Generate & Download Reports
Produce a PDF calculation report and download it.
Every calculation in ClearSpan can be turned into a clean, signable PDF report. The report renders your member summary, governing checks, load cases, and diagrams as paginated pages you can hand off to a client, attach to a permit set, or keep on file.
What a report contains#
A report is built from the saved calculation — its inputs, the solved design, and the analysis results. The exact sections depend on the calculation type. For example:
| Calculation type | Typical sections |
|---|---|
| Wood beam | Member Summary, Loading Summary, Load Case Table, Bending Check, Deflection Check |
| Beam analysis | Beam Properties, Load Patterns, Combinations, Cases, Loading Diagram, Reactions, Extrema, V/M/Deflection Diagrams |
| Wood post | Post Summary, Load Case Table, Compression Check |
| Spread footing | Footing Summary, Soil Bearing, One-Way Shear, Two-Way Shear, Flexure, Development Length |
Each report carries a header with the calculation title, the project name and number, the project address, and the engineer's email. Which sections appear, and in what order, can be tailored — see Custom Report Sections & Templating.
A wood beam needs a member size selected before it can render — choose a section, species, and grade and run the calc first. Generating a report on an empty design returns an error.
Generate the report#
- Open the calculation from its project.
- Make sure the calc has been run and shows results (see Wood Beam Calculations).
- Use the report action on the calculation. ClearSpan renders the PDF with WeasyPrint and saves it to the project's
/Calculationsfolder as a versioned file. - Regenerating later appends a new version rather than overwriting — your history is preserved.
When reviewing a submitted calc, you can also open a live preview that renders the PDF inline without saving a file or changing the calculation's status. This is handy for checking the output before approving.
Download the report#
Once a report file exists in /Calculations, open it from the project's Files browser to view or download the PDF. The saved report is a normal project file, so it can be previewed inline, downloaded, or later bundled into a deliverable.
Use Save As (engineer-side only) to fork a one-off copy of the report under a custom filename. The fork is independent — future regenerations of the auto report won't touch it.
Bundle multiple reports#
When you need to deliver several calculations together — a beam, its posts, and a footing — compile them into a single PDF with a cover page, table of contents, and continuous page numbering. See Compile Multi-Calc Packages.
Customize what's in the report#
Reviewers and firm admins can change which sections render, reorder them, rename headings, and turn optional checks on or off. See Custom Report Sections & Templating for the full editor.