1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Don't waste your money
By Aitor on 3 May 2013
Format: Paperback
Saying that this book is disappointing is simply too indulgent. The book is poorly edited, the presentation is far too basic and the examples are extremely simple even for a beginner. And on top of all that it costs an incredible 72 EUR. Now I've seen it, I wouldn't pay 10 EUR for it. In summary: it's a complete rip-off, don`t waste your money...
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A must for beginners 22 May 2012
By James T. Anabo - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This book was printed on May 14, 2012, (as what was written on the last page of this book) the same day that they packed and shipped this item.
Anyway going to my own review, I decided to purchase this book two days after they've put this up in Amazon website because I was looking for something very specific to supplement what I have learned from Munir Hamad's Staad 2005 tutorial. In comparing the two, there is not much difference in the contents as their respective flows of discussion follow a similar pattern of starting from the very basic functions going up to what an engineer might decide to learn or not. The only tangible difference is that in this book, it included certain new features and codes that were only recently included in Staad Pro v8i. Also, the difference in presentation is that this book uses a liberal amount of screen shots in visually instructing and simulating what would be the actual step, appearance, and outcome when a learner is on the computer. The illustrations also have bubbles telling the learner what to click, check, tick, choose, or type and what are the purposes of fields, tabs, and buttons. In short, the learner only has to spend a very minimal amount of time in understanding what step to do next from reading as opposed to reading an instruction several times before finally understanding what the particular action does. Truly, the saying "picture speaks a thousand words" holds true here. In my own estimate, about 75% of this book is laid in illustration, which is very helpful if one has absolutely no idea of what the myriad of functions and features in Staad Pro v8i does. It literally baby-steps you into learning and imbibing the functions to the point that you would like to call it Mother.
However, as what I have mentioned before, I was looking for something very specific since I already know 90% of what Staad has to offer. Of course, the ultimate goal in learning a certain structural software is not to model or generate results but to know and understand why a particular element fails a certain criteria. There is a brief discussion on pass-fail results but it does not expound on why a particular code dictates that a specific element failed its criteria. The analysis in this book was very limited, some of the topics do not even have an analysis. They only have reports that were mostly tied to what the Staad generated, as in, "this section will fail because Staad's calculation says it fails".
Of course, I cannot fault this book from falling short of my expectations since it is geared towards the students who have now only heard of Staad Pro, or for engineers who have not encountered Staad before. I was sold because the title of this book says "Structural Analysis and Design using Staad Pro v8i". How many other ways can anyone who is in the field of structural engineering interpret that? I was apparently expecting a different kind of analysis from what the book meant, as in, if I may repeat "this section will fail because Staad's calculation says it fails" as opposed to "Staad gives a result of fail because according to BS code paragraph this one section this one, the section must withstand a shear of not more than one-third the square root of ultimate strength of concrete (just for example)." Naturally, the shear from this section was obtained through stiffness matrix (which is the reason why we need Staad) but why does this value fail or pass a certain code.
I hope Dr. Sivakumar Naganathan comes up with a second part or another book that discusses about how to interpret Staad results and when to decide that the structure is truly safe or constructible. If my opinion were to be asked, I would like the book to be about studying a structure with a certain lattice, say a building with 6 levels and a certain number of bays and subjected to all conditions within the parametric range available in Staad. Why do we select such sections or such materials? Why does the section fail from an academic theoretical standpoint? How do we trace the error? How do we rectify it? Why does Staad qualify this section as the optimum? And why this particular section, although Staad reports as safe, is not reasonably acceptable from a practical, economic, or logical standpoint because it might be ridiculously big or that it might appear visually absurd.
My needs might be different from what this book intends to teach. But since I know a fair amount of the functions and features of Staad, I can safely say that this book is what you will ever need to learn Staad Pro v8i. To put it in a single word, I'd say it's "definitive". Although it doesn't contain a glossary or index of terms from where you could trace the description of a particular function if you happened to forget what it does, it however includes a list of keyboard shortcuts with pictures of what the outcome would be, which is pretty handy.
This book is as complete as it can be. I could not say enough. And in the future, I know that when I could not remember a certain function, I am confident that this book can refresh me. Although one might be apprehensive about how much this book costs, considering that it is only a tutorial, one will be surprised at how much effort has been placed in it in order to genuinely deliver or exceed the kind of skill anyone expects to achieve and can consider priceless. It is truly worth the investment and you will never need any other book again. Unless of course, Staad decide to change their functions.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Good book...... 13 Oct. 2013
By Abdul Samad Patel - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Excellent book. It could be more helpful if it provides information on "PIPE" stress. It would be very helpful if it should have included field related issues and problems. For Staad Pro beginners, it is worth to have it.
Its very good for beginner 12 Mar. 2014
By Basem - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Its very good for beginner and good for design steel element. The best in the book the short cut keys of orders.
Four Stars 10 Sept. 2014
By Rafid Al-Hasani - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Good book for those who want to start learning this program. Recommend to read.
Five Stars 15 Sept. 2014
By Michael - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
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