NextFEM Designer Modules
Designed by stuctural engineers

NextFEM Designer has a modular structure to meet the needs of every user. The basic program, freely downloadable from this site, is licensed to the user also for commercial usage, with no charge.

Additionally, NextFEM Designer includes several paid modules that can be added to the main program, such as:

 

The General Design module activates in the program some advanced features such as:

  • automatic generation of load combinations as per Eurocode 1 (EN 1991-1-1) for Ultimate and Serviceability Limit States;
  • checking of steel members as per NTC2008 and Eurocode 3 (EN 1993-1-1);
  • checking of timber frames as per Eurocode 5 (EN 1995-1-1) and CLT walls with WoodCheck module;
  • mesher for solid elements;
  • parametric analysis by changing section, material, loads and node positions;
  • analysis report in RTF, DocX formats and customizable documents using placeholders for table, images and results.

Module for checking of timber frames and CLT walls, as per Eurocode 5. Joints can be designed with the third-party plugin for APF Nexus WoodJoint.

The AluCheck module enables the checking of aluminium alloy members as per Eurocode 9 (EN 1999-1-1) in general structures and also in scaffoldings/frameworks.

NextFEM Designer is able to extrude in an accurate way the transversal section.

 

 

 

The Concrete Module allows to check all the Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures.

The Concrete module performs the checking for beams, columns and walls with assigned rebar. The verification made is compliant with Eurocode 2 (EN 1992-1-1) recommendations.

For a quotation, follow this link.

Section Analyzer is a cross-section calculator able to calculate all the types of sections, no matter their shape or their base material. For RC sections, the program supports the Parabola-rectangle and the bi-linear non-linear laws, and can account for the concrete tensile strength.

Rebars for reinforced concrete members can be easily added by an intuitive interface. The program supports any rebar discretization, both for longitudinal reinforcements and stirrups.

Section Analyzer supports:
– reinforced concrete sections, including prestressing rebar;
– steel and aluminium alloy;
– beam, columns, walls and slabs, finding strength or unit length or for the entire section;
– shear verification as per European codes;
– FRP reinforcements;
– ultimate curvature calculation;
– interaction with member forces in the model.

For steel, a customizable hardening ratio is available, for any Limit State evaluation.

In addition, strenght of transversal section subjected to fire can be evaluated on any type of geometry. The user can customize even the reduction curves used by the solver for strenght and/or stiffness of each component of the section.

 

The ColdFormed module allows to analyze and check thin steel profiles as per Eurocode 3-1-3.

The ImportExport module enables the following features:

import and export model from/to SAP2000®;

importing and exporting the wireframe or extruded model in DXF format;

import and export models from/to Midas GEN® and Civil®

import models from Straus7®

import models from SeismoStruct®

import and export model in IFC format. Import of results for structural IFCs.

Import and export in SAF (Structural Analysis Format), including beam results.

The Non-Linear module adds to the program a long series of non-linear elements and hinges, in order to perform static and dynamic analyses.

A large variety of springs is available:

  • gap and hook;
  • bi-linear and tri-linear plastic laws;
  • Pivot, Tomazevic-Lutman and ring-shape rules;
  • symmetrical and unsymmetrical slip-type laws;
  • and more…

Non-linear hinges, part of this module, are highly customizable. Through the simple scripting engine already available for verifications, hinges can be set-up with user-defined values, even with interaction domain between shear/moment and axial force.

Hysteretic law for bilinear asymmetric hinges

 

The FireSafe module has been designed to provide fire resistance of reinforced concrete, steel and aluminum structures in just a few steps. It includes thermal analysis of sections of the modeled elements, providing verification in terms of capacity with the analytical method. The analyses are congruent with the requests of the Eurocodes.

The MasonryCheck module performs the verification of unreinforced masonry buildings and the monotonic and cyclic nonlinear analysis, both in static and dynamic conditions. The modelling is carried out through dedicated macro-elements, and the strength of each masonry pier is evaluated by each step with the axial stress present in the wall. The cycle shape automatically adapts to the wall collapse mechanism (flexural or shear).

All mechanisms are normally considered in the non-linear calculation (bending shear, sliding shear, diagonal cracking shear, and pure shear for spandrels). The analysis indicates the state of each degree of freedom of the wall for each step of the analysis.

Moreover, accurate estimations of dissipated energy can be carried-out with this module: cycles shape automatically varies as a function of axial load and slenderness of the panel.

Since v2.0, the module includes also checking for Steel Reinforced Masonry.

NextFEM API (Application Programming Interface) are dedicated to all the advanced needs, i.e. modelling by using other programs (Microsoft Office (R), AutoCAD (R), etc.) or spreadsheets. Reading results is allowed without any license. For inputing the model at a programmatic level, APIs are generally free, except for a small group of selected commands for which API license is needed.