Has anyone worked with geodesic domes before? Im just starting in, and finding the geometry surprisingly challenging. I had this hope I could lay out a jig and have guys building hexagonal modules that would fit together as a dome, (or rather, a series of geodesic arcs) But as Im trying to work out the frame Im realizing the chords seem to come out at different lengths. When I get back to the states Im sure I'll invest in a book on the subject, but if theres some complicated algorithm determining each chord length and angle and I cant just mass produce modules the idea may be a financial impossibility.
Simplistically, yes, geodesics are composed of highly repetitive modules. Part of that depends on how complex you want the surface to be. A truncated icosahedral dome is composed of highly repetitive triangles and chords arranged in a combination of hexagons and pentagons. If you have trouble calculating the chord lengths and triangle sizes you want, you can use a software tool to do it. Mathematica is best, but there's also stuff like this:
Thanks. Im sure I'll be learning more when I have better access to resources, but Im starting to get the pattern. It's slightly more complicated than I'd hoped but my hopes of being able to mass produce this stuff on site aren't totally dashed.
This calculator should help you a lot with simplistic geometry, yet I have a feeling you aren't looking for that and are attempting to make a dome out of many smaller curved domes. Oh well, here it is for the record.
If you can, you can read the javascript for this calc and extract the algorithm.
Are geodesic domes modular?
Has anyone worked with geodesic domes before? Im just starting in, and finding the geometry surprisingly challenging. I had this hope I could lay out a jig and have guys building hexagonal modules that would fit together as a dome, (or rather, a series of geodesic arcs) But as Im trying to work out the frame Im realizing the chords seem to come out at different lengths. When I get back to the states Im sure I'll invest in a book on the subject, but if theres some complicated algorithm determining each chord length and angle and I cant just mass produce modules the idea may be a financial impossibility.
Simplistically, yes, geodesics are composed of highly repetitive modules. Part of that depends on how complex you want the surface to be. A truncated icosahedral dome is composed of highly repetitive triangles and chords arranged in a combination of hexagons and pentagons. If you have trouble calculating the chord lengths and triangle sizes you want, you can use a software tool to do it. Mathematica is best, but there's also stuff like this:
http://www.desertdomes.com/domecalc.html
Thanks. Im sure I'll be learning more when I have better access to resources, but Im starting to get the pattern. It's slightly more complicated than I'd hoped but my hopes of being able to mass produce this stuff on site aren't totally dashed.
Is the Pope a Catholic?
This calculator should help you a lot with simplistic geometry, yet I have a feeling you aren't looking for that and are attempting to make a dome out of many smaller curved domes. Oh well, here it is for the record.
If you can, you can read the javascript for this calc and extract the algorithm.
http://acidome.ru/lab/calc/#5/12_Cone_3V_R1_beams100x40
Btw, I recently did a geodesic dome project, found here!!
http://archinect.com/people/project/50857645/geodesic-refugee-shelter/50858846
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