LARSA's Staged Construction Analysis engine has been pioneering the field of 4D analysis techniques.
Staged Construction Analysis provides an integrated environment in which to model the changing state of a structure over time, including structural changes, load applications, and time-dependent material effects. The Staged Construction Analysis with geometric and material nonlinearity is important for structures with cables or large displacements.
Each construction activity is associated with a load class, such as "dead load", "live load", or "prestress", so that the cumulative effects of load classes can be reported separately for code-based load combinations. LARSA 4D is programmed to handle proper load class tracking of construction activities such as support changes and element removal which result in a nonlinear force redistribution in the structure.
Supported construction activities in LARSA 4D include construction and deconstruction of members, plates, springs and foundations, in addition to loading, temporary/traveler loads, support changes, displacement initialization and hoist for incremental launching.