User:Dazaross/sandbox

SPACE GASS is a multi-purpose 3D analysis and design structural engineering software package.  Its extensive range of features make it suitable for anything from beams, trusses and frames to buildings, towers, tanks, cable structures and bridges.  Capabilities include a 64-bit multi-core solver, silky smooth 3D rendered graphics, plate finite elements, frame elements, cable elements, tension/compression-only elements, moving loads and links to many CAD and building management programs.^[1]

SPACE GASS was born in 1983 along with its companion program PLANE GASS.  The names come from SPACE (3D) or PLANE (2D) General Analysis of Structural Systems.

They were developed specifically for personal computers at a time when PCs were in their infancy and engineers were still using specialist computer bureaus to run their structural analyses overnight.  Due to the newfound convenience of being able to perform structural analysis and design in-house on a PC, engineers soon warmed to the idea of programs like SPACE GASS and PLANE GASS, and hence their popularity soared.

By 1990 it became apparent that structural engineers wanted 3D rather than 2D analysis and so PLANE GASS was discontinued.  SPACE GASS continued to be developed and new modules were added for non-linear analysis, dynamic analysis, buckling analysis, steel design and reinforced concrete design.  The design modules were also adapted for the major US, European and Asia-Pacific design codes, and by 1999 SPACE GASS was being used worldwide in over 70 countries.

More recently, a sparse matrix solver that fully supports the parallel processing power of modern multi-core computers was added.  A new user interface has also been developed that operates in wireframe, outline or fully rendered photo-realistic modes and takes full advantage of today's super-fast graphics cards.

The development of SPACE GASS has been continuous since its inception and continues unabated today.^[2]

SPACE GASS is a multi-purpose structural analysis and design program for 2D and 3D structures. It comes with a wide range of features that make it suitable for any job from small beams, trusses and portal frames to large high rise buildings, towers, cranes and bridges. Items such as graphical input, polar coordinates, elastic supports, pin-ended members, tension-only members, rigid member offsets, moving loads and non-linear analysis are all standard features.

SPACE GASS has been designed so that you have everything at your fingertips. The main graphics display, which is visible almost all of the time, is the central focus of the program and constantly shows the current state of the model. It lets you zoom, pan or rotate your model in a silky smooth motion even if you are working with a large fully rendered model. You can display your model in wireframe, outline or fully rendered modes. Toolbar buttons that instantly activate the most frequently used commands, and toggle buttons that turn options on or off and indicate their state at a glance, give the program a highly visual look. A logically arranged menu system gives access to all of the program’s features in a way that makes it impossible for you to get lost. Context sensitive help is available for each screen and, if that is not enough, the entire SPACE GASS user manual is included on-line!

SPACE GASS has a feature rich set of graphics tools which enable virtually all parts of the data to be input or edited graphically. This includes the structure, loads, and design data. The list of graphics tools includes draw, move, rotate, copy, mirror, erase, stretch, subdivide, intersect, connect, merge, renumber, attributes, restrain, section, material, constrain, load, area load, moving load, combine, mass, steel member, steel connect, show, label, annotate, redraw, zoom, pan, viewpoint, filter, query, grid, snap, ortho, attach, plane, coordinates and scale.

As an alternative to graphical input, an enhanced form of spreadsheet input, called Datasheet Input, is available for all types of data. Special buttons for generation and other data specific items such as section property shape input or material library input make datasheet input indispensable. SPACE GASS also offers pro-forma text file input and standard structure wizard input.

Although SPACE GASS is very easy to learn and use, it contains a huge number of sophisticated features and capabilities. Most of these come as standard, however a few of the more specialized ones are supplied as options.^[3]

Official website