CivilKit Studio

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What's not in CivilKit (yet) ​

CivilKit Studio is honest about its edges. This page lists the capabilities a user of a mature analysis package might reach for that CivilKit does not have yet, so you are never left hunting, and points you to what we do have instead.

Recently shipped ​

Solver and analysis ​

  • Nonlinear in 3D - corotational fibre beam-columns with J2 distributed plasticity and arc-length control run on the spatial path, OpenSees-anchored. The 3D nonlinear path carries beam-columns and bars; torsion stays elastic there and plate elements are refused. See Nonlinear analysis.
  • Catenary cables - a member typed Cable can be a true elastic catenary with sag, horizontal tension and end tensions reported by the nonlinear analysis. See Modelling › Cables.
  • Direct time-history - Newmark-beta and HHT-alpha on the full model, on a linear or a nonlinear tangent, alongside modal time-history. See Dynamic & influence lines.
  • SCI P354 floor vibration - the general (FE) method on the modal result, with the modal mass the solver now reports. See Floor vibration (SCI P354).
  • Shells - the three MacNeal-Harder benchmarks pass and assert their values, and the Q4 membrane gained incompatible modes.
  • Nonlinear pushover - geometric-nonlinear static pushover with a capacity curve. See analysis and results.

Actions and codes ​

  • NZS 3404 steel design - implemented, selectable, and the default for a New Zealand job. See International & multi-code steel.
  • ASCE 7-22 and EN 1991-1-4 wind - a US or UK/EU project gets its site velocity pressure and, for ASCE 7, the Fig. 27.3-1 wall and roof coefficients. See Wind loads.
  • Open-structure wind (AS/NZS 1170.2 Appendix B) - hoardings, free roofs, canopies and the Cl 5.4.4 local factor Kl. See Open structure wind.
  • EN 1991-3 crane loads - from a supplier data sheet to the runway beam's wheel loads. See Calculators.
  • EN 1991-1-7 robustness - the consequences class and the tie forces. See Calculators.
  • Design criteria on the project - importance level, design working life, wind region and terrain, snow region and altitude, seismic site: one object in the title block that every action generator reads. See Loads › Design criteria.
  • AS/NZS 1170.0 Table C1 deflection rows - serviceability limits per element kind under the action the row names, not one L/250. See Design checks › Serviceability.
  • AS 1170.4 storey drift limit - the Storey drift panel grades dst against 1.5 % of storey height under a seismic case. See Storey drift.

Design and connections ​

  • Connection Designer and elastic CBFEM joint FEA - an interactive 3D designer (part picking, section cut, stress plot) over a meshed shell joint, with bolts as springs and a placed-assembly audit. See Connection Designer & joint FEA.
  • Joint detail sheets and footing details - per-joint detail sheets (elevation, section, dimensions, balloons, parts list, title block) and footing details with bar callouts, with DXF / IFC export.
  • Footings from the solved model - pad, combined, strip and pile-cap footings are designed as model entities in the same workspace, auto-designed at every support after a solve. See Structural footings.
  • Design coverage - after a solve, every member is checked, recorded as deactivated, or named with a reason; CivilKit.getDesignCoverage() and the Diagnostics panel say which. See Design checks.
  • RC beam serviceability - the RC beam calculator grades Ief, short and long-term deflection and the Cl 8.5.4 span/depth (AS 3600 Cl 8.5.3 / 8.5.4). See Calculators.
  • Biaxial P-M-M RC column surface - a standalone calculator for the nominal biaxial interaction surface. See Calculators.
  • Extensions (.ckext modules) - install sandboxed MicroPython design-check modules from a store or a file. See Extensions.
  • Specialised steel design checks - fire, fatigue, cellular beam, tapered member and AISC 360 composite checks with a dedicated UI and report integration. See Specialised steel checks.
  • Built-up / compound member checks - AS 4100 design checks for common built-up sections.
  • Steel check report cards - add steel-check results directly to the PDF calc report.
  • Certificate page - a draft of the jurisdiction's own form (Engineering NZ PS1, Queensland Form 15, NSW Design Compliance Declaration, IStructE design statement, US cover sheet), filled from the title block and the code map. See The PDF report.
  • Embodied carbon statement - the take-off's tonnage against a table of factors. See Calculators.
  • Pile uplift and Broms lateral capacity - bored piers under sheds, signs and masts, from the soil profile. See Calculators.

Modelling and interop ​

  • Structure generation wizard - a 20-template parametric wizard with live preview: beams, portals, clad sheds, six truss types, multi-storey frames, grids, arch, barrel vault, lattice tower, silo and dome. See Templates.
  • Automatic panel meshing and rigid diaphragms - Mesh panel / Mesh selected / Mesh all (including openings), and in-plane rigid diaphragms solved by a penalty MPC.
  • Built-in vehicle library and moving-load effect - AASHTO HL-93 truck and tandem in the Influence lines tool, with the AS 5100.2 M1600 / S1600 trains defined but withheld pending verification. See Dynamic & influence lines.
  • Hosted REST surface - alongside the in-browser window.CivilKit API, the headless CLI and the MCP server, a hosted REST surface (POST /v1/tools/{name}, sandbox tokens, rate-limited). See Headless & MCP and Scripting & automation.
  • Spanish and Thai - the wind and calculator surfaces in both, on top of the existing Thai design-code support.

Modelling ​

  • Tank Builder - no dedicated cylindrical/rectangular tank or liquid generator. A "silo" template exists, but it is a bare cylindrical frame, not a tank shell.
  • Design strips - automatic panel meshing is in (panel, selected and all, with openings), but design strips and reinforcement-strip automation are not.
  • General constraint / link editor - rigid diaphragms are in, but there is no general master-slave constraint or link editor.

What we have instead

Generate a structure from the 20-template wizard and edit the frame directly. Import an existing model via IFC or .SG to skip the builders.

Loads ​

  • Sea / wave loads - no marine or hydrodynamic load generator.
  • Forced-harmonic / applied time-varying loads - ground-motion time-history is in (modal, direct Newmark / HHT, nonlinear); a forced-harmonic or applied time-varying member load type is not.
  • Member prestress - no prestress/pre-tension load type on members.
  • Thermal loads - no temperature/thermal-gradient load type.
  • Distributed torsion - no distributed torsional load type.
  • Editable vehicle libraries and model-wide moving-load patterns - a built-in vehicle library (HL-93; AS 5100.2 withheld pending verification) and an axle-train effect are in the Influence lines tool; editable libraries and moving loads applied as patterns to the bridge FE model are not.

What we have instead

Point, distributed (including trapezoidal), area and self-weight loads and load combinations, plus an AS/NZS 1170.1 imposed-action picker and automatic AS/NZS 1170.2 (including Appendix B open-structure), ASCE 7-22 and EN 1991-1-4 wind, AS 1170.3 snow and AS 1170.4 / NZS 1170.5 seismic, with EN 1991-3 crane, EN 1991-1-7 robustness and SCI P354 floor-vibration calculators. See Load generators.

Analysis ​

  • Cable contact and sliding - the catenary cable element is in; cables that bear on or slide over other members are not. The frictionless gap element that exists is surfaced only as no-tension supports and member-end gaps, not as a general user-drawn contact.
  • Nonlinear element coverage - the 3D nonlinear path carries beam-columns and bars; torsion stays elastic there and plate elements are refused.
  • Batch processing - no batch/queue runner for many models or load cases. The CLI and MCP drive one model at a time, and the joint-FEA "Run all" queue is per joint within one model.
  • Deflection optimizer - auto-size minimises section mass against strength utilisation; a deflection limit is reported, not used as a sizing target, and there is no deflection-driven optimiser.

What we have instead

Linear static, P-Delta, modal dynamics, linear buckling, plate/shell analysis, tension/compression-only members, no-tension supports and member-end gaps, modal and direct (Newmark-beta / HHT-alpha) time-history, response spectrum, geometric-nonlinear pushover with 3D corotational fibre beam-columns, and SCI P354 floor vibration. See analysis and results.

Design ​

  • Concrete beam and column managers - concrete is per-element panels (RC member, slab strip, composite, column M-N) plus standalone calculators, not managed concrete design objects.
  • Shear walls, cores and diaphragms - no reinforced-concrete shear-wall or diaphragm design.
  • Automated biaxial P-M-M column design - a standalone biaxial P-M-M surface calculator ships, but the in-model column panel is uniaxial M-N and refuses slender columns, so model-driven biaxial design is not automatic.
  • Multi-code connection design - connection design is a full 17-family 3D designer but remains AS 4100 / AS 5216 only; AISC / EC3 connection design is not offered.
  • CBFEM contact and nonlinearity - an elastic CBFEM joint solver and interactive 3D designer ship, but the solver has no contact, plasticity, bolt pretension or bolt strength, and no published CBFEM benchmark, so the component checks decide. The measured joint stiffness is not yet fed back to the global frame.
  • Automated shop drawings and detailing - partial: per-joint detail sheets, footing details with bar callouts and DXF / IFC export ship; NC / DSTV and general-arrangement drawings do not.

What we have instead

Automatic steel member design to AS 4100, NZS 3404, AISC 360, EC3, AS 4600, AS 5100 and EIT with auto-size; AS 3600 RC element checks (RC member, slab strip, and an in-model column M-N panel) and AS 2327 composite; AS 1720.1 timber; specialised steel checks (fire / fatigue / cellular / tapered / composite); a full 17-family Connection Designer with an elastic CBFEM joint FEA and per-joint detail sheets; footings designed in the same workspace from the solved model; standalone calculators including a biaxial P-M-M RC column surface; and the .ckext extension system.

Libraries and interop ​

  • Full library editors - we ship section and connection libraries, but not full in-browser editors for bolt, plate, weld, spectral or vehicle libraries.
  • IDEA StatiCa export - no export to IDEA StatiCa for connection handoff.

What we have instead

Multi-region section libraries (AU / US / EU / UK / CA / TH), a connection library, IFC and .SG import with IFC export, and scripting through the in-browser window.CivilKit API, the headless CLI / MCP server, and a hosted REST surface. See Scripting & automation and Headless & MCP.