Ward Engineering
Ward Engineering grew from 1 project in its first year to 300+ annually, using Calcs.com's load linking, pitched rafter support, and pre-loaded presets as core workflow tools.
“Calcs.com is a structural engineer's best friend. It makes your life easier than any other software I'm familiar with.”
About Ward Engineering
A Civil Engineering graduate of the University of Pacific, California, Matt started his engineering firm, Ward Engineering, in 2010 as soon as he was licensed. The company specializes in structural engineering services, primarily for residential buildings.
"So we do houses - beams, columns, footings, and shear walls lateral design - that's kind of our bread and butter."
In addition to Matt as the Principal Engineer, his company has now grown to include another two design engineers.
"The first year I did work in 2010, I did one project and that was like a big deal. I was super proud. We're now at 144 projects so far this year, and probably 300 total before the year's end."
The challenge
Matt had used Enercalc for most of his engineering calculations since 2015. A colleague recommended the alternative design software StruCalc, and Matt found himself exploring new solutions online. When searching, he came across Calcs.com.
"I saw I could do a free trial. So I checked out the software and got really impressed."
The specific trigger was a design limitation: Matt needed to design rafters at a pitch, which Enercalc couldn't handle.
"With Enercalc, you can only do flat beams. You can't do pitches. So that was the only reason I was searching for anything, and I came across Calcs.com."
"It's not accurate to model a beam in Enercalc because you're modeling a beam that's at an angle as being flat. So being able to do this in Calcs.com was a big deal."
Flexible analysis outside conventional design
"I also found being able to specify the number of plies for your beams in Calcs.com useful. Because sometimes you'll have a multiplied beam, which was not a feature available in Enercalc."
Load linking: the feature that made Matt a believer
According to Matt, while he still uses Enercalc for some projects, there were certain things the software didn't have - like load linking.
"The biggest thing I noticed about Calcs.com that made me a believer was the load linking. That was a big deal because it's something I have emailed Enercalc before saying, 'hey, you guys should think about doing load linking.'"
Matt Ward, Principal Engineer
About half of the work Matt and his team do are beams, columns, and footings. In residential design, you have a roof with loads on the beam, the beam has loads on the columns, and the column has loads on the footings.
"Anytime you're manually taking reactions on them, there's a chance you're going to mess it up. You're going to mess up the direction of the load. You're going to mess up the quantity of the load, whether it's roof load, dead load, or live load, and there's a chance you're going to mess up - once you go back and say the loads change on the beam and you did not go back and update that column or the footing."
In Calcs.com, Matt only needs to link the load reactions between beams, columns, and footings in the same project. Anytime there is a change to any of the calculations, the reactions will be updated automatically.
Pre-loaded presets for beams and columns
"The other thing I like with Calcs.com is that where in Enercalc there's just a wood beam calculator, Calcs.com breaks it down to what type of beam it is."
For instance, in Calcs.com, when designing a header, the calculator automatically accounts for the weight of the wall above it.
"I had designed headers for years, but I had never considered the weight of the wall directly above it, which may be one foot or two feet. But that is something you should consider, especially if it's stucco."
To Matt, as a designer, the feature offers him a cheat sheet and gives the default for his calculations, so there's less time spent figuring things out manually.
"It makes your life easier when you've got the calculations broken down based on the type of beam it is. For instance, I've never had to do a rafter calculation until recently, when I had to do one for our project, and I looked through in Calcs.com, and I'm like, oh wow, there it is right there, man."
How Calcs.com enables Ward Engineering's growth
To Matt, how he views structural design software is like an investment for his company's growth.
"Yes, it costs money, but you spend money to make money, and the money you make is based on the time you're saving because you're able to get these designs done much faster."
"I would say that Calcs.com is a structural engineer's best friend. That's how I would put it because it makes your life easier than any other software I'm familiar with - and easier means more money, easier means higher profitability."
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