❓Frequently Asked Questions

In the location tab of a site, you can manually update the terrain category as well as the orography factor by selecting Edit wind profile and making your changes.

Yes, you can set the base elevation of the tower shaft.

You can either specify this directly or choose to calculate this value based on the selected foundation.

By default, we use

• 1.2 for feeders

• 2.0 for access ladders

You can manually override the force coefficient when editing your linear ancillaries.

Yes. You can manually set the SLS partial coefficients, either per site or as a default for your organization.

We support a wide range of ancillaries. We're continuously expanding, and as of 18.07.25, we support

• GSM antenna

• MW Dish with shroud

• MW Dish without shroud

• MW Dish as grid

• MW Dish with radome

• Omni antennna

• GPS device

• Yagi antenna

• Dipole antenna

• RRU module

• ODU

• FTTA box

• PTTA box

• TMA device

• MHA device

• Obstruction light

• Lightning rod

• Working platform

• Helix antenna

• Ice shield

• Combiner

• Grid antenna

In addition, you can the custom ancillary types to create and model any ancillary type.

Have a look at our deep dive How Wind Loads Are Applied To The Structure.

Yes, Shapemaker supports adding icing to the structure and ancillaries according to Annex NA.C of DIN EN 1993-3-1 (German Standard). The user can input the ice density and thickness.

Yes. This setting is available in the structure tab after enabling advanced settings for your users. You can enable advanced settings by clicking at your profile in the top right corner.

Yes, Shapemaker support patch loading both for guyed masts and self supported structures, as according to the tower Eurocode.

Have a look at our deep dive here: How Ancillary EPA is Calculated.

Have a look at Wind forces on discrete ancillaries.

Yes! In addition to the full report, you can use the FEA viewer located in the results tab to inspect both input & output to the FEA solver.

The structural factor cscd is determined in accordance with Chapter 6.3 and Annex B, and Annex F (logarithmic damping decrement only) of EN 1991-1-4 for each wind direction.

The TowerBuilder is continuously in development, but as of 18.07.25, we support a wide range of typically use panel types. See the photo for an extract.

As of 18.07.25, we do not support having users creating new geometries of panels.

This feature is on our roadmap, but without a set timeline.

Shapemaker is happy to add panel types needed for you tower families.

Shapemaker supports a variety of built up members. A non-exhaustive list

• Back-to-back angular members

• Star angular members

• Various combinations of angular + circular members

• More

As of 23.09.25, Shapemaker supports the modelling and capacity checks of

• Raft foundation without columns

• Raft foundation with single column

• Raft foundation with multiple columns

• Multiple piers anchored in rock

• Single pier anchorerd in rock

• Hold-down bolts

• Piers on circular pad

Yes. You can see the result and the intermediate values used in the calculation in the full report.

Check out Which design checks does Shapemaker do?.

As of 18.07.25, Shapemaker supports full static analysis of

• Three and four legged self supported lattice stuctures

• Steel monopoles

• Hybrids: mono + lattice or lattice + mono

• Guyed masts

• Standardised rooftops - onboarded as agreement with client.

As Shapemaker is telecom-only, it has enable us to optimise the force calculations and capacity checks to the structure types we support.

Even if we're evaluation hundreds of load cases, you'll experience that the analysis could finish in just seconds. Thanks to parallelisation of FEA runs, we're able to analyse 100+ meters guyed masts with non-linear analysis in just minutes.

Yes. You can edit the limits for checks, deformation and natural frequency both on a company level and on each specific site.

Our API is available for all our users, and it's possible to extract all information used by Shapemaker through our API.

Through that, it's possible to extract the information needed to be inputted into a BIM software.

For our enterprise clients, we're happy to look into creating custom export functionality, or API integrations, to facilitate a good workflow between software.

Our API is available for all our users, and it's possible to extract all information used by Shapemaker through our API.

Through that, it's possible to extract the information needed to be inputted into a CAD software.

For our enterprise clients, we're happy to look into creating custom export functionality, or API integrations, to facilitate a good workflow between software.

Note that Shapemaker automatically produces drawings that could replace typical use-cases for CAD drawings, such as constructions drawings. See Can you create construction drawings in Shapemaker?.

Shapemaker is API first, and all functionality in Shapemaker is possible to perform through the API.

Thus, Shapemaker is flexible and easy to integrate with.

We're already collaborating with several asset management systems, and are happy to extend to support your current architecture.

Shapemaker automatically generates tower drawings of the structure, as well as front view and side-view drawings. You can find these drawings in the full report.