Steel Takeoff
Counting and measuring structural steel from drawings: what a takeoff is, how it is done, and how accurate it needs to be.
How do you calculate steel tonnage from a takeoff?
Multiply each line's quantity by its length in feet and by the shape's weight per foot to get pounds, sum every line, and divide by 2,000 for US tons. W, C, S, and WT callouts carry the weight per foot; HSS, pipe, angle, and plate weights come from the AISC shapes table.
How long does a structural steel takeoff take?
By hand, columns and beams on a mid-size commercial job take one estimator four to five days, with joists, braces, connections, and misc steel adding more, and each mid-bid addendum costing about a day. With AI-assisted detection and the estimator reviewing every number, the same scope finishes in under an hour, and 10,000-ton jobs in two to six hours.
What is a structural steel quantity takeoff?
A structural steel quantity takeoff, often just called a steel takeoff, is the count and measurement of every steel member in a drawing set, recorded by shape, size, length, and weight per foot. It produces the piece count, the tonnage, and the takeoff sheet or BOM that a steel bid is priced from.
Structural Steel Estimating
Turning a takeoff into a price: material, shop labor, erection, freight, and the numbers estimators use to sanity-check a bid.
Takeoff vs estimate: what's the difference?
A takeoff is the count: every column, beam, joist, brace, connection, and misc item pulled off the drawings, with piece counts and tonnage. An estimate is what you do with that count, applying material prices, labor rates, coatings, freight, and margin to reach a bid number. In structural steel the takeoff is usually the slower half.
What does a structural steel estimator do?
A structural steel estimator decides which invitations to bid are worth pursuing, reads the drawing set, performs the takeoff of every column, beam, and connection, prices material, shop labor, coatings, freight, and erection, and submits and defends the bid. After award, that estimate becomes the budget the shop is held to.
What drives shop hours per ton in structural steel?
Shop hours per ton is fabrication labor divided by tonnage, and it moves with connection type, average piece weight, repetition, extra operations such as copes, cambers, and studs, finish requirements like AESS or galvanizing, and material form. Two jobs of equal tonnage can differ widely, which is why the number has to come from your own job history.
Software & Tools
What steel estimating, takeoff, and fabrication software actually does, what it costs, and how the tools fit together in a fab shop.
Can you use sheet metal estimating software for structural steel?
Not effectively. Sheet and plate tools price parts whose quantity is already known, using cut length, nest yield, and machine time. Structural steel needs the count derived from framing plans and a column schedule first, then shop hours that swing with connection type. A job shop tool has no concept of a W-shape or a moment connection.
How is steel estimating software priced?
Steel estimating software is sold five ways: per seat, per trade license, per takeoff or per sheet, as a flat annual subscription, or as a module inside a fabrication management system. Almost no vendor publishes list prices. The total depends more on user and project caps, implementation, and the annual layer than on the headline figure.
Is FabSuite the same company as Tekla PowerFab?
Yes. Trimble acquired FabSuite in April 2018 and relaunched it in March 2019 as the core of Tekla PowerFab, renaming the management system Tekla EPM. In 2023 Trimble retired the EPM name, so the product is now simply Tekla PowerFab. A shop still running FabSuite is on the legacy version of PowerFab, not a rival.