STRUCTURAL STEEL TAKEOFF SOFTWARE
Steel takeoff software that reads the drawings for you
The best structural steel takeoff software for most fabricators is SteelFlo: you upload a PDF drawing set, the AI finds and boxes every steel member on every page, your estimator verifies each detection against the drawing, and you export a bill of materials or a fully priced estimate.
With AI detection plus human verification, SteelFlo delivers 95-99% accuracy and covers 4,500+ steel sections across 6 standards (AISC, BS/IS, AS/NZS, EN, GB, and CFS/SSMA cold-formed).
Every new account gets 3 free takeoffs with no credit card, and SteelFlo Pro is a transparent $399/month.
The count is the number of boxes on the drawing — no inference, no black-box totals. If a member isn't boxed and verified, it doesn't go in your BOM. That's what makes the output defensible when a PM asks where a number came from.
3 FREE TAKEOFFS · NO CREDIT CARD · PRO $399/MO · PATENT PENDING
HOW IT WORKS
PDF in. Verified takeoff out.
Four steps from the PDF the engineer sent you to a bill of materials your shop can price. The AI does the counting; your estimator does the judgment.
Upload your PDF
Drop the structural drawing set — any page count, text-based or scanned. No CAD files, no model exports, no reformatting. The PDF you already got from the engineer is the input.
AI finds every member
The detection engine scans every page and draws a box around every steel member callout it finds — beams, columns, HSS, angles, channels, plates. It auto-detects which steel standard the drawings use and looks up section weights accordingly.
Your estimator verifies
Every detection is traceable to its exact spot on the drawing. High-confidence items can be bulk-confirmed; flagged items get inspected one by one. Nothing exports unverified — the count is what you approved, not what a black box guessed.
Export BOM or priced estimate
Generate a cut list, a nesting-optimized order sheet with waste percentages, or run the verified takeoff straight through the pricing engine with your own material, labor, and markup rates.
THE ACTUAL PRODUCT
What you see on screen
WHY FABRICATORS PICK STEELFLO
Six things no other tool puts in one place
4,500+ sections, 6 standards
AISC, BS/IS, AS/NZS, EN, GB, and CFS/SSMA cold-formed. The standard is detected from the drawings automatically — no other steel takeoff tool covers five international standards.
95-99% verified accuracy
AI detection plus line-by-line human verification. That combination — not raw AI output — is what hits 95-99%. Every detection links back to its sheet so you can check any number in seconds.
Transparent pricing
SteelFlo Pro is $399/month, published right on the site. No demo call, no "contact sales" quote form, no annual lock-in required to see a price.
Free trial on real work
3 free takeoffs when you sign up — no credit card. Upload drawings from a job you actually bid and compare the output against your own numbers.
Patent-pending detection
The detection pipeline is patent pending. It handles text-based PDFs, CAD-flattened exports, and scanned/raster drawings — the messy sets you actually receive, not just clean demo files.
Takeoff and estimating in one tool
Most takeoff tools stop at a CSV. SteelFlo carries the verified BOM into a full pricing engine — material, labor, overhead, markup — plus a nesting optimizer for mill-length ordering.
SIDE BY SIDE
How SteelFlo compares
| Capability | SteelFlo | Beam AI | Bluebeam Revu | PlanSwift | Togal.AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for structural steel | Yes — steel only | Steel + other trades | No — general PDF markup | No — general construction | No — general construction |
| AI member detection | Yes — every callout boxed on the drawing | Yes — delivered as a service | No — manual measurement | No — manual clicking and counting | AI for areas/lengths, not steel members |
| Steel section database | 4,500+ sections, 6 standards | Not published | None | None | None |
| International standards | AISC + BS/IS, AS/NZS, EN, GB, CFS/SSMA | Not published | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Human verification workflow | Built in — review every box before export | Internal to their team | You are the workflow | You are the workflow | Review tools, not steel-specific |
| Pricing | $399/mo, published | Quote-based | Per-seat license | Per-seat license | Quote-based |
| Free trial | 3 free takeoffs, no credit card | Demo on request | Time-limited trial | Time-limited trial | Demo on request |
Detailed head-to-head breakdowns: SteelFlo vs Beam AI · SteelFlo vs Bluebeam · SteelFlo vs PlanSwift · SteelFlo vs Togal.AI · SteelFlo vs Excel.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Straight answers
01What is structural steel takeoff software?
Structural steel takeoff software extracts every steel member from a set of construction drawings — shapes, sizes, lengths, and quantities — and compiles them into a bill of materials. Manual tools make you click and count each member yourself. AI-powered tools like SteelFlo read the PDF for you: the AI finds and boxes every member callout, and your estimator verifies the results instead of counting from scratch.
02How accurate is AI steel takeoff?
SteelFlo delivers 95-99% accuracy — and that figure is for AI detection plus human verification, not raw AI output. The AI finds and boxes every member it detects; your estimator reviews the boxes before anything exports. Every detection is traceable to its exact location on the drawing, so verification takes minutes, not hours.
03What drawings does SteelFlo handle?
PDF structural drawings — the format engineers already deliver. That includes text-based PDFs from Tekla, SDS/2, or AutoCAD, CAD-flattened exports, and scanned or raster drawings, at any page count and any scale.
04Which steel standards are supported?
Six standards with 4,500+ sections total: AISC (US), BS/IS (UK, India, Middle East), AS/NZS (Australia, New Zealand), EN (Europe), GB (China), and CFS/SSMA cold-formed steel. SteelFlo detects the standard from the drawings automatically and applies the right section weights and units — you configure nothing.
05How much does steel takeoff software cost?
SteelFlo gives every new account 3 free takeoffs with no credit card. After that, SteelFlo Pro is $399 per month — published pricing, no demo call or quote form required. Manual takeoff tools run roughly $100-$300 per month per user but leave the counting to you; steel ERP suites with estimating modules start around $500 per month.
06How long does a takeoff take with SteelFlo?
Most jobs finish detection in under 5 minutes; large scanned sets can take up to 15. Compare that with 2-8 hours for a manual takeoff on a small-to-medium project. Your estimator then spends their time verifying and applying judgment instead of counting.
07Does the AI replace my estimator?
No. The AI does the exhaustive scanning and counting; your estimator does the judgment — verifying detections, resolving drawing conflicts, filtering scope, and pricing. That division of labor is exactly why the verified output reaches 95-99% accuracy.
Looking at this from the other side of the workflow? See steel estimating software — pricing the takeoff into a bid.
Run it on a real job
Upload a drawing set you already estimated by hand and compare the numbers. 3 free takeoffs, no credit card, no sales call.