01 October 2002

Engineers International (REI), an American engineering software specialist, is further boosting its customer services in an effort to win more business in the region.

The California-headquartered company, which is a division of netGuru Inc, was incorporated in 1981 and today is a leading worldwide developer and distributor of high-quality PC-based software solutions and related information technology (IT) services for the engineering industry.

The company's core business is the development of cost-effective, Windows-based engineering solutions for the architectural, commercial, transportation and utility industries.

REI has been present and serving its vast user-base in the Middle East for more than 10 years through a dedicated channel network. The company has a Dubai-based branch office dedicated to provide prompt after-sales technical support and services to clients in the region.

"Our clients include big oil companies, structural consultants, government ministries and municipalities and also premier educational institutes throughout the Middle East," says Khurram Shahzad, manager of the Dubai office.

He continues: "REI constantly strives to satisfy its customers' requests. In an on-going effort to increase customer satisfaction, new customer service programmes have been implemented to heighten the support process. Besides traditional in-house and on-site training, we have implemented a live support system inside all of our products via our proprietary desk-sharing technology to expedite training."

REI, says Shahzad, revolutionised the discipline of civil and structural engineering by shifting the paradigm in engineering processes and workflow.

"It was the first company to invent STAAD, a civil engineering software for structural design and analysis for the architectural/engineering/construction (AEC) market," he says. ''The genius of STAAD lies in its ease of use and practical features that encompass the engineering process, making engineers' jobs easier. As a paradigm shifting technology, STAAD gained wide acceptance in the engineering markets and remains the leading structural analysis and design software in the world today. REI was the first to incorporate local governments engineering and building code into STAAD and to simultaneously provide the software in local languages worldwide."

The company's main products are:

STAAD.Pro 2002: REI's flagship product, a popular structural engineering software product for 3D model generation, analysis and design. "It is user-friendly and features a state-of-the-art user interface, visualisation tools, powerful analysis and design engines with advanced finite element and dynamic analysis capabilities," says Shahzad. "From model generation, analysis and design to visualisation and result verification, STAAD.Pro is the professional's choice for steel, concrete, timber, aluminium and cold-formed steel structures.

"It was developed by practising engineers for practising engineers around the globe. It has evolved over 20 years and is constantly guided by a premier industry-based steering committee. Development, maintenance, and support are all based upon the highest quality standards.

STAAD.Pro is fully COM (Component Object Model) compliant and is designed using an open architecture. Any third-party or in-house application can be seamlessly integrated with it.

"Complex models can be quickly and easily generated through powerful graphics, text and spreadsheet interfaces that provide true interactive model generation, editing, and analysis.

"The software is fully compatible with Windows 2000 and Windows ME, and is optimised for the new Windows XP.

STAAD.beava: is an integrated solution inside the STAAD.Pro environment. It uses 3D influence surfaces, which are generated by STAAD.Pro as part of the loading process. STAAD.beava will automatically generate influence surfaces for effects such as bending moments on members, support reactions, element stresses and nodal deflections. The product is specific for bridges.

STAAD.etc: is a comprehensive toolkit for the structural engineer. "Everything from the analysis and design of a structure to designing the slabs, base plates and footings for its foundation can be done without ever having to leave the STAAD.etc environment," says Shahzad. "Its features include schematic drawings of the output, step-by-step hand calculations (with clauses, formulae, and intermediate steps), interactive graphics and multiple international design codes."

Sectionwizard: is compatible with leading PC-based engineering software applications and metric and imperial unit systems - and is said to be an invaluable tool for the structural engineer, allowing fast and accurate calculation of section properties and retrieval of stress values for custom and assembled shapes.

Layout: is the calculation pad available for engineers, with integrated word processing, spreadsheets and mathematical calculations. It enables users to produce calculation sheets of the type and format that meets their requirements and even import existing spreadsheets.

OpenSTAAD: is an open architecture providing customers with an API to STAAD's analysis and design engines. Users can create their own macros using a wide range of languages to link STAAD results and run STAAD engine and design functions.

REI has over 20,000 B2B customers with 150,000 installations and 50,000 users in 65 countries and the company says it is the only structural analysis and design software company to have obtained ISO 9001 certification.

The company also offers engineering consulting and IT solutions service designed to help engineers overcome hurdles in the designing phase of any structural engineering project.

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