FTOOL: Three decades of success as an educational program for structural analysis

Resumo

This article describes the history of the development of the educational program FTOOL, which is a
user-friendly software used all over the world for teaching structural analysis of two-dimensional frames as well
as for engineering projects. The paper highlights the main milestones in the evolution of the program since its
creation in 1992. It reports how the main features of the program were progressively incorporated, through the
contribution of several academic works, until reaching the current state. The focus is given to the experience of
using FTOOL as a powerful educational tool in many structures’ disciplines of a Civil Engineering undergraduate
course. It also presents the program's latest improvements and the new features that are coming in the next versions.
These new implementations include buckling modes for stability analysis, vibration modes, geometrically
nonlinear analysis, semi-rigid connections with linear and non-linear behavior, and reinforced concrete design.
With these developments, the program will remain up-to-date with the engineering demands of nowadays.