Pile SectionDrilled shafts, bored and CFA piles
Design the cage the concrete can get through.
Real-time section drawing and steel quantities, clear spacing checked against EFFC/DFI tremie guidance, strength to ACI 318-25, alternatives side by side, and a PDF that shows why the cage is detailed the way it is. In Metric (SI) or Imperial (US) units.
Free to use, Pro license unlocks PDF reports & the Strength module
Two sections side by side: the steel, the capacity, and whether the concrete can get through
Watch Pile Section in Action
Why a cage that passes can still fail
Your structural software will tell you the section is strong enough. It will not tell you the section is buildable, and that check otherwise happens on site, in concrete, at full cost.
What you get
Drawn, counted and checked as you modify
Everything in Pile Section runs off one live section: change a bar and the drawing, the quantities, the clear space and the capacity all follow.
01
The cage on screen under a minute
Set the diameter, set the cover; the drawing and the quantities redraw as you modify. Lay bars out in rows or in bundles, set one bar's count and size, then sync it across the section.
02
Clear space, measured against the guide
The figure on the drawing is the gap the concrete has to travel through, checked as you draw against EFFC/DFI tremie guidance: green from 100 mm [4 in], amber from 80 mm [3 in], red below. The cage that gets flagged here is the cage that doesn't get built.
03
Duplicate it. Fix it. Compare.
Flagged red? Duplicate the section and work a buildable alternative next to the original (smaller pile, bundled bars, wider gaps) with both N–M curves overlaid and both bar schedules side by side.
04PRO
Strength that shows its work
The built-in Strength module builds the N–M interaction curve and checks utilisation and shear to ACI 318-25. Concrete, steel and load cases sit on the left; change any of them and every check reruns.
05PRO
The document you send
The PDF gives you both sections side by side with the full strength report for each. That's the document you send when someone asks why the cage is detailed the way it is. Which they will.
30
benchmarked load cases
vs S-CONCRETE 2024.1.0
1.3%
median flexure deviation
P–M utilization
1.0%
median shear deviation
every residual explained
26/30
equal or more conservative
flexure D/C
Verification
Median deviation from S-Concrete: 1.3% in flexure, 1.0% in shear; the spacing limits come straight from the EFFC/DFI guide.
Thirty load cases across three pile sizes and two concrete grades, published with the methodology, the two mechanisms behind every residual difference, and the limits of what the app checks.
Capabilities
The full datasheet
Pile types
Drilled shafts, cast-in-situ bored piles and CFA piles (circular sections).
Cage layouts
Single ring, multiple rows and 2- or 3-bar bundles; up to four layers in the Strength module. 29 metric bar sizes (Ø8–Ø75) and 15 US sizes (#2b–#28).
Diameters
41 standard metric diameters from 300 to 4000 mm and 40 US diameters from 12 to 158 in, with manual override to 5000 mm / 200 in.
Clear spacing
Measured live as the arc between adjacent bar faces, bundle-aware, with the governing value drawn on the section. Green from 100 mm [4 in], amber from 80 mm [3 in], red below.
Strength
ACI 318-25. Whitney stress block, 20-point interaction curve, φ per Table 21.2.2, shear per §22.5 with the axial term, reinforcement-ratio checks.
Load cases
Axial force with biaxial moment resolved to a resultant, plus shear; utilisation reported for N–M and shear independently.
Units
SI (metric) and US customary throughout, covering inputs, drawings, the Strength module and the reports.
Reporting
PDF with the section drawing, bar schedule and quantities, the full strength report, and both sections when comparing.
Verification
30 load cases benchmarked against S-CONCRETE, published in full with the methodology and its limits.
Access
Free to use with your hetGE account; PDF reports and the Strength module require a Pro license.
Pricing
The app is free. Pro is a one-off.
No subscriptions. No lock-ins.
Pile Section is free to use with your hetGE account; draw sections, check clear spacing, compare alternatives, at no cost. The Pro license adds PDF reports and the Strength module. And unlike the subscriptions the rest of engineering software forces on you, you buy it once, for the term you choose: no auto-renewal, no card kept on file.
Pro license Pricing; to unlock PDF reports & the Strength module
Short-term work
1 Week
A quick estimate, a tender check, one section to settle today. Pay once, use it, and walk away.
Short-term project
1 Month
One project, or a design stage with a deadline. When it ends, there is nothing to cancel and nothing to owe.
Ongoing use
2 Years
The long haul, at the lowest cost per working day. No card on file, nothing renewing behind your back.
Runs in the browser
Any modern browser on desktop or tablet. Sign in and the section is on screen.
Nothing to install
No license server, no dongle, no IT ticket, no local install to keep patched.
Always the latest
Improvements ship continuously and are included for the whole of your access period.
Working across more than one problem?
Pile bundle
Pile Section together with Pile Capacity, for the structural section and the geotechnical capacity of the same pile.
The full hetGE suite
Every hetGE application on one access period, including Slope and everything released while it runs.
store.hetGE.com · priced against the licenses you already hold