I'm New And I Have Questions...

Jadzu

Hello all, if anyone actually reads this..


i guess an introduction should come first,

I am currently a student at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida working toward my Industrial and Architechtural Drafting degrees, and this semester I am working on my arch II and arch III projects.

I have so many questions to ask, but i am not sure if i should even be on this site, so just tell me to get the hell off here and quit wasting your time if i am in the wrong place.

but to the questions.


- for my Arch II project i get to do a residential design, which like most students i'm working on my "dream house" , but i do have a very different design in mind from the norm.. going on the assumption that it will be built, i want to build the house more or less like a commercial building, concrete slab, block walls the full height of the structure, with a truss and poured upper surfaces for the first and second floors. No actual wooden construction in the building, non-load bearing walls will be build with metal framing instead of lumber.

now to the question, other than the standard crap looking hanging ceiling system, what other ceiling covering would be appropriate??
i considered using the same metal framing as the non load bearing walls and covering that with sheetrock, would this be a feasible idea? if not i am open to suggestions...


- designing the truss system?? where would be the best place to start? by figuring the area to be span would be my guess, but i'm not sure. I know the major factors will be thickness of surface, and distance to be span, but i'm still at a loss as to where to really begin.


- does anyone know where to get dimensions for doors/windows for the major manufacturers?? i ordered a bunch of brochures and pamphlets, but the only one with dimensions were the Anderson handouts.. or even better, does anyone know where i can download some CAD libraries for doors and windows??


and i think that's it for right now, so please feel free to email me if you have any ideas, and i'm sure i'll be back on here in no time with more questions..

Double-A

Almost all the major window and door manufacturer's have CAD downloads of their products available on their websites.

As for figuring the trusses, you need to start with span, but also consider all the other factors for any floor/roof system. Start here. Its precast, prestressed, but its a start. Look for more sites like it. Also, your school library is going to have several volumes of information on this subject, check there.

As for covering, it doesn't matter, really, you can put whatever you want as long as you can get it to stay up there and meet fire/building codes. Use your imagination, that is what architecture is all about.

There are all kinds of all-thread hanging systems to suspend anything you can imagine from commercial floor trusses. Take a look at the Unistrut stuff.

Lastly, do your homework. If you're gonna design this stuff, you'd better know its gonna work, not just hope it does.

__________________
"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

Jadzu

very cool, that get's me on the right track,... i've been doing my research, and what i think is hurting me when doing searches online is that i'm not entering the correct info on the search, but it is "research" so I am learning the correct terms for what i'm looking for as i go..

and i'll definatly check out the manufacturers web sites to see about downloading their product libraries.. it should make things so much easier on the floor plans..