Shell Element Designer
Powerful automated design software that designs tens of thousands of shell elements for hundreds of cases in a matter of minutes — from your completed analysis results.
What is Shell Element Designer?
It takes your completed analysis results and performs code-compliant design of reinforced concrete shell elements. The output: graphical visualisations, the full raw results data, and optional validation calculations for any element and case of your choice.
- — AI-driven graphical designs for all panels
- — Full data access for every step of the design process
- — Latest version: v3.0
Full coverage of your shell element design
Flexural reinforcement
Design of flexural in-plane longitudinal reinforcement. Calculates required reinforcement and utilisation ratios.
ACI 318M · ACI 349M · Brondum & Nielsen 1974 · Clark & Cope 1984 · Eurocode 2 Part 1-1 · Eurocode 2 Part 2
Shear reinforcement
Design of out-of-plane shear reinforcement. Calculates required reinforcement and utilisation ratios.
ACI 318M · ACI 349M · Eurocode 2 Part 1-1 (WIP)
Crack width checks
Checks crack widths against code-specified and user-specified limits, and determines utilisation ratios.
Eurocode 2 Part 1-1
Long-term deflections
Checks long-term deflections against user-specified and code-specified limits.
ACI 349M · Eurocode 2 Part 1-1 (WIP)
See the design, not just the numbers
Shell Element Designer rebuilds the analysis model using artificial intelligence and automatically produces graphical data visualisations for all panels — required reinforcement, utilisation ratios and more, ready for reports.
Eurocode. American. Code independent.
Ultimate flexibility to design your structure to global codes and standards. Small adjustments to the input files re-run the whole design to a different code — in minutes.
Everything you need, as standard
Required reinforcement
Determines required reinforcement with utilisation ratios for every element.
Unlimited scale
No limit on the number of elements or load cases — a million design cases is a normal run.
Multiple layers
Multiple layers of reinforcement in each direction in each face; provided reinforcement optional.
Flexible units & conventions
Multiple force/moment units and sign conventions supported out of the box.
Automated processing
Built-in iterative automated data processing — minimal user input, maximum output.
Raw data access
The full step-by-step design data is output for you to use, validate and post-process.
Shell Element Designer — editions
| Trial | Basic | Professional | Ultimate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duration | 14 days | 1, 2 or 3 years | 1, 2 or 3 years | 1, 2 or 3 years |
| File size limit | 5 MB | No limit | No limit | No limit |
| Design codes | ||||
| Code independent | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Eurocode | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| American code | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| All future codes | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Advanced features | ||||
| Change sign convention | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Change units | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Graphical design plots | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Apply provided reinforcement | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Load combinations | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Validation calculations | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Bolt-Ons | ||||
| Autodesk® Robot Structural Analysis | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SAP2000® | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Abaqus SIMULIA™ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| All future Bolt-Ons | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Advanced tools | ||||
| Batch mode processing | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Commercial use | ||||
| Commercial use | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
*Shell Element Designer does not perform analysis; it performs designs on completed analyses. All editions include free technical support and free major version upgrades.
Version history
Version 3.0 [Release] — 25/07/2023
- Significant performance improvements utilising multiple processors — up to 90% faster on very large data sets depending on hardware.
- Load combinations functionality added (recommended to perform combinations in the analysis software).
- Advanced Menu option to toggle the results output file (default: Yes).
- ULS Shear Design (ACI318M-19) validation calculations implemented.
Version 2.6 [Release] — 15/01/2023
- Stability and performance improvements.
- Refinements to graphical design plots.
Version 2.0 – 2.5
- Introduced the Dynamico EzyWizard for simpler runs.
- Added graphical design visualisations and expanded design code coverage.
- Numerous quality-of-life and performance updates.
Version 1.0 [Release]
- First public release of Shell Element Designer.