Software built for your shop
I build the software your shop actually needs, put it on your own server, and keep it running. It's for general contractors and steel fabricators, and it's made from programs I already use every day.
You get a price before I start, and it doesn't change. Only need Excalibur View? It's free for one person. Download
What a custom setup is
I take the programs I've already built and set them up for your office. Your forms, your rates, the way you name jobs. Where your work is different, I change the software to fit it.
It all runs on a server in your office. Your drawings, bids and job records stay there. Your people can get to them from the shop, the trailer or home.
If the computers, network or backups need sorting out first, I do that too.
Who it's for
Steel fabricators
Bids, jobs, POs, receiving, QC logs and billing in one place, with the drawings and takeoff right next to them. It's the work I do every day.
General contractors
Each GC gets its own setup, built on Citadel: bids, drawings, RFIs, submittals, dailies and subs, on your server instead of one you rent.
Shops running on spreadsheets
If the job lives in a pile of spreadsheets and somebody's memory, that's usually where I start.
How it works
You get a price before I install anything. More on custom setups
- We talkTell me how the office runs and what's slowing you down. I look at the forms and files you already use, then come back with what I'd build and what it costs.
- I set it up on your serverThe software goes on a machine you own. I bring your people and your old records over, then sit down with your crew and run a few of your own jobs through it.
- I keep it runningOn a care plan I keep it updated and backed up, and the backups are encrypted. Ask and I'll tell you exactly what that involves. Without one, nothing leaves your building.
What I build with
Each one works by itself. Your hardware, your data. See them in the portfolio.
Excalibur View
Out now for Windows, Mac and Linux. Measure off the set and the cut list and tonnage trace back to what you clicked. Free for one person, Office for the rest of the shop.
What View doesFabwire
In use at Mesa Fab. Bids, proposals, jobs, budgets, POs, receiving, QC logs and billing.
FabwireExcalibur Citadel
I build each general contractor their own software on Citadel. Priced per setup, ask me.
About CitadelExcalibur Archetype
Still being built. Each piece gets proven on real jobs before I move on to the next.
ArchetypeWhat you need next
I build whatever is hurting the people using this most. If you want a say in the order, tell me.
Tell me what you needOverlay Pages shows what actually moved.
Lay last month's issue over this month's and only what changed comes up in red and blue. And View runs on Linux now, the same program as on Windows and Mac.
- Red where it was, blue where it wentEverything that didn't move comes out dark grey. Ordinary revisions don't light up all over anymore.
- Lines up a half-size print or a scanIt lines the sheets up from the drawing itself, even sideways, cropped or a little crooked. If it can't, click two grid crossings on each sheet and it lines them up through those.
- Whole sets by sheet numberA sheet added in the middle of the new set no longer throws off every sheet after it. Save the overlay as a PDF to print or send.
- Your takeoff stays out of itMarkups aren't counted as changes anymore, in Overlay Pages or in Compare. Only the drawing is.
- Runs on LinuxOne file for 64-bit Ubuntu 22.04 or newer. It installs without an administrator, finds the Office server and updates itself.
- Tighter keys on the Office serverA key can't add people or change settings anymore. A program that only syncs its jobs gets its own sync key.
I estimate structural steel in Pueblo. A few years back our office was paying monthly for three separate programs, and every one of them wanted our drawings sitting on somebody else's server. I asked one vendor who else could read them and never got a straight answer.
So I started writing our own. You buy it once and it runs on a machine in your shop. If I go under, your copy keeps working, which is the part I could never get any of them to put in writing.
Takeoff came first because that's the job I do all day. Now I set the same programs up for other shops like ours.
Pueblo, Colorado
What's in Excalibur View
The desktop app is free for one person, every tool included. Office adds the server that puts the rest of the shop on the same set.
Measure off the sheet
Length, area, count, volume and angle at the drawn scale, snapping to the linework.
Tool chests
Your .bpx and .btx chests load with their weights. Or buy one already checked. Chests
The markups list
Every markup grouped and added up, out to Excel, CSV or PDF.
Shop List
The same takeoff as a cut list, nested into your stock lengths.
Compare and Revision Cost
What moved between two issues, and what it's worth.
Markup
Text, callouts, clouds, stamps and signatures, saved as ordinary PDF.
Document tools
Combine, split, slip sheet, number pages, OCR, redact and lock.
Steel models in 3D
Open the detailer's IFC, turn it, and total its tonnage. Models
Office server
Shared sets and live markups, on a machine you own. Office
Plugins
Your own checks, run in a sandbox. A fix happens only when somebody clicks it.
Sealed
Every outbound connection off, for defense work. Sealed
Windows, Mac and Linux
The same program on each. iPad and Android are being built. Tablets
Thirty-five seconds on a real set
Opening a set, measuring off the sheet at the drawn scale, and the markups landing on the shop list. No narration, nothing sped up.
And the detailer's model, in 3D
Open the IFC from Tekla or SDS2 and the whole model is on screen in a moment, with its tonnage by profile from the weights the detailer's program wrote. Click a piece for its mark and weight, measure between two corners, or pick a row of the takeoff and watch those pieces light up.
Save a picture of it for a proposal, or leave it turning on a screen in the lobby. It's in the free version.
What this is for
A contractor will own half a million dollars of equipment outright and then rent the software that keeps the record of what it built. Per seat, per month, with no end to it. Stop paying and the drawings your estimators marked up are behind a login you don't have anymore.
For a fifteen-person shop that is a bad trade, and it's most of what's on offer. This is built the other way round. You pay once, it runs on hardware you already have, and anything you put in comes back out in formats other programs can read. A shop that size should be able to run a serious operation without renting its own history back from anybody.
Where your data actually goes
Every destination the software can reach, out of the box. If you find one that isn't on this list, tell me.
Without a care plan I never receive your files, so there's nothing at my end to breach, subpoena or lose. With one, I keep your system updated and backed up, encrypted, and you can ask me exactly what that involves. Either way there isn't going to be a cloud version, however often I get asked for one.
Releases ship with a SHA-256 you can check before you install. Licenses are signed files your own server reads offline. Markups stay ordinary PDF, so if I got hit by a truck tomorrow your work still opens in whatever you switch to.
Tell me how your office runs
How many people, what you use today, and what's hurting. I answer these myself, usually inside a business day. Or try Excalibur View on a set you already priced: it's free for one person, no account.