Quality, accurate and reliable software is at the foundation of what we do
Here at SkyCiv, we’re serious about quality control. As engineers, we understand the importance of reliability and delivering a safe product to clients. Our development is all done in-house by qualified engineers to ensure the highest quality product. We also have a dedicated Quality Assurance Engineer whose sole role is to implement controls and procedures to protect the quality of our software.
Above all this, we have well-established quality control processes that ensure the accuracy of our results. For peace of mind, we’ve listed below some of the processes we have in place to ensure the quality of our products:
Auto-solver checker
Before releasing any update, we run an auto-solver checker. This will run through more than 1,000 test models, testing the results of our solver with known values. This will check that every single result of these files (reactions, shear forces, stresses, deflections, buckling etc..) are consistent with a known value. As some of these structures are quite large and different, this will literally compare tens of millions of results with known values. We will not release an update unless this solver checks out at 100%.
Example of the output from our solver tester
In addition to this, we have added in automatic UI, design module and further analysis checks that run on a weekly basis. These unit checks ensure both the UI and solver are working and communicating correctly.
Verification Models
Our software is verified and tested against other software and known results. Our verification models can be viewed at anytime in our documentation for our Solver (see S3D verification models) and design (for example, see our AISC steel member verification report). We are constantly adding more of these for design codes to publicly display the verification of our design and analysis software.
Bug Tracking
Our software can be used by a number of web browsers across hundreds of different types of devices. We do however experience the occasional User Interface bug. These are automatically captured and sent to our developers to investigate and can be repaired immediately for all users. We also appreciate users letting us know of such bugs so that we can further improve the experience for everyone.
Tried and Tested
Our software has been extensively used – with more than 8 million solves and counting. This means SkyCiv has been put through the test of millions of combinations of users, projects, usage-styles and devices. These are engineers who often double check the results to verify the safety of their structures. Engineers are quick to recognise and contact us of any inconsistencies with their results or checks.
SkyCiv has also undergone third party scrutinising in order to be on a number of approved software lists. For instance, SkyCiv was tested under more than 30 test cases to get on the Hong Kong Building Department’s pre-accepted Structural Software list.
Built by Engineers, for Engineers
Our in house product development team is comprised entirely of qualified Structural and Mechanical Engineers. With years of experience in hands-on Structural Analysis and Design, our team knows exactly what they are building. This ensures there are no gaps between product development and technical knowledge; it is all integrated. The quality is also dependent on the fact that our software is all built completely in-house, by full-time SkyCiv employees – nothing is outsourced to ensure our product remains at a higher standard.
Our team is also extremely passionate about every corner of the software. We will spend hours planning and building a function to make sure it runs as we want it to. I believe anyone who has used our software can see the close attention to detail we put into making the software intuitive, powerful and enjoyable to use.
Open Reporting
SkyCiv’s design modules are all open with full step-by-step calculations in a professional PDF format. This allows engineers to review the full calculations, assumptions, result criteria and clearly labelled Design Code references so you can track exactly what is being calculated by our design software. This ensures the quality of our design software, as engineers can review and check the logic and calculations are correct. Click here for a sample AISC 360 Design Report from SkyCiv’s Structural 3D software.
