Structona is a research and development platform focused on structural engineering and AI. Its main purpose is to return the engineer’s time to complex problem solving including structural analysis, member verification, detailing and optimizations that runs through the rest of the design.
Much of the engineers time is spent in outdated programs that are slow to work with, difficult to follow, or unable to show how a result was obtained. The goal is to achieve better methods of working that remains accurate for professional use. The calculation, the review, and the judgment remain with the engineer as it should. Ideal tools allow for this without adding additional friction in the workflow.
Structona exists to return engineering time to the problem, and to turn reliable methods into tools a professional can depend on.
Research
The research work follows that purpose. Find where a workflow costs more than the engineering requires. Develop a better path that professionals can read, check, and reuse. When a method is clear enough to depend on, make it a tool. The aim is to strengthen and assist the professional in daily work. The posts that follow take up four kinds of questions.
- Artificial intelligence: What changes in the daily task with the introduction of AI. What are the best practices and risks to consider. How does this new technology impact the responsible engineer with regards to engineering work.
- Workflows: Reliable methods to solve complex problems is a key requirement for the efficient engineer. Continuous development within the field is a natural part with the introduction of new materials, design codes and construction methods. Identification of bottlenecks within workflows and software is critical to find better paths.
- Research in practice: A paper, a method, or a code change belongs here when an engineer can apply it on a real job.
- Case studies: Case studies and failures belong in the record. A member that was too light, a unit that was assumed, a model that left out a support: written down, those become the next check. The next design decision gets better when the last miss is clear enough to use again.
Development
The professional engineer use a wide range of tools and software in their daily work. Many of these are often good and reliable within a specific workflow. But sometimes when the task require more complex problem solving the limits of software start to show. Heavy software suites such as CAD/BIM-software that becomes heavier and slower for each new iteration. Or built-in modules in FE-software that is inefficient and impossible for the user to modify. Or new versions of design software that feels more like a downgrade compared to earlier unavailable versions.
Structona will help to identify these problems and make tools that strengthen the engineer without adding additional unnecessary friction in the daily work. Tools should always be lightweight and precise. This site is the main platform from where all of our software and workflow tools will be accessible.
UnitPad is the first tool from that work: a light but powerful calculation sheet for the browser and the desktop, with the complete formula on the page, full unit support and an automatically formatted design PDF report that comes from the sheet itself. By default there it also support Agentic workflows where you can use your favourite AI to propose edits in the program, and the engineer can remain fully in control.
Additional tools will follow under Structona when the work calls for them.
Who it is for
The reader is the professional engineer, in the middle of ordinary work. The code, the review, and the judgment stay with that engineer. A tool can assist the task. It does not replace the checks the work requires.
By Structona