| Name: | Wisey’s Steel Shapes — Free AutoLISP Program for Drawing Structural Steel Sections in AutoCAD and BricsCAD |
Download: | Wisey Steel Shapes.zip Version L May 2026 – 61.5 kb file size. |
| Description: | Wisey’s Steel Shapes is a free, open-source AutoLISP program that draws accurate 2D profiles of structural steel sections directly inside AutoCAD, BricsCAD, ZWCAD, GstarCAD, and other AutoLISP-compatible CAD platforms. Type one command, pick a country palette and section size from a dialog, click an insertion point, and the program draws the exact cross-section as a clean closed polyline — ready for detailing, dimensioning, and annotation. Originally written by YZ in November 1996 and continuously improved for nearly three decades, this is one of the longest-running steel-section drafting tools in the AutoLISP community. The program is supplied free of charge, runs in every version of AutoCAD released since the 1996, and is fully compatible with BricsCAD and other LISP-supporting CAD platforms — no version pinning, no subscription, no platform lock-in. |
| Type: | AutoCAD AutoLISP Routine |
| What it Draws: | Every cross-section is rendered as a true engineering profile: tapered flanges, rolling fillets, root and toe radii, and corner radii on hollow sections are all drawn correctly. Welded sections (Australian WB and WC) are shown with sharp interior corners plus four small fillet-weld triangles at the web-flange junctions. Each shape is a single closed polyline that can be hatched, filled, extruded for 3D work, or used as a block. Three views are available for each section: 2D End View — the cross-section profile, drawn at the user’s insertion point 2D Top View — plan view as a rectangle the length of the user-clicked line, with hidden lines for the web and flange edges 2D Side View — elevation view, same approach The dialog supports imperial-to-metric scaling and vice versa, so any section from any country palette can be drawn in either unit system. |
| Supported countries and steel standards: | Australia / AS-NZS (13 families) Manufactured to AS/NZS 3679.1 (hot-rolled), AS/NZS 3679.2 (welded), AS/NZS 1074 (structural CHS) and AS/NZS 4600 (cold-formed), sourced from OneSteel, InfraBuild, BlueScope and Stramit catalogues: UB (Universal Beams) and UC (Universal Columns) WB (Welded Beams) and WC (Welded Columns) PFC (Parallel Flange Channels) EA (Equal Angles) and UA (Unequal Angles) RHS (Rectangular Hollow Sections) and SHS (Square Hollow Sections) Z-Purlins and C-Purlins (Stramit cold-formed sections) BT (Beam Tees) and CT (Column Tees) TFB (Tapered Flange Beams) UBP (Universal Bearing Piles) CHS (Circular Hollow Sections) USA / AISC (17 families) Sized to the AISC Steel Construction Manual: W-Shapes (Wide Flange Beams), M-Shapes, HP-Shapes (HP Piles), S-Shapes (American Standard Beams) C-Shapes (Channels), C-Bar-Shapes (Bar-Stock Channels), MC-Shapes (Miscellaneous Channels) L-Shapes (Angles) WT, MT, ST-Shapes (Structural Tees) Standard Pipe, Extra Strong Pipe (XS), Double-Extra Strong Pipe (XXS), Round Tubing TS-Square and TS-Rectangular (Hollow Structural Sections) United Kingdom / BS-EN (12 families) To BS EN 10025, BS EN 10210 (hot-formed), BS EN 10219 (cold-formed), and DIN 1026: UB (Universal Beams) and UC (Universal Columns) IPE (European parallel-flange I-beams) HE (HEA, HEB, HEM European H-sections) PFC (Parallel Flange Channels) and UPN (German tapered-flange channels) RHS Cold-Formed, RHS Hot-Formed SHS Cold-Formed, SHS Hot-Formed CHS Cold-Formed, CHS Hot-Formed Custom Formed Shapes (all countries) Sheet-steel sections drawn from user-entered dimensions: Formed Angle Formed Channel Formed Zee Over 1,700 predefined steel section sizes are included across all three palettes. |
| Why drafters use it: | Perfect cross-sections: tapered flanges, fillet radii, corner rounds — drawn exactly per published catalogue dimensions, not approximated. One command, every section: type STL and pick from a dialog; or use STL_USA, STL_AU or STL_UK to jump straight to a country palette.Works in rotated UCS: drawings stay in the user’s current coordinate system. The program does not silently reset UCS. Cross-platform: AutoCAD R14 through current, BricsCAD, ZWCAD, GstarCAD, ProgeCAD and other IntelliCAD-based CAD packages. Cross-version: no DLL dependencies, no version-pinned plugins, no installer. Just LISP and DCL files in your support path. Open and editable: every section size lives in a plain-text .dim file. Add a custom size by editing one row in one file — no compilation, no rebuild.Single closed polyline output: every cross-section is a clean closed polyline ready for hatch, extrude, offset, dimension, or block creation. Free: no licence fees, no subscription, no usage limits. |
| How it works: | Place all the supplied files into a directory on your AutoCAD support path. Use the APPLOAD (AutoCAD)command and select the STL.lsp file Type STL at the command line. The Wisey’s Steel Shapes dialog opens.If you do not get a dialog box check you have a support path to where all the files are in CONFIG (AutoCAD) Pick a country palette tab — USA / AISC, Australia / AS-NZS, or UK / BS. Pick a Profile family from the list (UB, W, IPE, CHS, etc.). Pick a size from the Sizes list. The dimensions display updates. Pick the view: 2D End, 2D Top, or 2D Side. Click an insertion point. Done. |
| Compatibility: | AutoCAD – R14 through current (any modern release) AutoCAD LT – Yes, with a LISP-enabler installed BricsCAD – All versions with LISP support ZWCAD, GstarCAD, ProgeCAD, IntelliCAD-based clones – Yes No .NET dependency. No ObjectARX. No platform-specific compiled code. Just AutoLISP and classic DCL — which have been stable since the early 1990s. |
| Files in the download: | Stl.lsp — the program (~2,600 lines of AutoLISP)Stl.dcl — the user dialog definitionstl_about.txt — About-box content42 .dim files — one per shape family, named Stl_<COUNTRY>_<FAMILY>.dim (e.g. Stl_AU_UB_UC.dim, Stl_USA_W.dim, Stl_UK_IPE.dim) for easy identification |
| About the author: | Wisey’s Steel Shapes is created and maintained by YZ a professional draftsperson. Development began in November 1996. The program is hosted at blog.draftsperson.net. Inspired by three earlier steel-section LISP programs — stl.lsp by Allan Rogers, steel.lsp by Jeffrey David Wells, and beam.lsp by Steve Q. Stapleton (modified by Bill Le Couteur). The UK palette was contributed by Steve from stylemarkdesigns.co.uk in June 2020. |
| Licence: | Open source and free to use. Supplied “as is” — no warranty. If the program saves you time, please show your appreciation by “buying me a coffee” |
| Other versions of this program: | Wisey’s Steel Shapes.zip Revision H – Superseded by new version Wisey’s Steel Shapes with UK Pallette. By Steve – Superseded by new version |
Screen shots of the program
