Structural steel cost estimation works by converting a take-off (the list of every steel member on a job, with its size, length and quantity) into a total weight, then pricing that weight at your own rates for hot rolled, hollow, fabricated and purlin sections, painting or galvanising, bolts, drafting and fabrication labour - plus your margin - to arrive at a project value.
This is the same calculator as the classic version, rearranged into a workbench: a left-hand rail of buttons (Workspace, Drawing, Load/Save, Reset All), the workspace in the middle, and the Live Summary on the right.
- Add / Edit Member is the panel at the top of the workspace: Project Name sits alone on its first row (it names the job in every save and export), with the item inputs under the black bar - Item name, Quantity, Length (m), Material Type and Size (or a Custom weight), Coating (PAINT/GAL/RAW) and the Bolts estimate, which prefills for standard connections and is directly editable (tick Portal for a portal-frame knee/apex connection). The Weight (kg) and With Waste (kg) readouts beside the buttons update as you type, before you commit with ADD.
- The Member Schedule sits below the entry panel. Click any line to load it back into the form - EDIT commits your changes to that line, REMOVE deletes it (with a few seconds of UNDO), and ADD creates a new line from the current values. If you EDIT the length of an item that has lines drawn on a PDF, you're asked whether to redraw them to the new length - Cancel keeps the drawing as it is and puts the drawn length back.
- Item Variables and Project Variables sit beside the schedule (on a phone they're the Item and Project tabs). Item Variables - waste %, cleats %, material $/t rates, bolt price, fabrication hours per ton, custom weight - are the snapshot each new or edited item takes; changing them doesn't touch items already added. Project Variables are global: drafting, fabrication $/hr and margin %, plus the chemsets, rolling, transport, crane hire, installation and lift-hire rates that flow onto the Estimate Sheet. The Live Summary on the right keeps Quantities, Costs and Project Costs in view, updating as the schedule changes.
- The Drawing rail button is for measuring straight off a PDF instead of typing lengths (skip it if you'd rather type everything). Load a PDF (drag one in or click to browse) and click a sheet on the black SHEETS bar's thumbnail strip - the +/− on the bar collapses the strip to give the sheet more room. The scale dropdown at the bar's right end applies 1:20 up to 1:200 to the open sheet; pick Custom… and click the two ends of a dimension you know to calibrate - the dropdown then shows the real ratio it worked out.
- While drawing mode is open, the entry form and Member Schedule move to the right-hand rail so the sheet gets the whole workspace. The toolbar across the top of the sheet runs: Measure, Column, Select, Copy, Delete, Rotate, + , −, Snap, Colour - the colour swatch at the end opens a ROYGBIV palette for the colour new members are drawn in - pick with a member selected and that member is repainted instead.
- Measure: click a member's two ends - the line follows your cursor with its length ticking over in Length (m), and on the second click the member is added to the Member Schedule with the form's current selections. Keep clicking to drop more of the same member (same length and angle - Quantity counts them). Column adds a vertical member from a single click, using the Length (m) you type - keep clicking to count more of the same column onto one line (Quantity rises with each click; a new Item name or Length starts the next line). Snap (far right) locks measured lines - and dragged endpoints - to horizontal/vertical while it's on; lines already drawn are never changed.
- Select: click any mark - or its name label - on the sheet to select it (Measure and Column grey out while something is selected; a column sitting on a beam is picked ahead of the beam, or click its label). Drag the line from anywhere along its body to move it; drag an endpoint to re-size it, with Length (m) tracking the drag. Re-sizing one mark of a multi-quantity line - by dragging, or by typing a new Length and clicking EDIT - splits that member onto its own schedule line and drops the group's quantity by one. Copy places another mark of the selected item wherever you click. Delete (the bin) removes the selected mark - the schedule line goes with its last mark.
- Tidy a drawing set with the × on each sheet thumbnail - removed sheets can be left out of the saved file when asked.
- Load / Save on the rail does all files. Open: Estimate Sheet (a PDF saved here reopens with its full take-off), Spreadsheet (the Excel save file), PDF Drawing (a marked set carries on where you left off), Variables (a saved rates file). Save: the same four - the Estimate Sheet PDF and the Spreadsheet both embed the whole take-off, the PDF Drawing bakes every mark, the Member Schedule page and the take-off into the drawing set, and Variables keeps just your rates to reuse on the next job - plus Raw Text for a plain print-friendly copy.
- Reset All (below Load/Save) clears everything and starts fresh - you're asked to confirm first.
- Along the way: your work autosaves to this browser as you go (watch for the green ✓ Saved tick at the bottom of the rail) and is offered back next visit. Click any ? for a note explaining that field. Handy shortcuts: Enter adds the current item, Escape clears the entry fields, Delete removes the selected schedule line. The moon/sun button at the rail's foot switches dark mode.
Note: the exported Excel file is also the calculator's save file. Editing the spreadsheet manually and then loading that file with OPEN will likely cause information to load incorrectly - to make changes, use OPEN to load the file back into the calculator, make the changes here, and export again.
Prefer the layout you know? This workbench is optional. ← Switch to the classic calculator - it stays exactly as it is today, permanently, and nobody is moved off it.