Last updated July 28, 2026
Steel Shapes version 4.3 draws standard steel sections from a dialog box, in 2D and 3D. It is a substantial package — forty files, including twenty-odd shape modules and a dialog definition — written by Luke Livermore for Design Point and copyrighted 1999.
This one costs sixty-five dollars
The documentation inside the archive is emphatic about it, in capitals and on its own line: this is not freeware, it is a sixty-five dollar shareware program, and please act accordingly.
The listing below says Free, which refers to the download. The licence inside does not. There is no nag screen and no run limit that we found — the author relied on the honesty of the people using it, which was how a lot of this software was distributed in 1999.
Treat the payment instructions as historical. Design Point’s website is named in the documentation and we cannot tell you whether the company still exists or still takes registrations. What we can tell you is that the author asked to be paid, and it seemed wrong to host the file without saying so.
If you want an unrestricted alternative, Al’s Steel Mill covers similar ground with no licence conditions attached, and Wisey’s Steel Shapes covers Australian sections rather than American ones.
What you get
The package is organised as a core program plus a large set of shape modules. The module names group into families — a 3D set, a set for what appear to be detailed elevations, and further sets besides — which is how it manages to offer both 2D and 3D output without one enormous file.
There is a proper dialog definition and a pair of bitmap icons for toolbar buttons, so this was built to be installed as a tool rather than typed at the command line.
All forty files must be findable
The documentation is specific about this and it is the thing that will stop you. Every file in the archive has to be on AutoCAD’s support file search path. The author’s own recommendation is to put them all in their own directory called SS and add that directory to the search path.
That is good advice for any package this size, and it means you can remove it cleanly later by taking one folder off the path.
Command reference
- STEEL_SHAPES — opens the steel shapes dialog box.
- SS — the short form of the same command, documented by the author as the “shortkey”.
Be careful with SS. Two letters is very short, and SS is a name people commonly assign to their own selection or snap shortcuts. Check it against your aliases before loading, and use the long form if there is any doubt.
How to load it
Unzip the archive into its own folder, add that folder to your support file search path, then load the main file with APPLOAD or by typing (load "steel") as the documentation suggests. Read steel.doc first; it is a proper manual rather than a readme. Our AutoLISP guide covers loading and the search path.
Compatibility notes
The documentation states it was written for AutoCAD R14 for Windows and should also work in R12 and R13. That is a 1999 statement about 1990s releases, so treat it as written-for rather than tested-on where a current release is concerned.
It is dialog-driven, which settles the AutoCAD LT question: DCL is not supported on LT, and LT 2024 brought AutoLISP without bringing DCL, so LT users cannot run this at any release. See what runs on AutoCAD LT. As with any shape library, check the dimensions it draws against your own copy of the relevant manual before using them for fabrication.
Download
| Name: | Steel Shapes |
| Description: | Draws North American steel shapes. |
| Type: | AutoCAD AutoLISP Routine |
| Author: | Luke Livermore |
| File Size: | 59 Kb |
| Cost: | Free |
| Worked on: | AutoCAD |
| Download File: | SteelShapes4-3.zip |
The Cost row reads Free because the download is free. As set out above, the documentation inside asks sixty-five dollars.
Related routines
- Al’s Steel Mill — AISC shapes with no licence conditions and metric tables included.
- Structural Shapes — another AISC drawer, also shareware.
- Wisey’s Steel Shapes — Australian sections.