XSTRUCTURES

RAM Concept

Concrete Slab Design Software

The Go-To For Concrete Slab And Foundation Design

Economically design post-tensioned and reinforced concrete floors

RAM Concept is structural software for the design of post-tensioned and reinforced concrete floors including slabs, mats, and rafts. It provides exceptional visibility into compliance, efficiency, and practicality. Design floors and foundations reliably and efficiently, saving time and money, and overcoming the most common concerns you face as a designer. RAM Concept allows you to easily design complex floor geometries and incorporate changes with ease using powerful task automation and clearly organized output.

Design

Optimize Post-Tensioned Concrete Floor Designs
Optimize the design of post-tensioning, reinforcement, and studded shear reinforcement for post-tensioned concrete floors using cloud-based optimization. Save engineering time by letting the optimizer sort through thousands of design alternatives and have confidence that your post-tensioned design has reduced material and labor costs.

Design Raft Or Mat Foundations To International Standards
Design using soil springs and a zero-tension analysis. Confidently complete your designs with the extensive support of international standards.

Design And Analyze With Finite Elements
Complete building analysis, design, and drafting with finite element analysis. Reduce time spent waiting for results with fast solvers.

Analyze

Analyze Gravity, Lateral, And Temperature Loads
Design and analyze simple or complex concrete floors for a wide range of loading conditions, including skip live loads, wind/seismic loads, and temperature loads.

Analyze Deflections For Time-Dependent Effects
Capture time-varying properties of concrete in your analysis. Account for creep, shrinkage, and cracking at various stages in the analysis, accurately predicting deflections with consideration for how concrete truly behaves.

Analyze Floors For Walking Vibration
Study dynamic behavior, including resonant and impulsive effects, of simple and complex concrete floors due to walking vibration. Evaluate sensitivity criteria for occupants or sensitive equipment.

RAM Concept is the ultimate structural design solution for post-tensioned (PT) and conventionally reinforced slabs, mats, and rafts. RAM Concept empowers structural engineers to design floor systems cost effectively and with exceptional visibility into the compliance, efficiency, and practicality of the design. RAM Concept interoperates with many engineering applications and formats, enabling an engineer’s work to extend to other purposes during a project, including building information modeling, documentation, and collaboration with other structural designers.

SLAB DESIGN FOR THE PRACTICING ENGINEER

Bentley developed RAM Concept with the practicing structural designer in mind. Several key features automate time-consuming tasks engineers must perform, including automatic layout of tendons, design spans, and column and middle strips. Modeling commands enable fast floor rework when geometric revisions are necessary. You can easily access a wealth of information and results using a well-organized, layer-themed interface. Both auto-design and specify-check methods are available, with the ability to override any program-selected design entities.

The cloud-based PT slab optimization feature uses high-powered search algorithms to automatically search thousands of possible solutions, eliminate solutions that fail design code criteria, and identify the design option that minimizes the total material and labor cost of post-tensioning, mild reinforcement, and studded shear reinforcement. This feature reduces engineering design time by eliminating the need for tedious manual iteration while generating significant cost savings for your projects.

REALISTIC TENDON MODELING

With RAM Concept, you can model tendons in their true three-dimensional positions. Models of banded, distributed, or arbitrary tendons with virtually any profile can be easily created. RAM Concept’s tendon loading analyses consider full 3D hyperstatic (secondary) effects, including restraint from shear walls and stiff columns. These features facilitate a better understanding of the effects of tendons on the slab.

ACCURATE PUNCHING SHEAR ANALYSIS AND DESIGN SOFTWARE

RAM Concept can check punching shear capacity for any irregular slab geometry. It automatically designs studrails as required, eliminating the time needed to simplify real punching geometry into standard interior, edge, and corner conditions. Punching shear can be checked and reinforcements designed at columns below slabs and at transfer columns on floors and mats/ rafts. These capabilities can save a day of design time on every slab.

ACCURATE ANALYSIS OF LONG-TERM SLAB DEFLECTIONS

RAM Concept features load history analysis, a method for calculating deflections with accurate consideration of time-dependent material behavior, cracking, and load history. The application considers the effects of cracking, creep, shrinkage, tension stiffening, and load sequence. Implemented creep and shrinkage models include the models outlined in ACI 209.2, AS 3600, and EC2. RAM Concept rigorously calculates curvature induced by internal restraint to shrinkage from reinforcement and can approximate cracking caused by external restraint to shrinkage from stiff supports. Important calculated parameters are tabulated for each cross section for quick review and verification. The load history feature provides the precision needed to assess long-term deflections accurately while keeping run time and processing demands within reason.

Reduce design time and the costs of project material and labor with the cloud-based PT Optimization feature.
Generate realistic tendon and reinforcement layouts.
"Of all the structural software that I use, RAM Concept is the one that I would most unreservedly recommend. I wouldn’t want to do my job without it. It’s world class in just about every way."
Dan Popp, S.E.
Principal, Wallace Design Collective

RAM Concept At-A-Glance

TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

RAM Concept is a structural engineering design software for concrete slabs, mats, and rafts that helps design floor systems in a more cost-effective way.

Processor
Multiple cores utilized but not required

Operating System
Windows 10 or later

RAM
1GB recommended Hard Disk 2.5GB free disk space

Display
256MB video card with DirectX 9 compatible (DirectX 10 compatible recommended)

For the most up-to-date system requirements, visit Bentley Communities.

LICENSING AND SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS

Perpetual License

One-time purchase with SELECT (Annual Maintenance) Option

One-Year Subscription​

License rental for 12 months via Virtuosity

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