Structural Engineering Software & Resource Directory

A working engineer keeps a toolbox of trusted websites — the authority to download a standard, the manufacturer app to size an engineered joist, the analysis package that returns member forces, the tool that pins down wind and seismic loads. This page gathers those links in one place, organized by what each one is for, with side-by-side comparison tables in the key sections so you can pick the right tool quickly.

Most-used documents — quick access

This is a living directory — we keep adding to it over time, with more links and, where they help, screenshots. If a tool you rely on isn't here yet, it likely will be soon.

A quick mental map first, because these tools do different jobs and newcomers often mix them up:

• Code & load authorities give you the rules and the demands — the standards (NDS, ASCE 7, AISC 360, ACI 318) and the loads acting on your structure.
• Analysis software gives you the forces — it models the structure and returns moments, shears, and reactions.
• Design software takes those forces and checks or sizes a member against a code.
• Manufacturer (EWP) tools size a specific proprietary product — an LVL, an I-joist — using design values you won't find in the NDS.

Plenty of packages blur these lines, and that's fine. Use the grouping as a starting point, not a rulebook.

Choosing software for a wood-framed residential project? Jump straight to the decision checklist at the end of this page — six practical questions that narrow the field fast.

#Codes, standards & design loads

Start here: the bodies that write the standards, the platforms that let you read the adopted codes, and the tools that quantify the loads you design against.

#Standard-developing organizations (SDOs)

The bodies that author the design standards you cite. Their sites host the current editions, errata, and free technical resources.

#Straight to the standards

The design standards those bodies publish — the documents the code adopts by reference and a member check ultimately cites.

#Reading the adopted code itself

The building code that governs a project (IBC, IRC, and their referenced standards) is read online through one of these two platforms.

#Design loads

Once you know the code, you need the numbers it asks for.

#Prescriptive span chapters

The specific code chapters that carry conventional light-frame span tables (the source behind prescriptive joist/rafter sizing).

#Free web calculators

Free browser tools from AWC and APA that apply the NDS and AWC SDPWS directly — handy for a quick check or to confirm a prescriptive choice.

#Design aids

Free published aids that do the statics for you — the closed-form results an engineer checks an analysis against.

#Engineered wood products (EWP)

When you specify a proprietary product — an LVL header, a manufactured I-joist — its design values come from the manufacturer's evaluation report, not the NDS. This section has both the apps that size those products and the published documents behind their numbers.

#Sizing tools

Free cloud apps that pick a product and check it against your loads.

Each manufacturer app is tuned to its own products and ESR values — handy when the product is already chosen, but tied to that brand. A code-based design tool (below) — StructSuite, for instance — instead works from the NDS and the manufacturer ESR values directly, so several brands of LVL/LSL/PSL (Microllam, Versa-Lam, TimberStrand, Parallam) sit side by side in one check.

#Evaluation reports

Where each manufacturer's code-recognized design values for engineered wood actually live.

No need to search the directory for the common residential lines — these are the current reports, each linked straight to the PDF:

Before you cite one, confirm the report is still live on ICC-ES — brands get sold and reports get quietly withdrawn. The TJI, BCI, LP/PWT, Microllam, Versa-Lam, TimberStrand and Parallam values inside StructSuite come straight from these reports.

#Trus Joist product literature

The specifier's guide and technical bulletins that carry the design values, span tables, and details you cite when you specify a TJI joist.

#Structural analysis & design software

The packages firms run day to day. Some are pure analysis (you take the forces elsewhere to design), some are component-design libraries, several do both, and a few are wood-specialized. The table after the cards lays them side by side.

How they line up. The cards above say what each tool is for; these two tables compare them on the things that actually decide day-to-day fit — where it runs and what it costs, then the loads it can build for you. (Tools are listed alphabetically. Split in two so nothing gets squeezed on a narrow screen. ForteWEB is carried in from the engineered-wood section above, since you'd weigh it alongside these.)

Where it runs, and what's free.

The loads it builds for you (per ASCE 7). A check mark means the tool generates that load type for you, rather than expecting you to arrive with it.

#Connectors, trusses & framing hardware

Wood structures live and die by their connections and framing systems. These tools cover the hardware and the prefabricated components.

#Simpson Strong-Tie product literature

The catalogs and bulletins that carry the allowable loads, installation requirements, and code listings you cite when you specify a connector or lateral system.

#Books & references

The textbooks that sit on the desk next to the code — the ones that explain why a provision reads the way it does and walk a design from loads to connection. A short, curated shelf we'll keep adding to.

#Learning & social channels

Featured — creators covering StructSuite

▶ Featured video: How StructSuite works — the full product in 6 minutes — every featured channel sits here at the top of the section, with a direct link to its StructSuite video.

On YouTube. Channels worth following — practical structural and civil engineering explained on video. A good way to build intuition, see worked examples, and pick up code know-how between projects.

On Instagram. Accounts worth following for quick visual inspiration — real-world structures, framing and detailing from the field, a useful reality check against the drawings.

For creators. Cover StructSuite on your channel — a review, a walkthrough, a design-along — and get featured here, at the top of this section with a link to your video. Details in our creators & affiliate program.

#Choosing a tool for light-frame & residential wood

Most of the work on a wood-framed building isn't whole-structure finite-element analysis — it's a stack of member, shear-wall, connection and footing checks, plus the wind and seismic loads that drive them. A few practical questions narrow the field:

• Do you need the loads too, or just the member check? General analysis tools (RISA, CSI) and most component libraries expect ASCE 7 loads as input. A smaller set build the loads for you — and fewer still go beyond wind and seismic to also assemble dead and live loads straight from the ASCE 7-22 tables (material/assembly weights and occupancy live loads), e.g., StructSuite. If you'd rather not run the load takeoff separately, prefer a tool with built-in ASCE 7 modules.
• Desktop or browser? Desktop suites (WoodWorks, ENERCALC, StruCalc) are mature and run offline. Browser tools (StructSuite, SkyCiv, SPEC Toolbox, Calcs.com) install nothing and are easy to open — or hand to a colleague or plan checker — from any machine.
• How does the reviewer see your work? Some workflows still mean printing a thick calc package. Tools that produce a shareable, view-only link to the step-by-step calculations (e.g., StructSuite) let a plan-check engineer follow each substitution and code reference online, which can shorten the review loop.
• Who assembles the package? A submittal isn't just the member checks — it needs a cover sheet and a table of contents tying the package together for the plan reviewer, which is often manual desktop-publishing work. A few tools collate that automatically: StructSuite, for instance, generates the calculation-package cover sheet and table of contents from the modules you've completed, so the deliverable comes out paginated and consistent without assembling it by hand.
• Who's reading the calc? If an EIT or student needs to learn from it, favour tools that show every equation, its code citation, and each substitution rather than just a pass/fail — StructSuite lays out the full derivation, with the formulas, the substituted numbers and the governing NDS/ASCE 7 tables shown inline; CalcBook likewise produces step-by-step calcs.
• What does it cost to try? Several entries are free or have a free tier — the ASCE Hazard Tool and the manufacturer apps (ForteWEB, BC Calc) are free, the code platforms are free to read, StructSuite is free to use in full (Pro access — a subscription or a one-time week pass — is needed only to print or export the report), and SPEC Toolbox has a free tier plus free access for students; the established desktop suites are paid.

The directory above lists the options for each of these so you can match the tool to the job.

#Frequently Asked Questions

Quick answers to the questions that bring engineers to this page — each one links to the resource that carries the full detail.

#Where can I read the IBC and IRC for free?

On two platforms: ICC Digital Codes — the ICC's own library of the I-Codes, free to read in the browser with section-level links — and UpCodes, a fast searchable view of adopted codes and state amendments, also free to read. Paid tiers on both add search and collaboration tools, but reading the code text costs nothing.

#What is the difference between the NDS and the NDS Supplement?

The NDS is the standard itself — the equations, adjustment factors, and connection provisions for wood design in ASD and LRFD. The NDS Supplement is its companion volume of design-value tables — the reference values (F_b, F_v, E, F_c and the rest) for sawn lumber and glulam by species, grade and size. A wood member check reads from both: the Supplement supplies the base values, and the NDS tells you how to adjust and apply them.

#Where do I find span tables for TJI joists?

In Weyerhaeuser's own literature: the TJ-4000 Specifier's Guide carries the floor and roof span tables, design values and web-hole charts for TJI 110–560D joists; TB-805 covers TJI ceiling joists supporting attic load, and TB-824 adds roof thrust load. All three are free downloads from the Weyerhaeuser document library.

#Is ASCE 7-22 free to read?

The standard itself is a paid publication from ASCE. What is free is the official ASCE 7 Hazard Tool, which returns the ASCE 7 site parameters for any U.S. location — basic wind speed, seismic S_s and S₁, ground snow and more — the numbers a load calculation actually starts from.

#What software can design wood shear walls?

Several tools in this directory. StructSuite designs wood shear walls per AWC SDPWS as a guided, step-by-step wizard in the browser — including the wind and seismic loads that drive them. You pick the sheathing straight from a replica of SDPWS Table 4.3A exactly as it reads in the standard, select the hold-down and its matching anchor bolt (bolt diameters are checked against each other), design the end posts per the NDS, and can include the collector (drag strut) force check per ASCE 7-22. US WoodWorks Shearwalls is the long-established desktop tool for distributing story forces to wall lines; and APA's free FTAO Calculator handles wood shear walls with openings by the force-transfer-around-openings method.

#Where do allowable loads for joist hangers and hold-downs come from?

From the manufacturer's literature and code reports: Simpson's Wood Construction Connectors catalog carries the allowable loads, fastener schedules and code-report references for its hangers, straps and hold-downs; MiTek's Product Selector does the same for its hardware; and the code-recognized basis for each product lives in its evaluation report on ICC-ES.

StructSuite publishes this directory, and it's listed among the tools it competes with on the same terms. We've described every entry — ours included — by what it actually does; if we've got a detail wrong, tell us and we'll fix it.