This article will look into creating custom sections in Calcs.com or how to make a section request to share with our support team. Currently we have custom wood beam sections and custom I-sections for our steel beam.

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Wood Beam Custom Section

If you’re looking to design a wood beam with a custom species, you can do so directly within our wood beam calculators. Simply select “Custom Section” and “Yes” for custom species and you’ll be able to input the properties for your favourite wood species.  In order to work check for everything in Calcs.com, you’ll need to determine parameters for bending, shear parallel to grain, compression and modulus of elasticity. Besides that you can outline the width and depth of your beam. Screenshot 2025-09-09 at 4.53.59 PM.png

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Steel Beam Custom Section

For a steel beam custom section, we’re going to need to create a “Custom Cross Section Properties” calculator. You can input your custom dimension here. For more info on what this calculator does, you can read more here: https://calcs.com/docs/calculations/general_analysis_calculations/how_to_use_the_custom_cross_section_calculator Once your custom cross section is created, you can go back to a steel beam calculator and link the section, using the chain icon shown below.  Screenshot 2025-09-09 at 4.54.10 PM.png At the moment, we only have linking capabilities for custom I-section beams. For other steel sections that you’d like to see in Calcs.com, please let our support team know at help@calcs.com Requesting a New Cross Section To submit a section request, we’d love to hear more about what you’re designing! We ask you provide us with the following information:
  1. Images of the sections, clearly showing their appropriate size.
  2. A document containing the material properties of the sections.
  3. A span table that can be used to validate the sections.