From: "libra1958" snipped-for-privacy@alphalink.com.au
I have seen such a spreadsheet before. However... don't let anyone fool you into thinking it is all that easy. Most who claim it is easy aren't very good at doing moment distribution by hand themselves. And... if you can't do it by hand correctly.... you sure as heck won't have an easy time creating a spreadsheet to do it!!!
For those who ARE capable of creating a moment distribution spreadsheet... you should ask them if they can create the spreasheet to handle the many different model conditions you may encounter... odd span lengths, different support types, non-prismatic members, internal hinges, cantilevers, frames, varying number of spans, etc.
Lot's of people ( even those who have been successful ) will tell you how easy something was to do or that it only took them 10 minutes or an hour. However, even for those people, I think you'll find the "ease" that they profess to was not so easy and not so quick. If they say it took them 30 minutes... in reality... it probably took them somewhere between 5 hrs and a week to do ( and that's for the simple moment distribution spreadsheet that can't handle anything more than a very simple, prismatic beam on roller or pin supports ).
Dan :-)