I work in a very niche industry and so far in my experience, people can be a little too eager but also very frugal with the means and methods. Quite often, our clients will come back to us complaining about the cost of material and this connection is too expensive and X Y Z.
Sometimes we'll do the value engineering, other times we won't bother rerunning the calcs but I'm kind of losing excuses (?) to use. This one particular project I have, I've definitely used the words "eccentricity" and "overstrength requirement" way too much in conversation and I'm afraid they are catching on.
I'm curious if any of you have had those experience and how do you deal with them in a professional manner?
I worked for a while as a Carpenter Journeyman before I jumped into Estimating Full Time, this experience gave me the knowledge to read and interpret drawings, however there are some questions that I haven't been able to answer:
How to to tell what Metal framing falls into 054000 division and what falls into 092213 Division?
(My rule of thumb for this one is that any metal framing in Structural Plans is 054000, and anything else not shown on structural but on architectural plans is for 092213.)
When to include cost for Shop drawings for Metal Framing?
For this one, if I find any Metal Framing in Structural plans, I include an extra for Shop Drawings, even if Structural plans are very clear about the Thickness and specifications for the Metal Framing. I believe that I would still need to provide calculations, etc. Am I correct?
This is what I found in one of the projects I'm working on:
https://preview.redd.it/vasaowg4xx681.png?width=1199&format=png&auto=webp&s=d933eb74479a3f59f6559084e2eef278bd211b20
I enjoy the creative aspect and when im bored I model in random stuff anyways why not do something productive. I could provide a 3D model and Erection/shop plans with proper welds and callouts to help.
no project is too small I recently did a rocket stove for a friend.
We're going to build a "pretty good house" with a super tight envelope and lots of insulation. Also hoping for advanced framing to minimize waste and reduce material costs. I'm assuming a drafter won't work these details, nor will they consult with a structural engineer or other trades - right? Do you have to work out those details separately? Or whats the process? We've been planning to work with an architect due to these goals but wondering if there's a more straightforward and affordable way to go.
I designed tapered members for a warehouse and am just wondering how it is supposed to be listed on structural drawings. I know for W-shapes its listed as W12x22 and so on but how are tapered members displayed?
I started my career as a junior structural engineer in a design firm and it has been 16 months now working here. During my third year of bachelor's, subjects related to structural engineering interested me most and that's when I realized that I want to be a structural engineer. Fast forward now, my work progress is pretty good as far as the theoretical aspect (structural analysis) of structural design is concerned. But I have started to realize that I struggle a lot in visualizing structures or let's say understanding structural drawings or architect plans. Also, I have relatively no idea what are the construction practices in our construction industry. Due to this, many times I have thought of switching to academia, but I don't want to. Sometimes, I think of working as a site engineer to understand construction practices but this is not feasible right now.
Therefore, kindly help me out as to how should I deal with this? How should I improve reinforcement and steel detailing, and visualizing structural drawings in general? Any sort of help is appreciated.
And can we use somw colours to highlight some materials and stuff in structural drawinga?
