Documentation and Theory Overview

RS3 is a 3D program for the analysis of geotechnical structures for civil and mining applications. Applicable for both rock and soil (RS3 = Rock and Soil 3-dimensional analysis program), RS3 is a general purpose finite element analysis program for underground excavations, tunnel and support design, surface excavation, foundation design, embankments, consolidation, groundwater seepage and more.

Getting Started

If you are a new user of RS3, you should begin by completing the RS3 Quick Start Tutorial to help familiarize yourself with the software’s main functions.

How to Use this Guide

Documentation

The Documentation tab helps you to get familiar with program features and provides details on specific tools/functions of the software. This section includes topics like terminology, general features, input data, analysis methods, viewing and display options, and more.

Tutorials

The tutorials tab provides easy to follow, step-by-step instructions demonstrating how to use various features of the program and provide guidance for more specific analysis features of RS3. It is recommended that you go through as many of the tutorials as possible to get acquainted with the many different capabilities of the software.

Begin with the Quick Start Tutorial for an introduction to the basic modelling and analysis features in RS3.

Verification and Theory

The Theory and Verification tab contains a collection of Theory and Verification Manuals for the software. The Verification Examples represent an extensive set of models, from many different sources, which have been used to verify the accuracy of the solutions computed by the program. The Theory Manuals describes the equations used to calculate the stresses and the factor of safety as well as the theories behind the failure mechanisms of each analysis method.