Excel Add-in for SkyCiv API V3 Structural Analysis Design and Modelling
Introduction
Excel is iconic spreadsheet software used widely in science and engineering. In structural engineering the power of Excel, especially in conjunction with macros, is renowned for its accessibility, flexibility and computing power. SkyCiv for Excel breaks new ground in engineering software integration by providing users with a full suite of structural analysis and design tools from within Microsoft Excel. It’s also worth noting that the plugin is a built-in app, not just a sheet or VBA macro.
This documentation page covers the following aspects of the SkyCiv Excel plugin:
Getting Started
Installation
To install SkyCiv for Excel, navigate to the Microsoft Marketplace and click “Get it now”. Follow the install prompts and once installed, you should see the SkyCiv tab in the Excel client. Alternatively, you can install this add-on directly from Excel (just search the AppSource for SkyCiv):
Once installed, click the tab and you will be presented with a new ribbon of tools as seen below.
Available Tools & Functionality
Here is a brief explanation of each button in the ribbon from left to right, grouped as they appear.
- General
- Settings: This is where you enter your SkyCiv API credentials. These are required to allow you to run analysis, design, Quick Design calculators, access the sections and materials databases, open or save models and open them in S3D. This is not required to build your model or to view it in the renderer.
- Open: This is where you can access all of your SkyCiv models, even those built on the website. Upon selection, the model will be imported into the workbook. If you have not selected the Setup button prior to selecting a model, this will automatically be done for you to create the tables. Note that this will replace any existing model in the workbook.
- Save: This is where you can save your model to the SkyCiv platform.
- S3D: This will open a pane where clicking “Open in S3D” will save your excel model under the name ‘temp-excel-plugin’ and then open it in the browser. Allow 10 seconds or so for this action to complete.
- Setup
- Setup: This will create empty tables enabling you to build a model from scratch.
- Sections: This will present an interface where you can select various member sections and insert them into an existing row of the sections table, chosen by its ID.
- Materials: This will present an interface where you can select various materials and insert them into an existing row of the materials table, chosen by its ID.
- Tools
- Analyze: This is where you can run an analysis on your model. The results will be provided in new sheets.
- Design: This is where you can run a design on your model. The results will be provided in new sheets.
- Quick Design: This is where you can run SkyCiv Quick Design calculators, independently of your model. See the Quick Design section below.
- Renderer
- Render: This will open the SkyCiv renderer inside Excel. You will see your model update live in the renderer as it is edited.
- Samples: This will show a set of sample 3D models that you can quickly load into your workbook. Note that this will replace any existing model in the workbook.
- Information
- About: This button will open this page in the default browser.
- Docs: This button will open the SkyCiv API docs in the default browser. This is where you can see what the allowable input is for each column of the SkyCiv worksheet.
Modeling
The best way to get started modeling is by clicking the Setup button (metric units are used by default, you can change this in Settings). The SkyCiv worksheet will be created with various tables. Expand the nodes and members sections by clicking the small + buttons above the column labels. Now click the Render button in the SkyCiv ribbon and you will see the Renderer task pane open on the right side of the workbook.
The ‘Id’ column for any table should start at 1 and increase – so enter 1,0,0,0 in the first row of the nodes table. This creates a node with an ID of 1 at the x,y,z coordinates 0,0,0. Now in the next row, add another node: 2,0,1,0. This will create a node with an ID of 2 at 0,1,0. The renderer should now show two nodes, one at the origin, and another above it. If you do not see the two nodes, double-check that both rows are inside the nodes table by dragging the tiny arrow at the bottom right of the table to include both rows. This is what you should have so far.
Now let’s add a member. In the members’ table, create a new member by adding ‘1’ for the ID in the first row of the members’ table. Set ‘node_A’ to 1, ‘node_B’ to 2 and give a section ID of ‘1’. The section ID corresponds to the row in the sections table with that ID. Note that at this stage, the renderer will only represent sections as solid squares. Now your tables should look like the following.
Another great way to get familiar with the Add-in is to open a basic model via the Open button and inspecting how the model looks when represented by tables.
Note that the inputs must be exact. To see allowable inputs for any column, select its header (columns with fixed options also provide a dropdown) or click the Docs button and you will land on the API Documentation page for creating a model. This goes for table headers too, do not change these.
Analysis
Once authenticated using the Settings tab, you can run an Analysis through the Analyze tab. You can choose the type of analysis and, if your model has two or more load combinations, filter which results to return. Note that including all cases and combinations is a lot of data! To increase speed, only select those that you need.
Once completed, new worksheets will be created with the name of the load case and combination and each sheet will contain all the results data. We have created a Results Lookup section to help you quickly check data across all result sheets.
Design
Once authenticated using the Settings tab, you can run design checks through the Design tab. Choose the correct design code for your model and click design. Once completed, the design results will be added to a new sheet named “Design Results”. The Design task pane will provide a summary of the entire design and also a section to quickly inspect any member and even download a design report for the member. Using the model from the above analysis, the following image is the result of the Design. The AISC 360-16 LRFD code was selected as the model was created using AISC sections.
Currently, the Excel plugin supports the following design codes checks:
- Steel: AISC 360-16 & 360-10 (ASD, LRFD), Eurocode 3 (EN 1993-1-1:2005), BS 5950-1:2000, AS 4100-1998 & 2020, NZS 3404-1997, CSA S16-14, IS 800-2007 LSM & IS 800-1984 WSM
- Cold-formed steel: AISI S100-16 (ASD, LRFD, LSD), AISI S100-12 (ASD, LRFD), Eurocode 3 (EN 1993-1-3:2006), AS/NZS 4600-2005 & 2018
- Wood: NDS 2018 (ASD, LRFD), AS 1720-2010
Quick Design
In addition to the S3D features, the Excel plugin also gives you access to the wide range of analysis and design calculators for multiple international codes available in the SkyCiv Quick Design library. This lets you run these tools in batch and complete multiple design checks in minutes. Note: this feature is independent of the S3D structural model used by the rest of the plugin.
Once authenticated, you can access this tool through the Quick Design tab. There, you can select the calculator you want and bring it into the workbook using the “Insert Input Table” button, with the option to choose the unit system (if applicable). This will create a sheet named “Quick Design Input” with a table where the calculator inputs are the columns and each row is a separate input, similar to the “Batch Run” feature on the Quick Design website. The table is created with one example row; use the “Add Row With Defaults” button to add each extra row you need. Keep in mind that the workbook handles only one calculator at a time: inserting another calculator, or changing the unit system after inserting it, will replace the existing table, and any values you have already entered will be lost.
Let’s take the “AISC 360-22 Weld Group Capacity” calculator as an example. When its table is inserted in Imperial units, it looks like this:
Note that for complex calculators like this one, which include tables as part of their inputs (i.e., sub-tables, which in this case are “Horizontal Welds” and “Vertical Welds”), an additional sheet is created for each sub-table, with “QD” as a prefix. These tables include a “Config” column used to group configurations. For example, in the image, all rows with a value of 1 in this column belong to the same vertical weld configuration, and so on. The main table in “Quick Design Input” includes a column for each of these sub-tables, where you should enter the ID of the matching configuration.
Once all inputs are complete, you can run them by clicking the “Run Batch” button. This will create a new sheet named “Quick Design Output” with the results for each row, including a link to the calculation report for each input. Keep in mind that these links are temporary and will stop working after some time. Also, each run replaces the “Quick Design Output” sheet, so if you want to keep previous results, rename or copy that sheet before running again.
Support
Need help along the way? Feel free to email us at [email protected] or via our Live Chat once you are logged in to the platform. For information on our terms and conditions for this app, visit our Terms and Conditions page.
