Free tools
Free tools for everyday structural steel work: price a steel structure from its IFC model, estimate the steel of a portal frame building, read an IFC model, take off quantities, plan the cutting of stock bars, place sag rods and hollow-section splices in your detailing model, and move a detailing model to an older version.
Free tools
Your files never leave your computer. The browser tools run entirely in your browser; nothing is uploaded to any server. The plugins and the desktop tool run on your own computer, next to your detailing software.
Steel Cost Estimator
What a steel structure costs to fabricate and erect, worked out from every part of its IFC model.
- Cost floor next to the published market band, for four regions or your own rates
- 3D heat map of where the money is, plus programme and embodied carbon
- What a design review could save, run on the same model
Portal Frame Steel Estimator
Steel tonnage of a single-span portal frame building before any design starts.
- Span up to 30 m, any length, eave height and snow load
- Total tonnes, kg per m² and where the weight goes
- Based on complete finite-element designs, calibrated against published ones
3D Frame Analysis
Deflections, reactions, force diagrams and natural periods of a 3D steel frame, solved in your browser.
- Portal frame, multi-storey frame, a DXF drawing or an IFC model, editable in the view
- Linear or second-order (P-Δ) and modal analysis, with an equilibrium check on every run
- Checked against an independent finite-element solver; nothing is uploaded
IFC Steel Viewer & Takeoff
Drop an IFC file to see the structure in 3D and get a member list.
- Profiles, lengths, steel tonnage and paint area
- Bolt order list by size, grade and site/shop
- Click a row to find those members in 3D
- Export as CSV
Steel Cutting Optimizer
Turn a parts list into a cutting plan for stock bars with minimum waste.
- Type or paste the list, or import an IFC
- Your limits for splices: number per part and shortest piece
- Plans with and without splices, side by side, CSV and print
Sag Rod Plugin
Sag rods for roof purlins and wall girts, placed by rule instead of by hand.
- Pick one purlin per bay; the bay completes itself
- Continuous rods, ridge tie or bird’s foot
- Real staggered holes and nuts, one parametric component
- Free; request it by e-mail
RHS Hidden Splice
A bolted splice hidden inside the outline of rectangular hollow sections.
- Pick the main tube and the second tube
- Cap plates, stiffeners, end plates, bolts and shop welds
- Sized from the profile; bolts kept clear of the plates
- Free; request it by e-mail
Tekla Version Downgrade
Move a Tekla Structures 2026 model to 2024 as a native, working model.
- Parts, components, bolts, welds, cuts and assemblies
- Every part, bolt position and weld checked against the original
- Runs on your computer; nothing is uploaded
- Free license; request it by e-mail
They work together. After a takeoff in the viewer, press Cutting plan → to send the member list straight to the optimizer, or Analyze this model → to open the steel structure in the 3D frame analysis on its member axes. Everything is passed through your own browser, not over the internet.
Missing a tool? Tell me what you repeat every week.
Most of these tools started as a task someone was tired of doing by hand. If you have one, describe it in an e-mail: I read every request, and the ones that help many engineers become new free tools.
Suggest a tool- What you do by hand today, step by step
- Which software you use, and its version
- What goes in and what should come out
- Please do not attach client files; a short description or a dummy example is enough