Tutorials

In the app, open Projects and choose New project. Pick the kind of job (office in steel, residential in timber, retaining structure or temporary works) and BuildMetrics suggests a design basis with the source of every value.

Check each value before you adopt it: loads, grades, exposure. Calculations bind to these values, so a later change flags every calculation that used them.

Copy the team from an earlier project or add people by role: engineer, checker, approver, viewer. Checker, approver and viewer seats are free.

Each report starts from a template, with its calculations already wired to the design basis where the units match.

Choose Calculators, or one of the Quick calculate buttons on Home. The steel beam opens on a worked example: UB 305×165×40 in S275 over 6.00 m at w = 32.9 kN/m, utilisation 0.86.

The result, its status (Adequate, Near limit above 0.90, Fails above 1.00) and the clause each check relies on update as you type.

Press Add to report and choose a draft. The calculation is added and its run recorded with the engine’s fingerprint, the inputs and the result.

The bar under the title always says what to do next (run the calculations, review drafted text, submit) and ⌘ ↵ does it.

Press / or Add section for a calculation, notes, a design basis or a sign-off. J and K move between sections; R runs the selected calculation.

The panel on the right ticks what is already fine and lists what is left, each item a link to its section.

Choose a checker who has not edited the report in this cycle. BuildMetrics suggests the one you used last time on the project.

The checker reproduces each calculation from its stored inputs; the result must match the recorded hash exactly. Findings are raised against sections and answered by the author.

A separate approver approves the checked report. Any edit after a check or an approval voids it.

Once a report is approved, Issue… opens the issue sheet: who checked and approved it, PDF or Word, the purpose of issue and the revision note.

Add the people the project issues to; they are remembered next time and do not need an account. The covering e-mail is written for you to edit.

Issuing locks the revision and creates its issue hash. Your chosen format downloads straight away and stays available in Documents.

In Report Studio, press Metric. Metric traces the governing calculation from its recorded run, then lists what a checker would ask for, as cards.

Nothing changes until you accept a card. Accepted text arrives marked not reviewed and blocks submission until someone has read it.

⌘ K searches and runs commands; type a question to ask Metric about your work. ⌘ J asks straight away.

Open Drive mode, pick a draft, put the phone in a cradle.

For example, “make beam B1 six and a half metres and rerun it”. Metric reads the change back and waits for your “yes”, then runs the engine and tells you the result, including a fail.

“E-mail me the report” sends a link to the draft, marked not yet checked.

Choose a universal beam, grade, span, restraint and the characteristic loads Gk and Qk. It checks bending (§6.2.5), shear (§6.2.6) and deflection under imposed load (UK NA 2.23). If the compression flange is not fully restrained, it also checks lateral-torsional buckling (§6.3.2.3) over the unrestrained length with your C1.

Axial load, effective length factor and section properties; checks flexural buckling resistance.

Combined axial force, bending and shear on a UB or UC.

Shear on a bolt group by bolt grade, diameter and number (BS EN 1993-1-8 Table 3.4).

Flexural reinforcement (K and lever arm), concrete shear resistance, minimum reinforcement and span/depth deflection.

Axial resistance and a linear N + M interaction, with the reinforcement limits.

Moments and reinforcement for a slab panel under its ultimate load.

Bar lengths and masses for a bar bending schedule.

Compression with the instability factor k_c and combined compression and bending.

Bearing, bending and punching for a pad; earth pressure, sliding, overturning and bearing for a cantilever wall.

Peak velocity pressure q_p from the basic wind velocity, terrain and altitude; floor-by-floor axial load.

Posts, rails, sheeting and foundations for a temporary hoarding, after TWf2012:01.