Abstract: By discretizing the rigid roof panels with equivalent stiffness shell element, and the joints with a set of spring element, the nonlinear numerical modeling of a cable dome structure with rigid roof is founded based on the nonlinear numerical method, and is applied to the analysis of effect of rigid roof to the stiffness and stability of the cable dome structure with the method combined by Newton-Raphson method and arc-length method. It shows that the numerical computational modeling proposed is efficient in dealing with the analysis of the cable dome with rigid roof. Due to the interaction between the rigid roof and the dome, the load sensitivity of the cable dome structure is reduced; the stiffness and the stability are enhanced.