Frequently Asked Questions

BuildMetrics is a structural calculation and reporting platform for engineers who design to the Eurocodes. It runs Eurocode calculators in your browser with the National Annex each project chooses, puts the results into reports on your firm’s letterhead, and takes each report through an independent check, approval and issue. Nothing to install.

BuildMetrics is designed for:

• Structural and civil engineers in private practice
• Graduate and chartered engineers
• Engineering consultancies
• Contractors needing quick preliminary checks
• Engineering academics and students

Yes. BuildMetrics Basic is free for every engineer: every calculator, the full draft → check → approve → issue workflow, your letterhead on every report, and free checker, approver and viewer seats. BuildMetrics Advanced — US$49 per editing seat a month, or US$490 a year, plus applicable tax — adds Metric (the AI copilot), Drive mode and every automation. See pricing.

BuildMetrics is intended as a calculation assistance tool. The outputs can be used as part of your engineering process, but:

BuildMetrics works in all modern browsers: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. We recommend Chrome or Edge for the best experience. Internet Explorer is not supported.

No. BuildMetrics runs entirely in your browser. There is no software to download, install, or maintain. All calculations and data are accessible from any device with a browser and internet connection.

Fifteen, each with its clause beside every check:

• Steel — beam (bending, shear, deflection, and lateral-torsional buckling when the compression flange is not fully restrained), column (flexural buckling), member (combined actions), bolted connection
• Concrete — RC beam (flexure, shear, minimum reinforcement, deflection), RC column (axial and a linear N + M check), RC slab, BS 8666 bar schedule
• Timber — column (instability factor k_c)
• Geotechnical — pad footing, retaining wall
• Loads and tools — wind loading (q_p), load take-down, section properties, temporary site hoarding (TWf2012)

Open any of them from Calculators in the app.

No. BuildMetrics works in SI units throughout (kN, m, mm, MPa), as the Eurocodes do.

Calculations live in reports. In a calculator, press Add to report and choose a draft report: the calculation is added and its run recorded, with the engine’s fingerprint, the inputs and the result. You can also add a calculation from inside the report.

Yes. A project holds any number of reports, and each report any number of calculations. Calculations in a project can share its design basis, so one change to, say, the floor imposed load flags every calculation that used it.

The utilisation ratio (η = E_d / R_d) is the design effect divided by the design resistance. Up to 1.00 the check is satisfied; above 1.00 it fails. BuildMetrics marks results above 0.90 as Near limit so you can see where there is little margin left.

Yes, while its report is a draft: change the inputs and run it again. The earlier result is marked out of date until you do. Once a report is issued, that revision is fixed for good; start a new revision to make changes.

The steel beam calculator has a picker for UK universal beams that fills in the section’s properties. Other calculators take section properties as inputs.

Each PDF report includes: project details, engineer name, calculation reference, all input parameters, step-by-step calculation workings with Eurocode clause references, utilisation checks with pass/fail status, diagrams (where applicable), and the BuildMetrics disclaimer.

Yes, on every plan. Your company name, address and contact details appear as the letterhead on every report; BuildMetrics appears only as fine print. Set it under Organisation → General. For BuildMetrics itself in your firm’s brand, send an enquiry from Organisation → Custom branding.

Yes. When a report is issued, choose PDF or Word on the issue sheet, and either can be downloaded again from the issued revision at any time.

Yes. Every report contains a mandatory disclaimer stating that results are produced by a calculation assistance tool and must be independently verified by a qualified engineer. This cannot be removed and is required by our Terms of Service.

• EN 1990 — basis of design and load combinations
• EN 1991 — imposed loads and wind
• EN 1992 — concrete
• EN 1993 — steel
• EN 1995 — timber
• EN 1997 — geotechnical (footings, retaining walls)

With the UK National Annexes. Each project records the standards profile it uses.

The one each project chooses when it is set up: the UK National Annexes, or the EN recommended values for a project outside a country whose annex BuildMetrics implements (for example Eurocode 2 with the EN recommended values). Every calculation sheet lists the nationally determined values it applied, such as γ_c and α_cc, with their clause and source. The Malaysian, Singapore and Irish National Annexes will follow once each value has been confirmed against the published annex. Outside the UK there is no UK wind map, so the wind and hoarding calculators ask for the site's basic wind velocity.

EN 1990 equation 6.10 for the ultimate limit state, with γ_G = 1.35 and γ_Q = 1.5 (the factors in both the UK National Annex and the EN recommended values). Steel beam deflection is checked at the serviceability limit state under imposed load.

Yes. Every calculation engine is fingerprinted. When one is updated, every calculation that ran on the earlier version is flagged to run again, and a report cannot be submitted until it has. Results already issued are never changed.

As many as you need, on every plan. There is no limit on projects, reports or calculations. Basic includes three company templates; Advanced has unlimited templates.

Yes. Add people to a project by email as engineer, checker, approver or viewer. Colleagues in your organisation join at once; anyone else — an outside checker, say — receives an invitation and joins when they accept it from a confirmed email address. Checkers check independently — anyone who edited a report cannot check it — and approvers approve before a revision is issued. Checker, approver and viewer seats are free on every plan.

The answers your firm has verified — design criteria, house rules, how you do things — kept under Projects → Knowledge. When anyone asks Metric a matching question, it answers from there instantly, the same way every time, without using a Metric action, and says who verified it. Anyone can suggest an answer; owners and admins verify it, and verified answers come back for review after 12 months.

Checks and approvals are signed under your name, so we make sure the address is really yours before you can join a team, check or approve. Use the link in the email we send when you sign up; if it has gone astray, choose Resend link in the banner at the top of the app.

On our servers, in a MySQL database hosted with Hostinger, so your projects follow you to any device you sign in on. Only members of your organisation and the people added to a project can see it. Every action is recorded in an append-only audit log, and issued revisions can never be edited. See the Privacy Policy.

On the sign-in page, enter your email, then choose Forgot password?. We email you a link that works for one hour.

Message support from the Help Centre in the app and we will change it for you. If you sign in with Google, your email follows your Google account.

Go to Profile & security → Delete my account. Your personal details are erased and you are signed out. Work you did inside an organisation, such as reports you signed for and issued revisions, stays with that organisation under “Former user”, because firms must keep their engineering records. If you are the only owner of an organisation others use, make someone else an owner first.

Basic is free: every calculator, the full check-and-approve workflow, unlimited projects and exports, your letterhead, and free checker seats. Advanced is US$49 per editing seat a month, or US$490 a year (prices in US dollars, plus any applicable tax), and adds Metric, Drive mode, every automation, unlimited templates and priority support. Checkers, approvers and viewers are always free.

Intelligence and automation, never access to engineering. Every calculator and the whole controlled workflow are on Basic. Advanced adds Metric, which drafts narrative sections from your project’s data and pre-checks a report the way your checker will (150 actions per seat a month), and its Knowledge Centre of answers your firm has verified, which Metric gives instantly and free; Drive mode, for updating a report by voice (300 minutes per seat a month); every automation; and unlimited templates. If a subscription ends, your organisation returns to Basic and nothing is locked.

No. Signing up for Basic needs only an email address and a password. If you upgrade to Advanced, payment is taken by Stripe on its secure checkout; we never see or store your card details. Questions: support@buildmetrics.uk.

You need a connection to sign in and to save. The calculation engines themselves run in your browser, so a result you are looking at stays on screen if the connection drops; it is recorded once you are back online.

Yes. Everything travels over HTTPS, and your projects are stored on our servers so they follow you to any device. Only members of your organisation and the people invited to a project can see it, and nobody joins without accepting from a confirmed email address. Passwords are hashed, repeated wrong guesses lock the account for a while, and changing your password signs you out everywhere else. Every action is written to an append-only audit log, and issued revisions carry a hash anyone on the project can verify. Found a weakness? Email security@buildmetrics.uk. See the Privacy Policy for details.

Email support@buildmetrics.uk with a description of the issue or your feature request. For bugs, please include the calculator name, inputs used, and a screenshot if possible. We read and respond to every message.