In today’s engineering environment, we place much emphasis on technological advances in our computational and analytical capabilities. In such an environment, it may be difficult to maintain the perspective that the engineer’s role is that of a problem solver. It must be realized that the conceptual stage of a design is the opportunity for good structural solutions and that no amount of analysis can make a poor concept good. Preliminary design is based on experience, judgement, and structural intuition. To grow in these qualities is the objective of this effort.

The study is conducted for a hypothetical twenty-five-story structure using the frame program STAAD Ill in the perspective of a design tool.