Getting Started with ClearCalcs Video and Transcript

Welcome to ClearCalcs, engineering software that's designed to be quick, accurate, and easy to use.

 

This video gives a brief overview of our interface and key features. If you've got a short attention span, all you need to remember is that our help widget is available all over the ClearCalcs site and contains in depth articles and videos for our calculations and common questions. You can also submit a help or feature request through the help widget and we'll get straight back to you! 

 

When you first start, we'll create a steel beam calculation for you. Calculations belonging to a project are listed on the sidebar, and you can easily add new calculations by clicking the button on the bottom left.

 

We're adding new and updated calculations every few weeks based on engineer feedback, and because we're completely online, you're guaranteed to always be up to date on any device you're using.

 

ClearCalcs calculations all follow a similar structure to make the software easy to learn, and the calculations easy to check. Key geometry like span length and restraints can be found top left, while top right you can find a desgin summary and simple to understand traffic light checks for utilisation.  All common load cases will be evaluated by ClearCalcs with the governing limit states automatically selected. Anywhere you see a blue filter icon, you can click to quickly filter and sort through our library of thousands of common sections.

 

Loads can be found beneath geometry, and allow for quick and easy entry of distributed, point, and moment loadings. We also support triangular and partial loads for even more accuracy, as well as snow, earthquake, and wind actions. Loads can easily be linked between members in a project and will automatically recalculate as you make changes, removing the errors and time spent copying and pasting in spreadsheets.

 

Advanced modification factors can be found at the bottom of each calculation. These are generally defaulted to the most common scenarios but can be tweaked to optimise designs.

 

We made ClearCalcs because we were sick of mysterious Excel documents and black box software. Every single field in ClearCalcs can be expanded to reveal references, formulas, and checks, so you can always be sure of what you're engineering. 

 

Project management of calculations is simple. Sheet specific actions in the top right include quick duplication, deletion, print, and expanded details. The sidebar has shortcuts for the member schedule, export, and project defaults, and links back to the ClearCalcs home page you'll find when you login.

 

From this page you can add users, manage billing, swap between projects, duplicate, or delete, as well as easily search for projects you or your team have worked on. All projects are autosaved to our secure servers so you never lose work, and don't need to waste any time with shared drives, email, or usbs.

 

When you're ready to print a project, you can quickly export using our summary or detailed methods, both of which produce clean and easy to read calculations that will impress clients and checkers.

 

We're passionate about helping engineers work faster and more accurately, and we hope we can help you realise the time and accuracy benefits of using ClearCalcs in your own practice. Don't forget to look over our help widget for more articles and videos, and send us your feedback and ideas!