Steel Quote

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.

The steps below follow the page top to bottom, in the order you'll actually meet them.

1. Start at the top with Project Name - it identifies the job in every export and in your autosaved session.
2. Next is Import Drawing, useful if you want to measure lengths straight off a PDF instead of typing them (skip it and go straight to step 6 if you'd rather just type everything in). Load a PDF (drag one in or click to browse), click a sheet thumbnail, then set its scale - pick 1:100/1:50/1:20/1:150/1:200, or Custom to click two points on a known dimension.
3. With a scale set, click MEASURE LENGTH and click a member's two ends - its length fills the Length (m) field further down the page, ready to ADD. Keep marking after the first: each further click adds another the same length and angle, and Quantity counts them, so one ADD covers the whole run. MARK COLUMN does the same for vertical members, which show as a single dot on a plan and take a Length you type yourself. A line and a column mark can't be mixed on one item; switching between the two tools starts a fresh set, and CLEAR POINTS abandons one.
4. The toolbar above the drawing also has tools for correcting marks on an item you've already added and selected in the Member Schedule further down: RE-MEASURE sets the item's length from the drawing and re-cuts every one of its marks to match (rather than starting a new one); COPY places another mark the same length and orientation wherever you click, adding one to Quantity; RESIZE ALL, while on, makes dragging one mark's end resize the whole group; SPLIT moves one mark onto a line of its own for a member that isn't really the same size; the × deletes one mark and drops Quantity by one; and ✓ checks every mark against the length it's priced at, outlining any that disagree in red.
5. Tidy a drawing set with the × on each sheet thumbnail, and turn a sheet with the ↻ button above the drawing (shown darker, alongside the zoom +/-, to set it apart from the mark tools next to it). SAVE MARKED PDF writes every measured member onto its sheet, appends the Member Schedule, and embeds the take-off itself - you're asked once whether removed sheets should be left out, and rotations are always baked in so it opens the right way up anywhere. Drop that same file back in here later to carry on where you left off.
6. Whether or not you measured from a drawing, the entry form is where each member gets added: give it a name under Item, set Quantity and Length (m), choose its Type and Size (or a Custom weight), pick a Coating (PAINT/GAL/RAW), and check the Bolts estimate - it prefills for standard connections and is directly editable; tick PORTAL for a portal-frame knee/apex connection. Click ADD, EDIT, CLEAR or REMOVE below the fields - the Weight, With Waste and Fabrication Hours boxes underneath those buttons update live as a preview before you commit.
7. Further down, the Member Schedule sits alongside Item Variables and Project Variables. Click any line in the Member Schedule to load it back into the form - EDIT commits your changes to that line, REMOVE deletes it, and ADD again creates a new duplicate line from the current values.
8. Item Variables (open by default) - waste %, cleats %, material $/t rates, bolt price, fabrication hours per ton, custom weight, sheet width/length - set the snapshot each new or edited item takes; changing them doesn't touch items already added. Project Variables (collapsed by default) are global instead: drafting, fabrication $/hr and margin %, plus the chemsets, rolling, transport, crane hire, installation and lift-hire rates that flow onto the Estimate Sheet. Both panels start collapsed on a phone screen - tap the heading to open one.
9. Below that, Quantities, Costs and Project Costs update automatically as you add, edit or remove items.
10. The bottom row exports or reopens the whole job: EXPORT RAW for a plain print-friendly text view, ESTIMATE SHEET for a PDF summary, EXPORT EXCEL for the full spreadsheet breakdown (this file also doubles as your save file), OPEN to reload a previously saved Excel file and continue where you left off, or RESET ALL to clear everything and start a fresh calculator (you'll be asked to confirm first).
11. Along the way: your work autosaves to this browser as you go (watch for the green ✓ Saved tick, top right) and is offered back next visit. Hover over (or tap) any ? for an explanation of that field. Handy shortcuts: Enter adds the current item, Escape clears the entry fields, Delete removes the selected schedule line, and REMOVE can be undone for a few seconds via the UNDO toast. The floating pill at the bottom right shows the running total; the moon/sun button (top right) 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.