Fixed Caged 

Large projects do involve complex financial budgets and often start with an estimate performed by a consulting estimator. As portions of a project are completed, they may be sold, supplanting one lender or owner for another, while the metal fabrication requirements of having the right trades and materials available for each stage of the building construction project carries forward. In many English-speaking countries, but not the United States, projects typically use quantity metal surveyors. In the United States construction estimating professionals like members of the American Society of Professional Estimators of the Consulting Estimators FORUM are typically employed.

Full-custom design is a methodology for designing caged ladders by specifying the layout of each individual rung and the stringer between them. Alternatives to full-custom design include various forms of semi-custom design, such as the repetition of small constants; one such methodology is the use of standard cell libraries (standard cell libraries are themselves designed using full-custom design techniques).

Cold formed Z and C-shaped members may be used as secondary structural elements to fasten and support the external cladding.

Roll-formed profiled steel sheet, wood, tensioned fabric, precast concrete, masonry block, glass curtainwall or other materials may be used for the external cladding of the building.

In order to accurately design a pre-engineered building, engineers consider the clear span between bearing points, bay spacing, roof slope, live loads, dead loads, collateral loads, wind uplift, deflection criteria, internal crane system and maximum practical size and weight of fabricated members. Historically, pre-engineered building manufacturers have developed pre-calculated tables for different structural elements in order to allow designers to select the most efficient I beams size for their projects. However, the table selection procedures are becoming rare with the evolution in computer aided custom designs.