Structade

The solution

Four steps. One tool. No re-keying.

Modelling, EC3 pre-sizing, costing, then export and follow-up. Here is each step in detail, who drives it, and where the scope stops.

01ModellingDriven by the designer

This building took under 8 minutes.

Modeler capture.Portal-frame workshop with an uneven two-pitch roof, a mezzanine, loading docks, side rails and bracing.

The Structade modeler: a portal-frame workshop as a wireframe, with a mezzanine, façade openings, purlins, side rails and bracing
First

The grid

Dimensions are entered once, here, and nowhere else.

X linesin plan
Y linesin plan
Levelsin height
Then

The portal frame

The primary frame is drawn on the grid intersections. Nothing to type:

lengthanglesection

One portal frame, stretched along the length, gives every bay.

Finally

The secondary framing is not drawn

You place

  • The cladding of a façade
  • The roofing of a pitch
  • A door or a window in a bay
  • A wall bracing, a wind girder

Structade generates

  • The purlins and the side rails
  • The posts
  • The opening framing
  • Side rails interrupted across the openings

The client wants one more metre to the eaves?

Redraw everything?Change one level. The whole building follows, secondary framing included.

02EC3 pre-sizingCalculated by Structade

Sections are an output, not an input.

The utilisation ratio: the design effort over the resistance. Structade returns it for every member.

Snow zone A1Wind zone 2Columnhot-rolled I profileRafterhot-rolled I profile
The portal frame and the site loads, as Structade applies them.
  1. The site addressgives the snow and wind zones, per EC1.
  2. The national annexFrance (NF EN) or Belgium (NBN EN).
  3. The EC0 combinationsare generated automatically.
  4. The EC3 pre-sizingreturns the recommended section, the grade optimised among S235, S275, S355, and the utilisation ratio.
Sections selected, member by memberIllustrative 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

How to read a utilisation ratio

  • under 0.70
  • 0.70 to 0.90
  • 0.90 to 1.00
  • over 1.00

Illustrative values

03CostingDriven by the estimator

From take-off to budget price.

Every section is known, so the take-off does itself. The estimator's work starts where the designer's stops.

Design

The designer drives

They draw and calculate. They see no price and no margin.

Costing

The estimator drives

They pick up the geometry read-only, and price it.

The project moves to costing at the end of design.

Who drives, who sees prices
RoleDesignPrices and margins
DesignerOwnerHidden
EstimatorReadOwner
ManagerReadRead
AdministratorFullFull

Margins are never exported.Only sale prices appear in client documents.

The take-off
Automatic, by family. No quantity to measure.
The margins
Per line, internal. Never visible to the designer.
Indexing
Monthly, on the INSEE BT07 and BT08 indices.
The take-off by item, in kg and kg/m²Illustrative values
Itemkgkg/m²
Main framex xxxx.x
Crane runwayx xxxx.x
Secondary framingx xxxx.x
Bracingx xxxx.x
Plate girderx xxxx.x
Total steelworkxx xxxxx.x
Values masked, bar lengths indicative. No price.
04Export and follow-upThe whole team, by role

The estimate goes out, and the tender is tracked.

  • PDFThe preliminary estimate, under your brand. Sale prices only.
  • ExcelThe same estimate, ready to pass on. Sale prices only.
  • IFCThe structural model, in openBIM.
  • EC3 noteThe calculation note of the pre-sizing, in Excel and Word.

All four come out of the same project. No layout to redo.

The IFC model of the same workshop, in solid
The IFC model of the same workshop, in solid.

The pipeline reads column by column.

From design to archive, every tender has its card: the client, the deadline, the status.

  1. Design
  2. Costing / offer
  3. Validation
  4. Tracking
  5. Taken forward
  6. Not pursued
Design3

Atelier CLM

2h ago

Hangar Duval

6h ago

Entrepôt Logipro

3d ago

Revision
Costing / Offer3

Serre BioVert

3h ago

Atelier Texier

1d ago

Hangar Roussel

1d ago

Validation1

Halle Garnier

4h ago

Tracking3

Hangar Morel

2d ago

Atelier Besson

6d ago

Extension SudMetal

14d ago

Revision
Taken forward3

Hangar Fabre

9d ago

Taken forward

Atelier Lenoir

12d ago

Taken forward

Entrepôt Moreau

21d ago

Taken forward
Not pursued1

Halle Vasseur

30d ago

Not pursued
The tender pipeline, column by columnRevisions and variants on the cardColumns filtered by your role

Your building, not our example.

What Structade covers at launch, what the calculation assumes, what stays out. If your tender fits this frame, the tool carries it end to end.

What Structade covers
ItemDetail
TypesSymmetric or asymmetric two-pitch portal frames, single-pitch, multi-bay halls with intermediate columns.
SectionsRolled IPE, HEA, HEB and tapered-web PRS. Grades S235, S275, S355, with optimisation.
EnvelopeCladding and roofing per facade and per pitch, purlins and girts generated. Openings (sectional doors, pedestrian doors, windows) with their framing.
BracingWall bracing and wind girders placed by you, members generated and sized by Structade.
LoadsSnow and wind from the address: EC1 zones, French or Belgian national annex, simplified method suited to pre-sizing.
ChecksEC3: section resistance (ULS), deflections (SLS), instabilities (buckling, lateral-torsional buckling). Automatic EC0 combinations.
What comes outSections and utilisation ratios, base reactions at column feet, take-off, PDF and Excel estimate, IFC model, calculation note in Excel and Word.

Out of scope at launch

  • Extension of an existing building
  • Seismic design (EC8)
  • ConnectionsEnd plates, bolts, welds: stay with the execution study.
  • Fire resistance
  • Concrete columns, composite structuresSteel only.

What the calculation assumes

  1. Every degree of freedom has exactly one driver: a value, an expression or a derivation.
  2. Levels drive the heights. Slopes and ridges are derived from them.
  3. Every member end anchors to a grid point: the model is correct by construction.
  4. National annexes are injected, never hardcoded.

A budget price. Not an execution study.

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

What is coming next.

  • AI extraction from an email or a PDFsoon
  • Transport and assembly costssoon
  • German national annexsoon

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.