Tom Beam — The Complete Guide: Free Analysis of Simple and Continuous Beams With Diagrams
Tom Beam is a small, free, open-source Windows program that does one thing well: beam analysis. A single-span beam or a continuous beam over several supports, including statically indeterminate cases, without setting up a full frame model.
Tom Beam
Tom Holderread
Single-span and continuous beam analysis — shear, moment and deflection, including indeterminate beams.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Simple and continuous beams — any number of supports.
- Load library — point loads, distributed loads and moments.
- Diagrams — shear force, bending moment and deflection along the beam.
- Steel sections — a library of AISC sections with automatic property lookup.
- Any section — enter properties by hand for concrete, timber or other steel sections.
What to know
The section library is American, so for European profiles (IPE, HEA) you enter the properties manually. The program computes forces and deflections and does not perform a strength check to a design code. It suits a quick beam check, verifying a hand calculation and learning.
Related tools
For complete 2D frames — Ftool or PlenFrem. For trusses — Truss-101.
Ftool
PUC-Rio, Tecgraf
2D frame and beam analysis — fast to enter, aimed at learning and order-of-magnitude checks.
Get it from the vendorPlenFrem
Ensel Software
Linear static analysis of 2D frames and trusses, no node limit, with the matrix steps shown for learning.
Get it from the vendorTruss-101
Truss-101 (open-source project)
2D truss solver by the displacement method, with influence lines and a PDF report — a handy study tool.
Get it from the vendor
Frame3DD
Frame3DD Project
3D frame and truss solver driven by an input file — excellent for automation and repeat runs.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
When all you need is the moment diagram of a continuous beam, Tom Beam is faster than any big structural package — and it is free.