Framewright
As a carpenter, by necessity Tim had to acquire technical drafting skills in order to design his frames and produce workshop drawings. He quickly became aware that frequent revisions were immensely time-consuming, and that potential discrepancies between sections of the same frame could lead to time consuming and potential expensive problems, that may only come to light once the frame is assembled on site.
In 2001, Tim was introduced to Software designer Ralph Wessel of Encina. Together they produced a series of tools and objects that work as an add-on to a top flight 3D Architectural modelling system. This software revolutionised the way it was possible to use ArchiCad - and allows a comparatively untrained computer draftsman to quickly produce models of timber frames.
The brief was to create a system whereby a carpenter could model the timber frame accurately and quickly and end up with a range of outputs:
Beautiful 3d visualisations of the frame - both for clients, planning officers and the carpenters in the workshop, the 3d model views give an instant understanding of the form, and the opportunities of the spaces
Accurate 2d workshop drawings - each section and elevation is a slice through the same model - this effectively eliminates the possibliltyof drawings not fitting together due to drafting errors
Full cutting list - all the timbers are measured and listed by size and type - again, each timber is guaranteed to be accounted for. Nothing is missed out.
Full and accurate pricing - once the timbers have been assembled, each one has an allocation of workshop time for each specific joint. When the data is collated, the full workshop hours are counted, along with additional information of volume, weight, surface area, number of pegs, longest members etc., etc. This information is analysed to produce a price for the frame.
This software continues to be updated and added to, as the small group of specialist users works closely with the software designer.
Golden Cross Oriels
Recently The Oak Frame Carpentry Company had to repair an important 16th Century Town House in Gloucester. This provided a rare opportunity to untangle the building’s structural history and propose a likely form for the original. Framewright was used to present stunning visualisations - some views of which are shown above, and in this presentation that you can download.
Golden Cross Oriels case study Adobe Acrobat (1.8Mb).
Graphisoft reviews Framewright
Graphisoft, the producers of ArchiCAD, interviewed Tim to gain a further understanding of how Framewright is key to our business, which led to a case study that they have made available over the internet. You can read this article below
Graphisoft review of Framewright Adobe Acrobat (1.7Mb)