Manual for ROBOT

[DonBAE]

Is there an actual manual for how to use ROBOT somewhere?

The online documentation that the program links to is out of date and provides borderline useless information.

We are a US based firm and have access to Robot now thru the design suite license but trying to learn the program is almost impossible because there does not appear to be any documentation on the available features.

The wind load simulation tool seems like it could be very useful but there is a single white paper available that provides absolutely no insight on how or what the input options in the program do, how can we use this tool according the ASCE 7 rules?

[pawelpiechnik]

Don,

Have you checked these resources out ?

Getting Started guides :

 https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/robot-structural-analysis-products/getting-started/caas/simpl...

Tutorials and Webinars:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/robot-structural-analysis-forum/robot-structural-analysis-webinars/td...5523337

Books:

•https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/099151811X/ref=acr_dpproductdetail_text?ie=UTF8&showViewpoint...

•https://www.amazon.com/Autodesk-Robot-Structural-Analysis-Professional/dp/0991518136

•https://www.virginiae-learning.com/collections/autodesk-robot-tutorials-rsa

NAFEMS verification Manual:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/robot-structural-analysis-products/learn-explore/caas/simplec...html

Wind simulation:

Overall feature description and demo:

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmsFC0mNayM

•https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/robot-structural-analysis-products/getting-started/caas/Cloud...

•https://help.autodesk.com/view/RSAPRO/2021/ENU/?guid=GUID-12AEE173-BC44-4A37-88DA-26D569379292

•In-depth material:

•https://books.apple.com/pl/book/wind-load-simulation-in-autodesk-robot-structural-analysis/id9040435...

•https://bimandbeam.typepad.com/files/wind-load-simulation-in-autodesk-robot-structural-analysis-prof...

•tunnel vs simulation validation: https://bimandbeam.typepad.com/files/robot-structural-analysis-professional-wind-simulator-validatio...

•best practices: https://help.autodesk.com/view/RSAPRO/2021/ENU/?guid=GUID-28F99C03-B014-4830-87FD-60CF7018390A

Please feel free to share your opinion on what type of learning content you would like to see for RSA and yourself:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-structure-forum/call-for-feedback-learning-content-for-structur...

regards

[DonBAE]

Pawelpiechnik,

Thank you for the links I've started checking them out.

Some feedback from what I've seen in the links so far. Robot seems to be a very powerful tool but unlike your competitors in the market you don't seem to provide, at least not readily available, complete updated documentation of the program and all of it's features. 

"Have you checked these resources out ?"

no, I clicked on help from within the program and there was no option for a manual, I clicked on the "start here" option which took me to the new user quick start info page but a large portion of the information provided there seemed to be for an older version of Robot as some of the options where not present in Robot 2020.

"Books"

I'm sorry but I refuse to pay for books prepared by a third party when every other developer in the industry provides an actual manual for their programs. Regardless the books you linked to are several versions out of date.

"NAFEMS Verification"

This is a good resource thank you for the link. Do you have any other verifications done according to each of the national codes allowed in the program, I've seen some posts on here that indicated there may be errors in things such as concrete column design?

"Wind Simulation"

The links you provided give no information on how to actually use this tool according to the supported national codes allowed in the program. Two of the links are to the very general user guide which is literally just a page regurgitating the information that is shown on the dialog windows in Robot, where is the documentation on how to actually use this tool??

"In depth Material"

Again I'm not paying for a third party book to get information that should be provided with the software package already. 

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[pawelpiechnik]

The newest Quick Start Guide for RSA can be found here: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/robot-structural-analysis-products/learn/caas/qsguides/robot-...

[DonBAE]

@pawelpiechnik excellent thank you for the new link.

Is there any possibility to get some more advanced tutorials, tutorials for each of the concrete design tools, and a tutorial for the section tool?

for more advanced tutorials:

- Load combinations - need a detailed with examples video explaining how grouping and relations work as well as what the load nature means. Do an example 2D frame with 4 spans and show how to accomplish live load patterning using grouping/relations. Explain how to apply Roof Live Loads, Rain Loads, etc. (these are buried under the snow nature I believe)

- Steel framing supporting slab on deck at floor and metal deck at roof - topics to cover: beam top offsets at floors, modeling the slab on deck as a shell with and without continuity over beams, rigid, semi-rigid,and flexible diaphragms, gravity and lateral analysis, wind and seismic force generation. The provided steel framing tutorial is of a very simple steel frame that does not touch on any of the complications that can be encountered.

- Two-Way Concrete floor system with drop panels- topics to cover: modeling the geometry so as not to double count slab thickness at drop panels, slab section cuts for column and middle strip integration per code, long term deflections, punching shear. Included also a region with a T-Beam and discuss how to model the geometry so the flange and slab do not lead to double counting of stiffness.

- Concrete Shear Walls with openings - topics to cover: panel section cuts for design forces, P-Delta analysis

- Wind Tunnel - Provide a tutorial video explaining the various options and how to achieve results that are in compliance with the various building codes.

[DonBAE]

@pawelpiechnik I went through the new tutorial videos at the link you posted and I must say these are incredibly shallow and really do not provide any insight on how to actually use the software beyond "push this button to do exactly what this button says it does"  these and any tutorial really need to have much much more discussion in them about the impacts of setting choices to the analysis or element design, discussion of how Robot is performing certain calculations, etc.

As an example looking at the Reinforced concrete reinforcement video:
[timestamp 2:58 in video]"Click on reinforcement tab and click on x[-] Area check box and click apply", this should have a discussion about what information is being shown on the screen such as this graph shows required bar are per unit length in the global x direction, under Robot's sign convention [-] is bottom reinforcement for the panels modeled.

[timestamp 3:22 in video]"click on the reinforcement tab and then number and bars and click apply", this should have a discussion along the lines of this is shown the number of bars required over a unit length, the number of bars is based on the required are and the bar size as defined....???? I don't know where this is defined because I've yet to find it in the manual so I couldn't tell you what bar size the number of bars plot is based on (this is the kind of thing that should be showing up in this tutorial)

[timestamp 3:34 in video]"click on crack width x and then click apply", should have a discussion explaining what surface of the slab this applies to, why over 90% model doesn't appear to have the plot applied to it (the diagram key has a color for 0 value but seems this diagram plots null for 0 locations.

The first video on this page for the references above: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/robot-structural-analysis-products/learn/caas/qsarticles/code...