Solid Span app icon: a silver medallion set with coloured gems

Structures labfor iPhone & iPad

Choose a structure. Choose a metal. Apply a load.

Build beams, columns, frames and trusses in steel, stainless, aluminum or titanium. Load them up, watch them bend, and get a clear verdict — Safe, Warning or Critical — with every number explained in plain words.

Download on theApp Store See how it works
  • Free
  • Works fully offline
  • No accounts, no tracking

Hands-on, clear & surprisingly fun.

A real solver under the hood

Watch a truss take the load.

Bars go up one by one, 200 kN lands in the middle, and every member lights up with the force the app's own solver calculated for it. Thicker means it works harder.

  • Pulled · tension
  • Pushed · compression
  • Load block

How it works

Four steps from idea to verdict.

The same flow every time: choose, configure, test, read the result. No formulas to type, no units to convert.

  1. Step 1 · Choose

    Pick what you want to build

    A beam, a column, a frame or a truss. Each one carries weight in its own way.

  2. StSteel
    SsStainless
    AlAluminum
    TiTitanium

    Step 2 · Configure

    Choose the metal and its size

    Steel, stainless, aluminum or titanium. Make the section taller or thicker and the drawing follows.

  3. Step 3 · Test

    Apply a load and run the test

    Set the weight in kilonewtons. Solid Span bends the structure and measures how hard the metal works.

  4. SAFE
    The structure carries the load.
    Stress103 MPa
    Bend6.6 mm
    Safety3.46×

    Step 4 · Result

    Read a clear verdict

    Safe, Warning or Critical, with stress, deflection and safety factor in plain words. Save tests and compare them.

Features

Engineering you can feel.

Solid Span turns real structural mechanics into something you can poke, bend and break — and then explains what happened.

Four ways to carry weight

Beams, columns, frames and trusses — with simple, cantilever or fixed supports, four column end conditions and Pratt, Howe or Warren trusses.

Four real metals

Structural steel S355, stainless 304, aluminum 6061-T6 and titanium Ti-6Al-4V, with typical published strength, stiffness and density.

A verdict in plain words

Every test ends with a clear status, stress, deflection and safety factor — each explained in one line — plus what gives way first.

SAFEWARNINGCRITICAL

Loads you can picture

Kilonewtons become things you know. 40 kN is about an elephant; 400 kN is a loaded truck.

≈ 4.1 tabout a city busa locomotive

Save & compare

Keep your tests on the device and put any two head to head: weight, strength, deflection and safety factor, side by side.

A guide with experiments

Eight short ideas — from stress and buckling to fatigue and corrosion — each with a small interactive figure you can play with.

Materials

Four metals. Each one behaves differently.

Strength, stiffness and weight are separate things — and no metal wins everything. Compare them the way the app does.

Side by side

Yield strength: the stress where the metal starts to bend for good.

    Ready to test

    Seven structures. Every verdict.

    Open a ready-made example, run the test, then change one thing and see the verdict move.

    For learning, not for building

    Solid Span gives simplified estimates for learning and early sketches. It does not replace a structural engineer, design codes or a building permit.

    Contact

    A question, an idea or a bug?

    Tell us what you were building and what happened. We read every message.

    inbox@lumenglow.sbs
    Message sent ✓ Thanks — we'll get back to you.

    Prefer email? Write to inbox@lumenglow.sbs.

    Solid Span app icon

    Build it. Load it. See what holds.

    Four structures, four metals and a verdict you can understand — in your pocket, fully offline.

    Download on theApp Store

    Free · iPhone & iPad · iOS 16 or later