The next few weeks is going to be primarily focused on the estimating module as it applies to truss and rafter assemblies.
With truss assemblies it is fairly cut and dried, I just need to report on basic items such as sheathing, cladding, drip edge and maybe listing how many common and gable trusses are in an assembly.
With rafter roofs however it becomes a lot more interesting (especially with an asymmetric hip roof) wherein each rafter length and quantity needs to be accounted for. Take for example the hip rafter roof below:
The various rafter/member types are:
Common, Hip, Hip Jack, Common (End), and Ridge Board
With a large roof the full listing will be quite large, especially when symmetry is not maintained.
My algorithm for determining the lengths of all the rafter types is fairly well defined and robust however the exact length of the hip rafter still eludes me. Since the primary concern is to determine the minimum length of the lumber required to construct the member I may just add on a simplified fudge factor so that it reaches this number however if possible I would prefer the exact length be calculated, as a matter of principle.
Based on my roof plane naming convention I can assign a label to each hip jack rafter (ie. JACK-BC1, JACK-BC2 etc...) The first letter will indicate the roof plane the jack is on and the second letter will indicate the roof plane that is adjacent to the jack. The number will indicate the order by length where #1 will be the longest jack in that series.
Each hip can also be labeled with two letters where the first letter indicate the roof plane to the left of the hip rafter and the second letter indicates the roof plane to the right of the hip rafter (ie. HIP-AC, HIP-CB etc...)
Common rafters will be designated similarly by roof plane: (ie. COMMON-A, COMMON-B, COMMON-C etc...) On roof planes C and D there will only be one common (end).
In a nutshell that will be my naming and counting convention for hip rafter roofs as far as the Medeek Estimator is concerned. If there are any problems with it then further refinement will be necessary. This same convention will be adopted for other rafter roof types as well as complex roofs.
Thoughts or concerns?
With truss assemblies it is fairly cut and dried, I just need to report on basic items such as sheathing, cladding, drip edge and maybe listing how many common and gable trusses are in an assembly.
With rafter roofs however it becomes a lot more interesting (especially with an asymmetric hip roof) wherein each rafter length and quantity needs to be accounted for. Take for example the hip rafter roof below:
The various rafter/member types are:
Common, Hip, Hip Jack, Common (End), and Ridge Board
With a large roof the full listing will be quite large, especially when symmetry is not maintained.
My algorithm for determining the lengths of all the rafter types is fairly well defined and robust however the exact length of the hip rafter still eludes me. Since the primary concern is to determine the minimum length of the lumber required to construct the member I may just add on a simplified fudge factor so that it reaches this number however if possible I would prefer the exact length be calculated, as a matter of principle.
Based on my roof plane naming convention I can assign a label to each hip jack rafter (ie. JACK-BC1, JACK-BC2 etc...) The first letter will indicate the roof plane the jack is on and the second letter will indicate the roof plane that is adjacent to the jack. The number will indicate the order by length where #1 will be the longest jack in that series.
Each hip can also be labeled with two letters where the first letter indicate the roof plane to the left of the hip rafter and the second letter indicates the roof plane to the right of the hip rafter (ie. HIP-AC, HIP-CB etc...)
Common rafters will be designated similarly by roof plane: (ie. COMMON-A, COMMON-B, COMMON-C etc...) On roof planes C and D there will only be one common (end).
In a nutshell that will be my naming and counting convention for hip rafter roofs as far as the Medeek Estimator is concerned. If there are any problems with it then further refinement will be necessary. This same convention will be adopted for other rafter roof types as well as complex roofs.
Thoughts or concerns?