beam chek

[RMorrison]

Wendy:

The latest version of BeamChek lets you keep a standard default set of values for engineered lumber, so if you mostly use Parallams, say, you only have to enter the values once.

You might be happier with MaxBeam (www.archforms.com) It is a sophisticated Excel spreadsheet, but I don't think has the macro issues. It will size footings, as well as posts and connection hardware, and give them all to you in a schedule. It has most of the major engineered lumber mfrs., too. One nice feature is that if you're doing a transfer beam, you can reference a point load from another member, so if the loads change on one, it will automatically change on the other. I know the architect who developed this and, like Al Cohen of Beamchek, is a very sharp guy as well as being incredibly helpful!