Structura is built by Calistus Ibeme, a civil engineer registered with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), through GreatCallie International Ltd in Lagos. The calculation engine, the worked examples under Learn and the answers on this site are all written by the same engineer.
It exists because the arithmetic behind an ordinary Nigerian bungalow or duplex is well settled and slow, and because the part that actually needs judgement — deciding whether the answer is right — is the part no software should be doing for you.
The engine is deterministic, and that is deliberate
Every design Structura produces is plain code implementing BS 8110-1:1997 as it is practised in Nigeria. There is no model anywhere in the calculation path. A result is not an opinion about your building; it is a step-by-step calc sheet — the formula, the values substituted into it, and a PASS or FAIL against each check — that you can follow down the page and reproduce by hand.
The one place a model is used is reading an architect's drawing: it extracts a scale and a set of column positions, which are inputs, of exactly the kind an engineer would otherwise type in. Those land on a review screen to be confirmed and corrected before anything is designed from them. Nothing a model produces reaches the engine without a person in between, and that boundary is what keeps you the reviewing engineer of record.
What a PASS means
A PASS means the gravity design checks out under the assumptions that were entered. It is not approval to build. Structura is a preliminary design tool, and every output carries that on its face. The engineer reviewing and sealing the drawings is responsible for them.
The exclusions are written out in full on what Structura will not do — no seismic design, no piled foundations, no settlement calculation, a simplified static wind method, and bar schedules to be confirmed at detailing. They are stated plainly rather than buried, because a tool that hides its boundaries is more dangerous than one that has more of them.
Getting in touch
Corrections to anything on this site are genuinely welcome — a worked example with an error in it is worse than no worked example. Write to support, or use the feedback box built into the app, which attaches the build number for you.