Which structural framing systems and materials are most commonly used in the United States for residences? For office buildings?
◦ What factors explain why those dominate?
Wood is most commonly used because it is cheaper and usually lessens the building’s carbon footprint. For these reasons, wood framing is typical in the US, especially in residential.
◦ Why did you choose your system, and what did it cost you?
I chose wood framing for the above reasons for the residential floors, and hopefully it will decrease my costs of building and lessen my carbon footprint.
You sized members by judgment rather than analysis.
◦ What did you base your first guess on?
◦ Why is it safer to guess large and shrink than to guess small and grow?
◦ At what point in a real project does the engineer take over from the guess?
Design teams link and share models rather than working in one file.
◦ What are the advantages of linking?
You can work on it at the same time, just different parts and can sync at anytime.
◦ What errors does linking make possible that a single model would not?
You might not see everything your team members are doing, and without good communication, you could be on different pages, which could throw off the model.
◦ Why is getting shared coordinates right at the start so much cheaper than fixing it later?
We would have to move the entire building and the elements later if the coordinates were incorrect. Moving things could cause Revit to produce many errors, making the process very difficult.
Not every clash is a problem.
◦ On what basis did you classify a clash as an issue versus not an issue?
I mostly went off of how many elements intersected, where if they barely overlapped, I did not count that as a serious issue. But specific elements, like beams or columns clashing with stairs, railings, doors, and windows I identified more as issues.
◦ Who should have authority to close a clash on a real project?
The owner or main modeler with the most experience should have that authority.
Your beam depths just constrained next week's ductwork.
◦ Where in your building is the ceiling plenum now tightest?
◦ What would you give up to get it back?
◦ Should the structural engineer have consulted the mechanical engineer before setting spans?