Structade

Budget pricing · steel frames

From hours to minutes.

Draw the wireframe. Structade sizes the sections to the Eurocodes and produces the preliminary costing. No re-keying.

Early accessSee the solution
< 8 min
to model this building
0
re-keying
What you give: wireframe, profile type and addressAfter EC3 pre-sizing: sections, grade, weight

Today

Five tools for one budget price.

  1. The specificationRead it, interpret it, take off the dimensions
  2. The EurocodesFind the site's snow and wind zones, look up the EC1 values
  3. ExcelPre-size from charts, cost each item
  4. WordRe-key from Excel, lay it out, send itRe-keyed
  5. The inboxChase, note who replied, rememberRe-keyed

2 to 8 hper price. And two full re-keyings.

Nobody runs a full calculation for a preliminary project with a one-in-five chance of going ahead.

So you choose:spend the day on it,answer from the charts,or don't answer.

The Structade modeler: the workshop as a wireframe, frames, purlins, girts and bracing
Modeler capture. Portal-frame workshop, unequal duo-pitch roof, mezzanine, loading bays, girts and bracing.

You don't draw it
bar by bar.

You place a function. Structade generates the framing that goes with it, and breaks the girts at openings.

You placeStructade generates
Wall claddingthe façade's girts
Roof claddingthe slope's purlins
An openingthe opening's framing, the posts
A bracing baythe bracing bars

This building took under 8 minutes.

X gridlines
in plan
Y gridlines
in plan
Levels
in height

Dimensions live in the grid. The client wants another metre under the eaves? Change one level, and the whole building follows.

Sections are an output. Not an input.

Elsewhere, as an inputYour analysis software asks you for it.

Section?

Here, as an outputStructade gives it back.

IPE 550

Illustrative values
Snow zone A1Wind zone 2Columnhot-rolled I profileRafterhot-rolled I profile
The portal frame and the site loads: snow on the roof, wind on the façade.

At the preliminary stage, the section and the grade are exactly what nobody knows yet. With Structade, you draw a wireframe and pick the profile type. Structade applies EC0, EC1 and EC3, sizes the sections, optimises the grade and returns the structure's weight. The take-off follows directly.

See the calculation in detail

You provide

  • The wireframe geometry
  • The profile type of each member
  • The site address

The standard imposes

  • The site's snow and wind
  • The national annex, France or Belgium

Structade returns

  • The section of each member
  • The optimised grade: S235, S275, S355
  • The utilisation ratios
  • The weight, and the take-off
Selected sectionsIllustrative values
app.structade.fr / calculationPreview · EC3 pre-sizing

Elements

  • Full frame
  • Portal frames
  • Gable framing
  • Purlins and roof
  • Bracing
ElementSectionSourceGradeQtyLength (m)Utilisation
ColumnIPE 550Pre-sizingS275JR107.00
max 0.84min 0.54
RafterIPE 500Pre-sizingS275JR107.75
max 0.86min 0.58
HaunchPRS 1000*8/300*20Pre-sizingS355JR100.78
max 0.74min 0.49
Gable postIPE 220OverrideOverrideS275JR88.00
max 1.06min 0.52
Purlin stayUPE 180Pre-sizingS275JR47.75
max 0.31min 0.22
BracingL 50*5Pre-sizingS235JR412.00
max 0.92min 0.62
  • under 0.70
  • 0.70 to 0.90
  • 0.90 to 1.00
  • over 1.00

Illustrative values

Section, grade and utilisation, member by member.
The deliverable

A budget price that looks like a final offer.

Against a figure slipped into an email, a detailed document under your brand makes the difference. The costing comes out complete, with no layout to redo.

3 documents, produced together

  1. The PDF: preliminary costing, detailed take-off, sale prices, your logo.
  2. The Excel file: take-off by family, ready to pass on.
  3. The IFC model: the structural model, exportable in openBIM.

Sale prices only. Margins never leave.Margins are managed internally, item by item. Only sale prices appear in client documents.

Illustration
Your logo
Preliminary costingRef. xxxx-xx
Date xx/xx/xxxx

Portal-frame workshop, duo-pitch

Client · Site address · Budget price on EC3 pre-sizing

FamilySale price
Main framexx xxx € excl. VAT
Secondary framingxx xxx € excl. VAT
Bracingxx xxx € excl. VAT
Roof and wall claddingxx xxx € excl. VAT
Totalxxx xxx € excl. VAT

Assumptions

Your company1 / 3
ABC
1Familykg€ excl. VAT
2Main framex xxxxx xxx
3Secondary fr.x xxxxx xxx
4Bracingxxxx xxx
5Roof and cladd.x xxxxx xxx
Excel · take-off by family
The IFC model of the same workshop, in solid
IFC · openBIM model

A budget price, not an execution study.

What it does

Standards
EC0, EC1, EC3, French and Belgian national annexes.
Loads
Snow and wind determined from the site address.
Buildings
Symmetric or asymmetric two-pitch portal frames, single-pitch, multi-bay halls.
Sections
IPE, HEA, HEB and PRS. Grades S235, S275, S355, optimised.
Outputs
Sections, utilisation ratios, take-off, PDF and Excel estimate, IFC model, calculation note in Excel and Word.

What it does not do

  • ConnectionsEnd plates, bolts, welds: stay with the execution study.
  • Seismic design (EC8)
  • Fire resistance
  • Concrete and compositeSteel only.
  • Extending an existing building

The execution study stays with your calculation software. Structade stops where it begins.

  • Hosted in France (OVHcloud)
  • GDPR compliant
  • Margins never exported

Why the preliminary stage first.

Structade is developed in France, alongside steel fabricators and design offices that price tenders every week. The starting observation is simple: at preliminary stage, pre-dimensioning has no tool at all. That is the step Structade equips first.

Antoine LaffaireFounder

H1 2027

Be among the first to price with Structade.

Launching in H1 2027 · limited beta seats. Leave your email and we will write the moment access opens.