The STARDYNE engine in STAAD.Pro is an option which runs a separate DOS based program called STARDYNE. This DOS based program was created several years ago, and caters mainly to the needs of aerospace and mechanical engineers who purchased the program in the 1980-1995 time period. STARDYNE did not have its own graphical user interface, and in its original form, needs a 3rd party program such as FEMAP to enable one to see the model and results graphically.

Since Research Engineers (the developers of STAAD.Pro) currently owns the rights to sell the STARDYNE program, we made it an optional analysis engine within the STAAD.Pro environment, to enable existing users of STARDYNE to create and visualize simple models without the need to use 3rd party graphical interface programs. However, the STAAD.Pro environment is not fully equipped to handle the advanced features of STARDYNE, in the aerospace and mechanical engineering context. Those experienced users still rely upon DOS based command line instructions to do much of the analysis using STARDYNE.

For structural engineers, there is hardly any additional benefit to be gained by using the STARDYNE engine. Nearly all the features of STARDYNE, which are attractive to structural engineers, are already available in the STAAD engine. This includes most of the aspects in finite element analysis, dynamic analysis, pdelta analysis, solid elements, etc. Additionally, a number of structural engineering features, such as steel design, concrete design, aluminum design, timber design, UBC seismic loads, etc., which are available in the STAAD engine, are not supported by the STARDYNE engine.

The handful of items which the STARDYNE engine supports, which the STAAD engine does not have currently, such as buckling analysis, are expected to be available in the STAAD engine sometime during the next few months. One that is completed, there will be little, if any, incentive for current STAAD users to run the STARDYNE analysis.

Under these circumstances, you may want to consider if it is worth spending the time on learning STARDYNE, if you are a structural engineer. We feel that your time is probably better spent on, among other things, learning to use the STAAD engine and the STAAD.Pro graphical environment more effectively.