Rebar takeoff · nesting · bid costing
Stop bidding theoretical weight.
Bid what you'll actually buy.
A bar schedule tells you the weight of steel in the structure. It does not tell you the weight of steel you have to order — because bars come in fixed lengths, and the offcuts are yours whether you use them or not. ForgeWorks shows you both numbers.
The gap, on the demo project
These are the figures the app produces on the worked example it loads on first open — a 17-mark, 1,004-piece package with pad footings, ground beams, columns, beams and a suspended slab, nested on 12 m and 15 m stock. Open it and you will see the same numbers.
| Theoretical weight — what the schedule says | 4.101 t |
|---|---|
| Nested purchase weight — what you order | 4.304 t |
| Difference | 0.203 t — 5.0% over theoretical |
| Material cost of that difference | $168.65 |
| Saved by nesting — vs cutting each mark from its own bars | 0.247 t — 5.4% less steel |
Five percent is not a dramatic number, and we are not going to dress it up as one. It is simply the number, on this schedule, and it moves with every job. The point is not that the gap is huge — it is that a spreadsheet does not show it to you at all, so it lands on the job rather than in the bid.
Where the gap comes from
Not a percentage handed down from nowhere. The gap is per diameter, because each diameter is cut from its own stock bars and packs independently of the others:
| Diameter | Theoretical | Nested purchase | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ø10 | 0.439 t | 0.463 t | 0.023 t |
| Ø12 | 1.394 t | 1.465 t | 0.071 t |
| Ø16 | 0.592 t | 0.607 t | 0.015 t |
| Ø20 | 1.344 t | 1.423 t | 0.079 t |
| Ø25 | 0.333 t | 0.346 t | 0.014 t |
| Total | 4.101 t | 4.304 t | 0.203 t |
Read the diameters, not just the total. Where a diameter's pieces happen to tile a stock bar evenly there is almost nothing to recover; where they leave an awkward tail, that tail is what you pay for. How the cutting plan is chosen →
One bar mark, worked through
Mark C01 from that schedule — column starter bars, BS 8666 shape code 11, a single 90° bend. This is the arithmetic the app does for every mark, and the reason a schedule built by adding leg dimensions together comes out long:
| Bar size | Ø20 mm |
|---|---|
| Leg A + leg B, as scheduled | 3200 + 480 = 3680 mm |
| Former radius for Ø20 — 3.5d | 70 mm |
| Centreline radius — r + d/2 | 80 mm |
| Bend deduction — 2R·tan(45°) − R·π/2 | 160 − 125.664 = 34.336 mm |
| Developed length | 3680 − 34.336 = 3646 mm |
| Mass each — at 2.47 kg/m | 9.005 kg |
Thirty-four millimetres on one bar. The bar goes round the former on its centreline, so the developed length is always shorter than the sum of the legs, and a takeoff that adds legs is wrong in the expensive direction — on every bent mark, every time. Every shape the app implements, and the formula each one uses, is published code by code.
What ForgeWorks does not do.
Published here rather than buried, because finding out on the job is worse than finding out now.
No machine-control output of any kind. There is no BVBS export, and it was removed deliberately rather than never built. Bending machines take instructions from software checked for that purpose; this has not been, and a file that looks like a machine file invites someone to treat it as one.
Shape-code coverage is partial. Nine BS 8666 shape codes are implemented. Not implemented: curved and radius bars, helices and spirals, circular links, tapered bars, and anything with more than four legs except through the general shape 99. If the shape you need is in that list, the paid plan will not add it — check the published list before you rely on it.
FW-T1 to FW-T8 are ForgeWorks' own labels, not ACI or CRSI designations. Neither standard numbers bar shapes the way BS 8666 does. Our American-practice types carry the FW- prefix precisely so nobody quotes one at a fabricator as though it were a standard code. It is stated here as well as on the standards page because it matters more than it looks.
No IS 2502. The Indian standard is not implemented. Not partially, not approximately — not at all.
Preliminary estimating, not fabrication. This is not certified engineering design, detailing or fabrication software, and it does not replace BS 8666 / ACI 318 / CRSI tables. A responsible engineer verifies hooks, radii, laps and machine dimensions before anything is cut. Every printed sheet says so on its face.
Your data lives on your device. There is no cloud copy. If the device is lost and you have no backup, the projects are lost with it.
The structural steel BOM is indicative only — profile weight and coating area, for an early-stage allowance. It is not a steelwork takeoff.
Where your data actually sits.
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Projects, bar marks and dimensions | Your device |
| Rate book and stock lengths | Your device |
| Backups | A file you choose |
| Licence key and signed offline token | Your device |
| Licence recovery file | A file you choose |
| Licence activation | Our server, once per device |
| Licence re-check | Never required. One runs if you happen to be online; if it cannot reach us, nothing changes |
| Held on a ForgeWorks server | Nothing |
The row that matters is the second to last. The licence is signed once and verified on your own device afterwards, so there is no 30-day leash: being offline for a month, or a year, costs you nothing. Only an explicit revocation ends a licence.
The other side of that.
On-device storage has a real cost, and it is the browser's to impose. If you clear site data — or the operating system evicts storage for a site you have not opened in a while, which iOS does — the projects and the activated licence go with it.
Two things close that off, and both take under a minute:
- Install it. Add ForgeWorks to your home screen or desktop. An installed app is not treated as a stale website, which is what eviction targets.
- Save a recovery file. After activating, save the .fwlic file from Plans & license, and keep a project backup beside it. Restoring from that file puts the licence back without spending another activation.
That second point is the difference between an annoyance and a support ticket. Eviction should cost you the time it takes to restore a file, never a seat.
What it does
- Bar bending schedule. Nine BS 8666 shape codes with live dimension diagrams, or paste columns straight out of the spreadsheet you already have.
- Nesting across your stock lengths. Whatever your supplier carries — 6 m, 9 m, 12 m — with offcuts above your own reuse threshold kept for the next run. How it picks a cutting plan →
- Both weights, side by side. Theoretical pay weight, nested purchase weight, the difference, and what that difference costs at your rates.
- Rate book per diameter. Steel, fabrication labour, a bend-complexity factor and couplers.
- Output people can use. A printable cutting plan for the yard, an Excel workbook and CSV for the bid file, JSON for your own records.
Try it before you pay
The free plan has no time limit and no card: the full schedule, theoretical costing, CSV and JSON export, up to 25 bar marks per project. Nesting, purchase-weight costing and the Excel workbook are the paid features. See pricing →