StruCalc is pleased to announce that an agreement has been completed expanding the ownership of the company to include the lead developers of the software. Adam Wilson and James DiNardo have joined founder Pete Bambe in a new ownership arrangement designed to allow StruCalc, Inc. to accelerate its innovative product development plans.
What does this mean for you today?
To all of our loyal users, we would like to extend our thanks and gratitude for your commitment to our product which has provided the growth opportunity our company has enjoyed.
During the tumultuous financial cycle of the past two years, like all businesses, it has been difficult for StruCalc to maintain its growth rate and the pace of development to which you have become accustomed.
It is our intent that under this new ownership arrangement, our loyal users will start to see the immediate impact of the new company’s development power in soon to be released upgrades to our current version 8.0. This upgrade will address many of the features missing from StruCalc 8.0 that you were accustomed to in StruCalc 7.0.
Development will also begin on new features for StruCalc 8.0 that were planned for development before the current economic conditions took hold. Please look forward to these exciting upgrades to be available at no charge delivered via download to our existing users in the next few months. As a user you will experience no loss of service or additional fees for StruCalc 8.0 or for a previous version you are currently using.
What does this mean for the future of StruCalc?
The expanded management team at StruCalc heartily thanks our users that took the time to fill out our survey sent earlier this spring. We have diligently reviewed your responses to formulate a plan for future development that is designed to address your most pressing needs on a priority basis.
It was clear from the responses we received that a majority of the users of StruCalc desire new features, not an expansion of existing features. As engineers and designers we understand the effect the current building crisis has had on our industry and realize that parts of the country may not return to pre-recession business levels for quite some time.
However, as the economy recovers and creates new opportunities for our users and to make future StruCalc developments economically viable for everyone, we have committed to developing and distributing a modular version of StruCalc 8.0, to be called StruCalc Pro, which will allow our users to select from a menu of features that fit their business needs and not investing in features that do not add value to your business. This is keeping with our tradition of expansion as the industry requires it but not forgetting that there are many small engineering shops out there that require access to easy to use software at a reasonable price, and not be charged for major features they will not need.
This new version will include the current core beam, column, and footing design modules and include several new and improved features at its release. Additionally new niche products will be available as modular plug-ins to this new platform. This will allow you to create your own custom program that fits your needs exactly, saving you time and money since you only pay for what you need.
We anticipate releasing multiple new products in the coming years, with StruCalc Pro coming in spring of 2011. We are looking forward to once again providing the products you will need as the market gains momentum opening up opportunities for us all, and again thank to all of you, our loyal users for your continued support of StruCalc.
We remain committed to providing intuitive, low cost, software solutions to make your business more profitable.
Adam Wilson
President
StruCalc, Inc.
Congratulations on the expansion of your ownership. I have come to rely on StruCalc heavily in my architectural business and look forward to your expansion and improvements to the product. As a residential architect I do all of my own structural. StruCalc has proven to be the right tool for my kind of work allowing me to utilize flexibility in my design and depend that my engineering is adequate.
Thanks
while I congraulate you on your new partnership, my concern is how you plan to accomodate the depressed engineering field (especially in the small office / home office accomodations). StruCalc has been an exceptional software for the cost, but for my office it was a choice between Enercalc, Freeware products including iLevel Forte that will include sawn lumber and GLB in the next versions, TJBeam or TEDDS Lite. Our workload has reduced to less than 20% of what it was 2 years ago and while it is not ecconomical or easy to create our own spreadsheet software, it may become a necessitity in the future unless cost of licensing remains low. StruCalc has been the most affordable and accurate software but we have had to make exceptions to its use. For example, we have had to reduce the number of loads applied to a beam – certainly less than that allowed by the other products mentioned.
Please don’t misunderstand – we don’t expect to license something for nothing, but these are tough times and whatever choices we need to make to stay in practice, we are not willing to compete against large offices who are able to afford more costly software licensing and in the process, drive the small office out of busness. I hope this does not happen, but until the amount of work improves, the cost of software licensing, reference manuals, renewal of licensing etc. have become a very real consideration. I have always felt that StruCalc supported the small office sole proprietorship who I believe makes up a large percentage of offices currently using your product. Quantity of subscriptions seems to be a much better choice for any business seeking growth than increased cost of subscriptions to satisfy a smaller number of businesses will pay off in the long run by the loyalty of users. I hope we mean that much to StruCalc so as to accomodate the market you have currently lost to Enercalc and TEDDS (not to mention free-ware software from proprietary products with reliable software such as Weyerhauser’s iLevel software.
Thank you for our history together. I hope that are future remains bright.
Thank you for your comments. User feedback is always greatly appreciated. StruCalc’s core business has always been staying low priced and affordable so that any one man design shop or large engineering firm can both benefit from use of our program. StruCalc will always remain committed to supplying these users and rewarding our long time small users with access to more efficient and expanded design options without being forced to pay any exorbitant fees.