Resources
A working index of what I point other structural engineers to: my own calculators, the blog posts worth starting with, the codes I design against, and a few outside tools. Bookmark it. I keep it current.
Free calculators
Everything at loadings.struct.work, free and mostly open-source. Full writeup in the case study.
BROWSER ADD-ONS
Blog posts by topic
Deep dives on Canadian structural engineering, from blog.struct.work.
CONCRETE DESIGN
STRUCTURAL MODELLING & FEA
- Why Your Software Says 'Singular Matrix'
- Choosing the Right Finite Element Type
- Building Structural Models the Right Way
- Finite Element Meshing
- Shear Deformation in Deep Members
- A Guide to Joint Fixity in Structural Modelling
- Frame Stiffness vs FEA
- What to Change in Your Model to Gain Confidence
- Substitute Frame Method
- Understanding Shear Area
- Converting Geotechnical P-Y Curves Into Spring Models
- Why Your Pipeline Settlement Analysis May Be Wrong
LOADS: WIND, SNOW, LIVE (NBCC)
- Decoding the NBCC Wind Commentary
- Key Wind Design Changes in NBCC 2020
- The 'Why' Behind NBCC's Snow Load Factors
- A Structural Engineer's Guide to the Journey of Snow
- NBCC 2020 Snow Loads on Modern Roofs
- 5 Live Load Nuances in the NBCC Commentary
- Navigating Wind & Snow Loads in Part 4 vs Part 9
- Mastering NBC 2020 Load Combinations
- Nailing Importance Categories in NBC 2020
- Navigating Serviceability (SLS) in NBC 2020
THE NBCC: PART 4 VS PART 9
SEISMIC & PERFORMANCE-BASED DESIGN
Standards I design against
The codes and standards behind the work and the calculators.
NBCC 2020
CSA A23.3
CSA S16
ACI 350 / 350.3
ASME B36.10
UFC 3-340-02
EGBC Guidelines
Outside tools I lean on
A short, honest list rather than a padded one. Ollama runs the local language models behind my own tooling. More recommendations are on the way. If you want a specific pointer, ask me.