Connection Weights

[slickdeals]

Folks,
What is the typical rule of thumb used for estimating weight of connections for the following: Trusses, steel floor beams, joists etc.

I have these rules of thumb from various sources, but wanted to know what others use.

Trusses - about 25-27% of member tonnage
Steel beams - 10-12% of member tonnage

How many of you actually include these weights in your design models? I always include a connection allowance factor for trusses (typically 1.27). Any thoughts?

 

[DWHA]

Depending on what I am designing, I will use a "framing factor" of 10% to 20%.

 

[nutte]

I've never looked into this, but my gut tells me that a 25% increase on trusses is extremely conservative. I'm also suspicious of the beam number.

What do I use? I figure dead load as a uniform load and put that in the model. In addition, I have the self weight of the members, increased by 5%. The uniform dead load really already includes an allowance for the self weight of the members, so they're being counted twice. I'm not concerned with an additional allowance for connections, as all of the weights are conservatively figured anyway.