, grids, tags, cleanup, and plotting follow a standard that LISP and scripts can repeat. Speed without that standard is just faster errors.

AutoCAD & CAD

AutoLISP pays off on steel drawings when it freezes layers, inserts blocks, extracts attributes, and plots sets. Here are practical patterns—not a huge code dump—for structural teams.

AutoCAD & CAD

AutoCAD remains the sheet environment for many steel and PEB offices. Used with layers, blocks, and issued analysis data, it can produce consistent approval and shop drawings—without pretending to be a BIM modeler.

MBS

MBS and CAD agree only when grid, orientation, units, member sizes, and reactions are copied from the same issued run. Here is how PEB teams keep those models aligned.

MBS

MBS models, trial runs, issued output, and reaction tables need a folder and naming scheme so PEB teams can find the current analysis without opening every file.

PEB Engineering

PEB reaction data needs a workflow, not a one-off email: extract from issued MBS output, tabulate, review, hand to foundations, cite on drawings, and archive with the issue.

MBS

Before PEB reactions or member sizes leave the analysis group, check that the MBS run is complete, the geometry still matches the plan, and the load cases you think you ran are actually in the output.

MBS

A usable MBS reaction table has stable column IDs, visible units, separate load cases, and no mystery maxima. Here is a PEB layout foundations and CAD can both read.

Engineering Automation

Automation should parse issued MBS reports into reviewable tables, not scrape every file in a working folder. Here is a PEB-safe way to extract reactions and geometry without treating the script as design.