Ferra 1.5: AI Takeoff for Steel Connections and Columns

tldr: Ferra 1.5 is the biggest release we've shipped. Connection data, column property detection, and joist and brace detection are all live today, along with a rebuilt 3D viewer, and you can now create an account and run Ferra on your own drawings without booking a call with anyone.

https://youtu.be/nTlgmzYF4Lc

Every AI takeoff tool does beams. Beams are the easy part. They're labeled, they sit on framing plans, and they're the first thing anyone builds.

The rest of the structure is where your hours go. Connections drive shop labor and hide in details and schedules. Column properties live in a schedule that changes by height. Joists get called out by load instead of by section. Braces sit on elevations, on entirely different sheets from everything else. Ask any estimator who has trialed this software and you'll hear a version of the same sentence: they all say they do it, then you run a real set.

Ferra 1.5 goes after all of it. Connections, column properties, joists, and braces are all live today. Miscellaneous metals are next. It's the most we've ever shipped at once.

The other half of this release has nothing to do with detection. Until today, seeing Ferra meant getting on a call with us first. That's over. Create an account, upload a set, and watch it run on your own drawings.

Here's what's actually in your hands today, and what isn't yet.

Connections, live today

Connections were the thing customers asked about from the day we shipped the 3D model. They're also the thing that decides shop hours, which makes them a pricing problem, not a counting problem.

Ferra now assigns physical connection types across your set: shear tab, single and double angle, moment, gusset, end plate, seated, knife, saddle. Each one carries structured options for bolted or welded, angle size, bolt count, diameter, grade, and notes.

The part that matters on a real job is the bulk editor. Turn on the 2D connections layer and every beam end reads teal if it's connected and orange if it isn't. Shift-drag a marquee or Cmd-click to multi-select, then apply a type and its options to all of them at once. A full-screen editor with floor-grouped previews handles the big sweeps.

Ferra's 2D connections layer on a structural framing plan: moment connections marked in red at beam ends, the connection type list open, and a beam readout showing length and weight

Bulk Edit Connections in Ferra: a moment connection with a rotatable 3D preview and physical options, about to apply to 858 beam ends grouped by floor

Two details worth calling out. Detection now records which column face each beam end lands on, flange or web, so "connects to" comes off the drawing instead of a guess. And the connection design forces the engineer specified, the shear, moment and axial callouts at beam ends like V195, M1280, P260, are picked up automatically, editable in the beam panel, included in CSV exports, and tracked when you compare revisions. Connection data flows into the Tekla PowerFab export, and forces survive a beam duplicate or mirror.

Connection design forces in Ferra: V, M, and P callouts like V195 and M1280 on the framing plan, picked up into editable left and right beam-end fields

Steel connections rendered in 3D in Ferra, with bolted end plates and base plates visible on beams and columns below a joist floor

Column property detection, live today

Columns are the hardest part of a structural steel takeoff, which is exactly why we spent this long on them. The column schedule is the whole problem: it's a table that changes section by height, and reading it correctly means understanding splices.

Ferra reads your schedules and plan callouts, then fills in each column's properties: steel size, splices, base plate, footing, and elevations. Auto-filled values carry an Auto badge, so you can see at a glance which numbers came from Ferra, confirm them, or override them with your own. Every value is tied to visual evidence. Hover to preview where it came from, click to jump to that spot on the sheet.

Auto-detected column properties in Ferra: steel size badges on plan callouts, and column stacks showing the detected section and base plate tags

Schedules that change section by height now bind correctly. One material type per vertical segment, with start and top-of-steel elevations, applied across every grid the schedule row covers. Below-grade footing depth counts toward column length, so the steel below the slab makes it into your tonnage.

Review runs as a guided rail instead of one-at-a-time clicking: match columns to grids, confirm stacks, then add details, one step at a time. A completeness filter isolates the columns still missing a grid, a steel size, or a base plate, and you can jump from a column to the same column on another floor without losing your zoom. The classic wizard is still in the menu if that's how you like to work.

Schedule detection now happens inside the upload wizard, and the Schedule tab has split view with go-to-page, snap-to-floor, in-place detail panels, multi-select with shift-range mass edit, and undo.

Joists and braces, live today

These are the two everyone told us nobody does well. They've been running in beta with a handful of shops, and as of today they're standard detection on every account.

Joists and joist girders. Open-web steel joists detected on framing plans across the full SJI catalog: K, LH/DLH, CJ, and legacy SLH, with full Vulcraft and New Millennium coverage, plus joist girders like 48G8N10K. Joists called out by load rather than section, like 32LH 350/200, resolve their weight per foot from SJI ASD load tables. Label-to-member matching got tighter through the beta, with fewer phantom spans and correct handling of joists that bridge a broken bearing beam. They get their own takeoff tab and tonnage, floor-level tracking, on-canvas designation labels, and Tekla PowerFab and CSV export. In 3D they render with bear-on-top placement and girder webs, aligned to top-of-steel.

Joist takeoff table in Ferra: 221 joists and joist girders totaling 52.29 tons, with per-joist lengths, pounds per lineal foot, and CSV export

Braces and trusses. Diagonal braces detected on braced-frame and truss elevations, with lengths measured from the sheet scale and weights from the section catalogs. It recovers thin HSS diagonals and reads outlined designations via OCR. Set a sheet's scale and it cascades to every brace on it. And a not-to-scale sheet gets flagged with an NTS warning rather than quietly handing you wrong lengths, which is the behavior we'd want if we were the ones bidding it.

Brace detection in Ferra: green diagonal braces in the 3D model, a braced-frame elevation with HSS diagonals, and the Position Brace Frames tool landing on a framing plan

The 3D viewer, rebuilt

The 3D model is where a takeoff stops being a list and starts being a building you can inspect. In 1.5 the viewer is rebuilt: rotation is smoother, base plates render in 3D, and you can select, edit, and delete columns directly in the 3D view instead of going back to the sheet to fix them.

The rebuilt 3D viewer in Ferra with base plates rendered at column bases and selected members highlighted

The everyday things

A release this size comes with a pile of smaller changes you'll notice the first day. A curved grid line tool that can draw, bend, fillet, and set a radius, with undo. Grid editing directly on the canvas. A live processing view that shows steel type, running tonnage, and a per-column detection feed while your set processes, so you can watch the takeoff assemble itself. And the plate editor now takes feet-and-inches with a live parsed preview, because that's how the drawings write them.

You can stop taking our word for it

This is the change that matters more than any single feature.

Until today, seeing Ferra meant booking a call with us. Starting now, create an account, upload a drawing set, and run it yourself. It's free, and you can do the whole thing without sitting through a demo or waiting on anyone.

Everything in this release, connections, columns, joists, braces, and the rebuilt viewer, is switched on for every account. And if you'd rather have us walk your set with you, that's still there. We'd just rather you saw it run first.

What Ferra 1.5 still doesn't do

We don't design connections. We read the forces the engineer specified and let you assign types. Engineering is somebody else's stamp, and it should be.

We don't produce a takeoff you can send without looking at it. The estimator reviews every number, and that's a design decision, not a limitation we're working around. If anyone in this market tells you their software gives you a finished takeoff nobody needs to check, run your own messy set through it and see.

Miscellaneous metals are still in progress. Stairs, railings, embeds, all of it. That's the next thing.

FAQs

What's new in Ferra 1.5?

Connection data, column property detection, and joist and brace detection, all live today, plus a rebuilt 3D viewer and open signup. Connections include physical connection types with a bulk editor, 2D and 3D previews, flange-versus-web beam-end conditions, and engineer-specified design forces. Column detection reads your schedules and fills in steel size, base plates, footings, and elevations, each marked with an Auto badge you confirm or override. Joists cover the full SJI catalog, and braces are detected on elevation sheets.

Can I try Ferra without booking a demo?

Yes, starting today. Create an account, upload a drawing set, and run it. It's free, and every detection layer in this release is enabled on every account.

Does Ferra detect joists and braces?

Yes, live today and out of beta. Joists cover the full SJI catalog including load-designated callouts like 32LH 350/200 resolved from ASD load tables, with Vulcraft and New Millennium coverage. Braces are detected on braced-frame and truss elevations with lengths measured from the sheet scale, and a not-to-scale sheet gets flagged with an NTS warning instead of quietly producing wrong lengths.

Does Ferra design connections?

No. Ferra reads the connection design forces the engineer specified on the drawings, shear, moment and axial, and lets you assign and bulk-edit physical connection types. It does not calculate reactions or perform engineering.

Does Ferra replace Bluebeam?

No, and this isn't about Bluebeam being bad. Most estimators use it because it's been one of the best tools available. Ferra is a different workflow: AI-native structural steel takeoff, revision control, connection data, and 3D generation, with markup and measure tools so you don't have to switch back and forth for most work.

What does Ferra export to?

Tekla PowerFab, IFC, CSV, and PDF. Connection data, forces, and tonnage carry through the exports, and connection forces survive beam duplication and mirroring.

Want to see it on your own drawings? Sign up free and upload a set. Want us to walk it with you instead? Book a demo.

Ferra 1.5, our biggest release yet: connections, columns, and open signup