Mike has me interested in looking at Turbocad. My work is all 2D structural and civil, mostly structural - and no BIM or 3d required. Back when I learned Autocad, it was version 11, and I found the improvements through 2000 to be easy to learn coming from 11 forward. Even 2006 wasn't that...
dik, I had to look up "sprue." Ralph, I like your idea of stopping the pour short of the top, and using a self-consolidating concrete for the rest. The amounts would be small, probably mixed in a bucket, and added after the regular concrete had begun to set (maybe an hour).
Hi Ralph. The form diameter is 12". The grade beam is 10", and the excess width of the pier will be toward the exterior, which will facilitate pouring from above, with some cutting on the top of the form and a make-shift funnel. I ran the hoop stress numbers, and can manage using 175 lb...
I'm trying to figure a way to install piers between a reinforced concrete grade beam above, and competent rock below. Reinforcing for the pier will be a single number 9 bar, doweled into the existing grade beam. After the bar is in place, I will have to put the sonotube around it, and the only...
dhengr, you are probably right that the pursuit of patent violations would probably not be worth the trouble and expense - and that the best way to protect the design would be a combination of giving the appearance of analytical magic, throwing some misleading spandrels in, and generally keeping...
I did a little more reading - it seems a copyright would only apply to my plans, not to the the assemblies that are detailed in them. So that leaves a patent - or some other avenue I have yet to learn of. And again, I'm not sure if it is patentable, because my write-up on the invention would...
Well, I could challenge their patent if I could demonstrate that I had the idea before they submitted, but that wouldn't do me much good. But I do need some kind of protection - a copyright, or something. I figure that there might be something easier than a patent, considering that all I...
Awesome idea number two there. Supa cheap. Conditional patents are essentially "placemarkers" that do the same thing as your post office idea. They expire after a year.
I've put a great deal of time and thought into an innovative retaining wall design, and am about to implement this design for the first time on my own property. This design is my baby, unique as far as I can discern (and I've really looked) and my objective is to employ it repeatedly as a...
csd72, I feel ya. Allow me to depress you further. Before I was licensed, I worked for a small firm in WA state. There was a senior engineer there that would drop by my office, and see me working furiously on pages and pages of calculations, doing all I could to achieve efficiency of design...
msquared48, In Dallas, you wouldn't want to insulate the basement floor, because at that depth, you have a 70 degree earth temperature, which would aid in both summer cooling and (mild) winter warming.
csd72, for putting a basement below an existing pier and beam home, with the right design...
I definitely do not want anything in the "crawl space," so hvac is not a concern. Supply and return air will be handled elsewhere. Those clearance issues should be addressed by, one, using treated wood appropriately, and two, the continuous vapor barrier. The IRC requires those distances only...
