SkyCiv Connection Design: The Cloud-Native RAM Connection Alternative

RAM Connection is a well-established tool for steel joint design, and the engineering it does is not the reason firms look elsewhere. The friction is operational: desktop installations to maintain across a team, a licence server to keep available, and machines that have to meet a spec.

A browser-based tool removes that layer rather than replacing the analysis. The checks still have to be right, and the report still has to satisfy a reviewer.

The differences that actually affect a working week:

The row that tends to decide it is the second one. A team with Macs, or engineers who want to open a check on a tablet on site, runs into an operating system constraint before it runs into an engineering one.

• Any device: office workstation, a Mac at home, or a tablet on site, without configuring a VPN or checking out a desktop licence.
• Audit-ready calculation logs: PDF reports that write out the variables, the clause references and the governing formula, which is what a reviewer needs to sign off.
• Drawings and BIM handoff: CloudCAD produces 2D detail sheets with plan and elevation views, weld callouts and bolt schedules, and the connection geometry exports to IFC for Revit, Tekla or Navisworks.
• Live geometry checks: bolt clearances, plate layouts, edge distances and weld placement, inspected in an interactive 3D viewport as you change them.
• Shared projects: connection models, revisions and calculation sheets shared with colleagues or clients over a web link.
• Template library: over 80 pre-configured AISC connection types, plus dedicated shear and moment configurations for AS 4100:2020.

The drawing output is the one worth dwelling on. Detailing usually restarts in a separate package once a design is signed off, so issuing sheets and an IFC file from the same model removes a re-entry step rather than a few minutes.

Coverage for everyday steel frame detailing, checking limit states including bolt shear, block shear, plate bending and weld capacity:

• Shear connections: single-plate shear tabs, double clip angles, and end-plate details.
• Combined shear and axial: simple shear joints evaluated under simultaneous axial tension or compression.
• Moment-resisting connections: flush and extended end plates, flange-plated connections.
• Beam and column splices: bolted or welded flange and web cover-plate splices, for axial, shear and moment transfer.
• Lateral bracing connections: corner gussets, vertical bracing plates, chevron bracing and horizontal diaphragm gussets.

1. Choose a connection family: the joint type you need, such as a shear tab, extended end plate, base plate or gusset.
2. Set geometry and fastener details: member sizes, plate dimensions, bolt diameters, hole patterns and weld sizes.
3. Define the force combinations: the design shear, axial and moment acting at the joint.
4. Run the code check and export: utility ratios appear immediately, and the step-by-step PDF report is ready for submittal.

There is no setup step ahead of that first one, which is the practical difference for a new starter or a short-term contractor.

If the constraint on your team is administrative rather than analytical, a browser-native platform removes it: fast code checks, transparent calculations, and collaboration that does not depend on who has a seat free.

The engineering still has to stand up on its own, which is why the reports are written out in full rather than summarised. A comparison worth making is one you can check, so the fair test is to run a connection you already have a hand calculation for and see whether the numbers agree.

• Beam Splice Connection Calculator
• Bolt Calculator
• Bolted Connection Design
• Chevron Brace Connection Calculator
• Double Angle Connection Calculator
• End Plate Connection Calculator
• Flange Plate Connection Calculator
• Knee Brace Connection Calculator
• Moment Connection
• Single Angle Connection Calculator
• Single Plate Connection Calculator
• SkyCiv Connection Design Vs. Idea Statica
• Weld Calculator
• Welded Connection Design