# STAAD PRO vs RISA



## PowerStroke79_PE (Aug 5, 2019)

[SIZE=12pt]STAAD PRO vs RISA, any comments? Ive used Risa for years but i feel their subscriptions fees are too much. Considering STAAD and saving in the long run. [/SIZE]


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## Titleistguy (Aug 5, 2019)

Never really used STAAD PRO, used Risa 3D and Risa Floor for many years and Ram Elements, and Ram Structural Systems which I believe has since been purchased by Bentley.   In general I find most of these softwares are all the same but different and it's just a matter of preference.  Risa costs have got pretty absurd.  I've always wanted to learn Etabs and SAP but never worked anywhere that used those.  Good luck with your search!


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## BCEngineer (Aug 5, 2019)

The pre-processor of STAAD.PRO is very complicated. You will definitely miss RISA if you make the change. The anual cost of Risa is around $1000. BTW, how much is the difference if buy STAAD?


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## PowerStroke79_PE (Aug 6, 2019)

BCEngineer said:


> The pre-processor of STAAD.PRO is very complicated. You will definitely miss RISA if you make the change. The anual cost of Risa is around $1000. BTW, how much is the difference if buy STAAD?


By pre-processor you mean? Have you used their latest version of Staad Pro? I'm curious because they just had a major change in the software as it was, I believe, a year ago. They now have 64bit processing for faster results. I've spent the last year really doing a lot of steel buildings, 1 story PEB and 2 story slab on deck, and am very curious about their detailing output of steel and concrete elements. 

Actually, Risa 3d is 1600/yr. and Risa Foundation is 1000/yr. Typically this is enough to survive, however, in trying to compare apples to apples then I include the entire Risa Suite as Bentley includes an entire suite with Structural Enterprise. Structural Enterprise has a steep purchase initial price of 11K, but the buyer gets a perpetual license for Staad Pro (Non Advanced) and either Ram Connections or a Foundation program. After the first year you have a maintenance fee of $2k and therefore are entitled to all upgrades, trainings etc.. So I did up to a 10yr projection and by the 4th year im paying more with Risa (and own nothing). Everyone has different feelings about subscription fees, but I just feel uncomfortable investing so much money over the years and ending up with nothing assuming I just stop the subscription.


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## PowerStroke79_PE (Aug 6, 2019)

Titleistguy said:


> Never really used STAAD PRO, used Risa 3D and Risa Floor for many years and Ram Elements, and Ram Structural Systems which I believe has since been purchased by Bentley.   In general I find most of these softwares are all the same but different and it's just a matter of preference.  Risa costs have got pretty absurd.  I've always wanted to learn Etabs and SAP but never worked anywhere that used those.  Good luck with your search!


Yeah I've heard great things about Etabs, but looking at pricing it seems out of my range. Thanks for input!


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## TehMightyEngineer (Aug 7, 2019)

I've used both a lot. I prefer RISA hands down to STAAD in almost every way.

RISA can be legally shared between myself and my partners office on a single license. Thus, our $5,600 is more like $2,300 so at 10 years we're still ahead on RISA.

Bentley's license department is evil. RISA used to be the good guys but just got bought out so I'm crossing my fingers they're still the good guys they've always been.


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## Titleistguy (Aug 8, 2019)

Bentley's pricing is brutal.  

Latest versions of Risa now can let you set deflection criteria for when it recommends shape sizes which is nice but that's why I always preferred Ram Elements bc they did that many years before.  Also the calculation outputs for Ram Elements were always far better than Risa in terms of organization and showing intermediate calculated values.


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## PowerStroke79_PE (Aug 8, 2019)

TehMightyEngineer said:


> I've used both a lot. I prefer RISA hands down to STAAD in almost every way.
> 
> RISA can be legally shared between myself and my partners office on a single license. Thus, our $5,600 is more like $2,300 so at 10 years we're still ahead on RISA.
> 
> Bentley's license department is evil. RISA used to be the good guys but just got bought out so I'm crossing my fingers they're still the good guys they've always been.


Well a huge disappointment is Staad Pro and Ram Elements use NDS 2005 Code. I thought about it really hard, and just couldn't let that go. I'm sure I could find a work around, but I really didn't expect that.  



Titleistguy said:


> Bentley's pricing is brutal.
> 
> Latest versions of Risa now can let you set deflection criteria for when it recommends shape sizes which is nice but that's why I always preferred Ram Elements bc they did that many years before.  Also the calculation outputs for Ram Elements were always far better than Risa in terms of organization and showing intermediate calculated values.


Indeed Deflection limits is nice to have. Results and CAD Drafting Exports were a big reason I was wanting Bentley. 

I've renewed with Risa. Looking forward to another year. Thanks to everyone for sharing their comments.


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## Dr. Ibrahim Mohamed (Jun 7, 2022)

I want to know, what is famous and well distributed in USA market; Staad or Risa 3D or ETABS?


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## E720 (Jun 7, 2022)

I work at a fabricator and we see a lot of models from a lot of different engineers. In my experience Bentley's RAM Structural System as well as CSI's ETABS are the most common in the US. Note that I work in the steel industry.


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## BamaStrucPESE (Jun 8, 2022)

E720 said:


> I work at a fabricator and we see a lot of models from a lot of different engineers. In my experience Bentley's RAM Structural System as well as CSI's ETABS are the most common in the US. Note that I work in the steel industry.


I think it depends in which industry you work, my company does a lot of work for chemical plants and refineries, and I don't think we even have licenses for those, let alone use them.

In my experience, having used both Risa and Staad quite a bit, RISA is more user friendly and works well for smaller structures (1-2 levels/floors) while staad is a more robust software that works great for large structures with many fixed loads (pieces of equipment for me).


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