SEU, a program provided by SE Solutions, LLC

Helpful Tools/Spreadsheets Available to Structural Engineers at No Cost

Most engineers utilize spreadsheets or MathCAD tools to a variable extent to save time with structural engineering calculations.  Frequently these tools are “self-written” or written by someone at their company.  However, many tools have been created by others and we wanted to point out 2 sources for some free tools to help you save time in your various calculations.

The first is http://www.steeltools.org/.  This site, supported by AISC, includes files created by AISC, but also allows engineers to upload files that they have created, so that others can use those files and benefit from their knowledge.  Some examples of the tools available in the SteelTOOLS Library include: 

  1. ASCE 7-10 Wind Load Calculator
  2. IBC2009E – Analysis of seismic loading per IBC2009/ASCE7-05
  3. Torsional Analysis of Steel Beams

Second, if you use the RAM Structural System and would like to quickly generate costs estimates or summarized quantities for a job, a helpful  spreadsheet/program created by AISC together  with RAM/Bentley is called RAM Estimator.  This is an example of using an API to pull data from a model so that engineers can quickly generate quantities and costs for items contained in the model and associated with the structure (pricing information for each item is not included as it would vary by region).  If this is a program that you have used in the past, there is an updated version available that has been created by Bentley, which is available on one of the BE Community pages.

As with all tools, the engineer is responsible for verifying the results, so you’ll want to invest some time in confirm the results.

If you have other sites that you like to use to download or share spreadsheets, please let us know in the comments.