Investment ensures seamless Eurocode changeover

Software investment has aided the industry to negotiate a seamless transition to structural Eurocodes since they came into force in April this year.

“After almost 25 years of discussion, planning and development, the Eurocodes are now a reality,” said Barry Chapman, Sales Director for CSC. “The cost to rewrite the Eurocode versions of our software has been substantial, but we see this as a strategic investment and it’s already paying dividends.”

Many CSC customers are now actively using Eurocodes on public projects such as schools, academies, health care schemes and prisons. And those customers designing residential, commercial, or retail developments in the private sector appear keen to explore alternative Eurocode designs.

CSC customers are reporting that the transition to Eurocodes has been painless. Richard Hawthorn from RJH Construction Design, a user of CSC’s TEDDS calculation software comments, “TEDDS’ transparent calculations are proving invaluable as we transition to the Eurocodes. I was dreading the transition, but with TEDDS’ calculations, you can see all the workings, minimising any potential risk.”

In practice, using the new Eurocode version of CSC’s software is very similar to using the old BS version, and the ability to switch easily between Eurocode and BS designs has been hailed as a great success.

Demand for CSC’s Eurocode training courses has risen sharply as customers seek to understand how to use the new software effectively on real projects. Over 80% of the training provided in Q1 2010 was for Eurocode training and this is forecast to increase in Q2 2010.