Assessment of the Awareness of Structural Computer Aided Design Programs of Universities in Ghana

Abstract

The few past decades have seen the use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) software application in the area of built environment. In view of this, more CAD software programs have been developed to design and analyze buildings and structures. This makes CAD an important part of the design and construction industry. This paper reports the assessment of the level of awareness and usage of structural CAD programs by students in Universities offering Civil Engineering and related programs in Ghana. The design used for this study was survey which relied on questionnaire to generate data for the analysis and discussions. The study established that the respondents knew the General CAD programs of which 69.9% knew AutoCAD. However, majority (64.8%) of the respondents did not know about any of the Structural CAD software packages, indicating a low awareness level of Structural CAD software programs. Recommendations are made for the inclusion of Structural CAD programs in the courses of the Universities offering Civil Engineering and related programs in Ghana.