LoadTakedown
DemoHow it worksAboutOpen app
Load takedown software

Stop wasting paid hours on basic load takedowns.

Pull the walls, floors and loads straight from your drawings. LoadTakedown carries every load down to the foundations and checks it balances, from a house extension to a complex multi-storey frame.

Try the example house
Use your own drawings
  • Auto-build, results in seconds
  • Load balance checked every run
  • PDF and Excel report
  • Runs in your browser
What do you design?
A ten-storey concrete frame in LoadTakedown with the load at the foot of each column, in kN
Example tower · Load at each column basekN

Built by a Chartered Engineer

For the calcs your engineers do every day.

01

Drawings in

Walls, floors and loads read from your plans

02

Every load traced

Roof, floors and walls, storey by storey, to each foundation

03

Balance checked

Load applied matches load at the foundations, every run

04

Report out

PDF and Excel calcs with every wall's working

01What it handles

Built for real buildings

Houses, extensions and concrete frames, with the details that make a load takedown right.

The example house pulled apart storey by storey, each floor's tributary areas coloured to match the wall below

Tributary areas, storey by storey

Every roof slope and floor split into the area each wall carries, coloured to match the wall it loads.

Wall elevation coloured by masonry stress, with the line load at each storey and at the foundation

Stress in every wall

Each wall's stress in N/mm², spreading under the lintels, with the load it puts on the storey below.

The example tower pulled apart, with the load at the foot of each column and each beam's end reactions in kN

Load at every column foot

Each column picks up its floor storey by storey, with the reaction at each end of every beam.

UK, EU and US loads

Imposed load categories from EN 1991-1-1 with the UK National Annex, or ASCE 7-22, in metric or imperial.

Saved as you work

Projects save to your account as you work, drawings included, or to a file on your own computer.

02How it works

From drawings to foundation loads

Four steps from the architect’s drawings to the load on every foundation.

Step 1Model

Build the model from your drawings

Import the architect's plans and LoadTakedown picks out the walls and floors, then works out the tributary areas. Adjust anything by hand with snapping.

  • Multi-page PDF
  • One- and two-way spans
  • Beams and columns
An architect's floor plan becomes walls and floors, then coloured tributary areas, then a 3D house with the load at each wall base

Step 2Elevate

See the stress in every masonry panel

Add windows and doors, and watch the lintels pick up the load and the masonry spread it down to the base, leaf by leaf.

  • Openings and lintels
  • Stress in N/mm²
  • Cavity leaves
Masonry wall elevation with window and door openings and the stress spreading under the lintels

Step 3Check

Check every tributary area

Every floor and roof slope split into the area each wall, beam and column carries, coloured to match the element it loads. Change a span and it updates at once.

  • One- and two-way spans
  • Coloured by element
  • Load balance every run
The example tower pulled apart storey by storey, each slab's tributary areas coloured to match the column or wall it loads

Step 4Report

Export the calculation report

A PDF and Excel report with the marked-up plans, a load summary, the foundation schedule and every wall's working.

  • Foundation schedule
  • Lintel schedule
  • Method and assumptions

Free download

Prefer a spreadsheet?

Get our Excel load takedown template, the same method laid out by hand. Enter your email and it downloads straight away.

Get the free spreadsheet

Learn the method

A worked exampleLoad takedown by handTributary area calculator
03Questions

Common questions

You can open the example house and try every tool with no account. Drawing and calculating your own projects is free, and a free account saves them to the cloud. Your first report export is free. After that, exports need LoadTakedown Pro at £9 a month, which you can cancel at any time.

No. LoadTakedown runs in your normal web browser on any computer, Windows or Mac, with nothing to install. A desktop app that also works offline, with projects saved as files on your own machine, is on the way.

Tributary areas come from the walls, beams and floors in your model, then the dead and imposed loads you set are taken down storey by storey to the foundations. Every run checks that the load reaching the foundations balances the load applied, and the report shows each wall's working so it can be checked by hand. The engineer stays responsible for the design.

More on the method in the blog →

Yes, from a house extension to a complex multi-storey frame. Use a drawing per level, set the storey heights, and model masonry walls, steel and concrete beams and columns, and one-way or two-way slabs.

Signed in, your projects and the drawings you upload save to your LoadTakedown account as you work, so they follow you to any computer. They are stored securely and are not shared with other users. If you would rather keep a project on your own machine, save it as a file instead.

Every load is worked out the same way every time, straight from the model, so there are no hand-measured areas or broken formulas, and the load balance is checked on every run. Each wall's working is laid out to check by hand, on the plan and in 3D. When the architect moves a wall, change the model and every load updates in seconds instead of reworking the sheet.

See it work on a real house

Open the example house with no account needed, then bring your own drawings.

Try the example house
Use your own drawings

UK · Eurocode · ASCE 7 · Metric or imperial