Estimation of Steel Quantity on Excel

Steel calculation is quite a lengthy process and doing it manually can cost a lot of time. The basic task in the calculation of steel is the multiplication and sorting of the lengths as per the diameter of the bars and then later finding their weights for the ordering.

I prepared an overview of how the process can be automated in Excel and a number of steps could be eliminated saving a lot of time.

Steel Quantity Calculation overview

Watch the video Below:

About the IF formula

Now there would be a few certain doubts regarding why & how to use the if-else formulas. Basically, we want excel to sort the lengths and arrange the bars in the column of the respective bar diameter & in order to implement this we use the if statement. In the if formula we specify the bar diameter that has to be checked and if found to be correct then what formula to execute and if false then what formula to execute.

Watch the Video below to learn more about the IF formula

Now the next question would be why to use the "$" sign?

Here's the answer!

The absolute and relative referencing in Excel

By default, Excel uses relative referencing to work out formulas that are fed into the formula bar but many times while the copy or drag the formulas we don't want the cells to change relatively so we add a $ sign to the cell address. Suppose a cell is C4 when we drag it horizontally its value becomes C5 but we want it to remain it as C4 only so we add C$4 so it becomes locked in the column and even if you drag or copy the formula the number will remain same but as long as you drag in the row only but if you want to lock the column you will have to write it as $C4 so the if you drag it downwards the value will not change. If you want to fix the cell address then it is recommended you use $C$4.

Here's a video to explain it better:

I hope the concept is now cleared...

During my BE, I'd used excel a lot right from the first year to the end year and so most of my projects were done on Excel. Following is a copy of my QSCT submission of steel quantity estimation values:

As seen above I'd used excel for the task, in the first tab I used the inch calculator plugin to convert the inches to metric as the drawing given by the consultant was in FPS system. In the consecutive tabs, you'll find the remaining items such as footing, column, beam, etc.

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Thanks for Reading.
-Sayyed Shadaab
Engineer for the Digital Civilization