Today it is possible to search the internet and get the prices of sheds and canopies (carports and verandahs). But it is equally possible to search hardware stores and get the price of stock materials. If you are a do-it-your selfer (DIYer), then you can fabricate and construct (install) yourself if get the stock materials […]
Software for Cold-Formed Steel Sheds and Canopies
Whilst some suppliers are advertising and promoting their software (Shed/carport) as revolutionary the reality is the suppliers are all playing a game of catch-up, and they have some 30 years of technology to catch-up with. In the late 1980’s Pro-Engineer introduced parametric modelling, later in the 1990’s arrived Solidworks and SolidEdge. Whilst in the late […]
Estimating Production and Supply Costs
It seems the shed/carport industry and various others believe that if can produce workshop details will get a more accurate cost than working with documentation at less complete level. It is not so. As I have mentioned before price is what the market is willing to pay. Business typically hopes that the price is higher […]
Pricing: Variable Duration and Rates
The simplest equation for price is: Price = Duration x $/hour The problem is that price is what the market is willing to pay, not some rubbish about cost plus profit. If the price is too high and the duration cannot be changed then the average hourly rate is too high. The issue is that […]
Technological Artefacts and Separation Distances
{This is something I wrote a few years back. It was an exercise of “killing two birds with one stone”. I was writing VBA macros to export chunks of Excel worksheets to HTML, and I wanted to extend it to include pictures. I also had an idea of writing an article on the problems simple […]
Structural Design of Traffic Signs
{This is a re-posting of commentary I originally posted in my state-of-play posts. I have given it its own post, so I can extend and revise as needed.} Now road signs are established technologies, there must be hundreds of them all over the world. We don’t expect them to fail, and certainly don’t expect them […]
Caravan and Residential Parks and Population Density
So as I have tended to point out here and elsewhere on the net, humans have legs and are meant to be mobile, they are not plants anchored to the earth and trapped in one place. However humans cannot remain permanently in motion, they need to rest, and a place to rest. Whilst the minimum […]
Structural Design and Calculations
As you may have noticed elsewhere I try to avoid the use of the word “engineering”, this is because for me engineering takes place at the frontiers of science and technology. I don’t operate at the frontiers and most people don’t want their projects at the frontiers. Most people simply want “tried and tested” adapted […]
Engineering Calculations and Approval
{This is a edited version of an email I sent this week (2019/week 14) attempting to explain nature of calculations and the approval of calculations. The problem I was attempting to deal with is the Queensland legislation. Being edited it has some client specific references removed, and also extends on what I was attempting to […]
Residential Slabs and Footings
For the most part residential slabs and footings shouldn’t require any “engineering”. AS2870 Residential slabs and footings is mostly a prescriptive code like volume 2 of the National Construction Code (NCC or BCA {Building Code of Australia} ), and the residential timber framing code AS1684.2. As such building designers, builders and concrete contractors should be […]