Sign-a-mateWEB is a tremendous new tool to assist sign estimators and designers in preparing estimates and preliminary designs of sign structures.  Sign-a-mateWEB helps in sizing the primary structural elements of free-standing signs: the columns and the foundations.

Scroll down or click on one of the links below to learn more about Sign-a-mateWEB!

When work began on Sign-a-mateWEB, our desire was to build a unique and revolutionary new tool for estimating sign structural elements.  In creating this tool, we had three fundamental objectives: 

• Usefulness - We wanted it to be a tool that users will come to over and over because it noticeably helps them do their jobs better and faster. 
• Ease of use - The required inputs must be easy to understand and operation of the program must be easy to master. 
• Accuracy - The program must provide preliminary results that are based on the same principles, standards and methodology that engineers will use in preparing the final designs, including principles of engineering mechanics, accurate design wind pressures, appropriate structural steel and aluminum specifications and reinforced concrete specifications.  

While we certainly don't want to limit the range of potential users of Sign-a-mateWEB, we see the primary target audiences being: estimators at sign companies of every size, especially small shops; sign graphic designers and artists; and sign engineers.

• Estimators will be able to use the results produced by Sign-a-mateWEB to quickly determine the sizes required for the primary structural elements of the signs they have to price. They can do this without any engineering computation of their own and with less involvement from in-house or outside engineers.
• In our experience, graphic designers often have unrealistic expectations about structural requirements for signs, especially when it comes to how thin a sign can be.  With Sign-a-mateWEB, they can get an accurate picture of how large the support members must be for the signs they are designing and can present realistic renderings of the signs to their clients.
• Finally, we believe that trained sign engineers will find Sign-a-mateWEB extremely useful in jump-starting their design and analysis process.  In most cases, we envision the results of Sign-a-mateWEB being used without significant modification - needing only verification.

You use Sign-a-mateWEB as follows:

First, you access the login page on the Internet where you enter your unique user name and password.  The application confirms that you are a valid user by checking the database of authorized users on our web server.  Upon successfully logging in, you are presented with a project setup page where you can enter some identifying information about the sign job being estimated.

From this page, you choose from a set of standard sign configurations.  After choosing the sign configuration, you select which elements you would like to have estimates generated for.  These can include the structural support members (poles), spread type foundation, drilled caisson foundation and vertical slab foundation.

After submitting your project setup information, you are presented with a page where you can enter the sign's geometrical parameters.  Based on the parameters entered, Sign-a-mateWEB calculates the exact area(s) and centroid(s).

At first, the page looks complex; however, after examining the page, you find that many of the possible inputs have default values or are calculated by the program if you do not have a special need to impose limits. 

In addition to geometrical parameters, you enter the Basic Wind Speed and Exposure Category.  This allows Sign-a-mateWEB to accurately compute the design wind pressure for a given location per the procedure given in ASCE 7-02[1].  If you do not know what the Basic Wind Speed should be, you can click on a link that will take you to a page containing a map of the United States showing wind speed contours.  You can click on the location on the map where the sign is to be installed and the program will automatically enter the correct wind speed.  In the hurricane prone regions of the country, the wind speed map is broken down into three large, easier to read maps that actually display the county outlines. 

Similarly, clicking on Exposure Category follows a link to a page containing definitions for the three possible categories.  You can read about the three options and choose the most appropriate category for your installation.

In addition to geometrical and wind speed parameters, you can provide some additional inputs such as allowable soil pressure values, minimum foundation depth (possibly because of frost line requirements), limitations on the types of structural members to select from, and others.  Standard default values are provided for most of these additional parameters.

After all inputs are entered, you click a button.  Results are computed on the server and displayed at the bottom of the page. The program lists all foundation dimensions and the resulting concrete volume, soil pressures resulting from the design wind load, reinforcing steel and a list of feasible structural members. The structural members are chosen from a database of members that includes every steel pipe section and every square and rectangular steel tube section in the A.I.S.C. Manual of Steel Construction[2], and the list of pipe sections published by LaBarge Pipe & Steel Company[3]. 

The structural members are listed according to their weight, from lightest to heaviest.  If you request all feasible members (i.e., pipes, square tubes and rectangular tubes with no limits on their cross section dimension or depth to width ratios ), a large number of feasible sections can result.  You can pare down the feasible section list somewhat by limiting the choices of types of sections (e.g., only pipes and square tubes) or by limiting some of the section's geometrical parameters.  We have also provided the ability to customize the list of sections that feasible members are selected from.

You can review the results, update any of the available inputs and have Sign-a-mateWEB recompute the results as many times as necessary. When you are satisfied with the results, you can click on a link that will display the results as a PDF (Portable Document Format) document to allow printing and saving to your computer (Click for an Example). 

A detailed discussion of how Sign-a-mateWEB generates its results is beyond the scope of this document; however, some discussion of the methods and standards used is appropriate to substantiate the technical merit of the program.

Design Wind Pressure Calculations - The procedure given in ASCE 7-02 is used to compute the applied design wind pressures.  We compute the design wind pressure for each discrete area section separately (e.g., the signbox and the clad pole section) with the velocity pressure evaluated at the centroidal height of each area section. We compute the Gust Effect Factor assuming the sign acts as a rigid structure (i.e., a structure having a natural resonance frequency > = 1). There is justification for this assumption given by Gerwig[4] for the sign sizes allowed by Sign-a-mateWEB.  The geometrical parameters used in calculating this parameter are taken from the main signbox, so this factor is the same for each discrete area section that makes up the sign (this is reasonable since the Gust Effect Factor accounts for wind load effects that result from the response of the structure as a whole to wind gusts).  Although there is some debate on the use of the Wind Directionality Factor, we conservatively do not use it (effectively, we set it to 1).  For the Importance Factor, we assume the sign is a Category II structure (i.e., the Importance Factor is 1).  We do not consider wind speed up effects due to the sign being on a hill or escarpment (i.e., the Topographic Factor is 1).

Based on the computed design wind pressures, known weights of the structural members, and conservative assumptions for the signbox weight, we compute critical loads on the structure (shears, moments, axial forces).  We use these loads to determine required foundation dimensions and structural member sections.

Foundation Calculations - For the drilled caisson and vertical slab foundation types, we use the method given in the International Building Code[5], Section 1805.7.2.1, for determining the required depth.  We use some heuristics along with standard equations derived from statics to generate spread footing dimensions.  The resulting spread foundation is sized to provide a factor of safety against overturning of at least 1.5 and the maximum soil pressure is not allowed to exceed the maximum allowable pressure determined from IBC 2003, Table 1804.2.  We choose foundation reinforcement based on the minimum reinforcement required for temperature and shrinkage control[6] and distribute that reinforcement according to some simple heuristics.  The final design as detailed by a structural engineer may likely prescribe a different reinforcement detail; however, the amount of reinforcing steel required as provided by Sign-a-mateWEB should provide a reasonable approximation for estimating purposes.

Structural Support Member Calculations - Structural members are chosen that meet the requirements of the A.I.S.C. Manual of Steel Construction, Allowable Stress Design, 9th Edition.  We size the members assuming combined bending and axial loads.  We select members based on their strong axis bending capacity alone and then additionally check them for combined bending and axial loading for two separate loading cases: full loading perpendicular to the sign face, and one-half of the full loading perpendicular and parallel to the sign face to account for oblique wind conditions. This method is suggested by Jones[7] in order to assure that rectangular sections' strong and weak axes are both adequate.

A usage token is the unit of measure for keeping up with how much you use Sign-a-mateWEB.  Usage tokens are consumed as follows: during each login session, the first time you submit your input, one usage token will be consumed.  After that, you can resubmit your project up to three additional times during the session without consuming a usage token.  At the fifth calculation, another usage token will be consumed, and you can resubmit three more times. This process repeats every four submissions per login session. The process starts all over for each new login (note: you will be automatically logged-out after 15 minutes of inactivity).

Usage Tokens are priced as follows:

1	$7.95
3	$19.95
10	$57.95

You must pre-pay for usage tokens by means of a credit card.  For a discussion of how your credit card information is provided to us, please see our Privacy Policy.

1. Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, ASCE 7-02, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, 2003.
2. Manual of Steel Construction, Allowable Stress Design, 9th Edition, American Institute of Steel Construction, Chicago, 1989.
3. "Prefabricated Steel Pipe for High-Rise Signpoles & Billboard Structurals", LaBarge Pipe & Steel Company.
4. Gerwig, James A., P.E. and S.E., "Wind Loads on Sign Structures Using ASCE Standard 7-98", On-line Article at http://www.signweb.com/installation/cont/windloads.html.
5. 2003 International Building Code, International Code Council, Inc., Falls Church, VA, 2002.
6. Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete, ACI 318-95, American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, NY, 1995.
7. Jones, Benjamin, P.E., Engineering Sign Structures, An Introduction to Analysis and Design, ST Publications, Inc., Cincinnati, OH, 1998.