Structural Learning Hub

Welcome to the Structural Learning Hub — a collection of practical, step-by-step tutorials designed to help you understand the fundamentals behind structural design. Each guide walks through real-world examples using WebStructural, with code-based capacity checks and clear explanations of the underlying engineering principles.

Whether you're new to structural design, refreshing your skills, or validating design decisions, these tutorials are written to be approachable, accurate, and grounded in modern design standards such as AISC 360 and ACI 318.

Start Learning

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  Beam Designer - Professional Steel & Wood Beam Design Software

  Comprehensive overview of WebStructural's Beam Designer features. Learn about steel and wood beam design capabilities, AISC 360 and NDS compliance, multi-span support, loading options, and advanced analysis features for professional structural engineers.
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  Footing Designer - Professional Concrete Foundation Design Software

  Comprehensive overview of WebStructural's Footing Designer features. Learn about concrete spread footing design capabilities, ACI 318 compliance, soil bearing analysis, shear checks (one-way and two-way), flexural design, and reinforcement detailing for foundation professionals.
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  How to Design a Steel Beam — Step-by-Step Guide

  Learn how to size and check steel beams for bending, shear, deflection, and lateral-torsional buckling using AISC design provisions. Covers span selection, loading, material grade, and design methods (ASD and LRFD).
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  Anchor Bolt Designer - Professional Concrete Anchor Design Software

  Comprehensive overview of WebStructural's Anchor Bolt Designer features. Learn about concrete anchor design capabilities, ACI 318 Chapter 17 compliance, tension and shear checks, failure mode analysis (steel rupture, concrete breakout, pullout, side-face blowout, pryout), and combined loading for connection design professionals.
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  How to Design a Flitch Beam

  Learn how flitch beams combine wood and steel to increase strength and stiffness. This tutorial explains material properties, load sharing, and design checks for composite beam behavior.
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  Concrete Footing Design Basics

  Understand how soil bearing pressure, footing geometry, loads, and reinforcement interact to produce a safe and efficient spread footing design using ACI 318 provisions.
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  How to Design Anchor Bolts in Concrete

  Walk through anchor bolt design and review key failure modes including steel rupture, concrete breakout, pullout, side-face blowout, and pryout — all based on ACI 318 anchor design requirements.

Who These Tutorials Are For

These resources are intended for structural engineers, architects, builders, students, and technically-minded professionals who want a clear explanation of design fundamentals without skipping the underlying concepts.

Design Tools Included

Each tutorial is paired with a WebStructural design tool so you can follow along interactively:

• Beam Designer
• Concrete Footing Designer
• Anchor Bolt Designer

All tools perform code-based design checks and can be used to explore “what-if” scenarios and verify design assumptions.

Next Steps

You can work through the tutorials in any order, but many users start with steel beam design before moving on to supporting elements such as footings and anchors. As additional tutorials are added, they will appear here in the Learning Hub.

When you're ready to move from examples to real projects, you can start designing right away using the WebStructural tools.