Archie-M

Was designed to help engineers (and the author first of all) to assess arch bridges. It is not like other programs. It is designed from the start to encourage users to explore possibilities when analysing arches rather than simply ask for a result. The first version of Archie was sold to the Northern Ireland DoE in 1985. The market grew to about 160 users by 1995 but lack of care nearly led to closure in 1999. OBVIS Ltd was formed then to build a new Archie which we call Archie-M.

With over 150 "seats" and many more users, Archie-M remains the first choice for assessment throughout the UK and is beginning to find a market further across the world.

Bill Harvey began researching arches in 1981 and wrote an analysis, based on Heyman's approach, for an HP41CV calculator. In 1984 he acquired the first PC compatible computer at the University of Dundee and wrote a very simple form of Archie for circular arcs only in 1984. By 1986 Fraser Smith was working with Bill developing the software and producing a robust, commercially viable, tool. The MULTI program for viaducts was delivered in 1988.