Hi, I have a question about abilities of Sketchup. I acquired a very old, single story stone house with a gable roof made of timber beams and red tiles. Beams are very old, there is insect damage and and the roof leaks… But foundation and the stone walls are in great shape. I want to crush the roof…

I don’t believe there are any real load analysis extensions for SketchUp. Part of the problem is there’s no mating of objects in SketchUp.

I would forget about the pitch when making the calculations, and dimension the members as if the roof was flat.

One problem with answering your question is knowing the size of your proposed roof. If we are talking about something the size of the house in the picture, you may well use timber joists laid horizontally but they would need to be supported on structural beams at right angles to them. They could b…

I’m also not aware of any SU extensions for load calculations. Aside from this, if you want to pursue the steel sheeting solution you suggest, you should consider the minimum pitch that is acceptable for the profile you choose; taking your reference picture as an example, that roof could be achieve…

I have had great success for the past 2 years using the online stress analysis suite of tools: SkyCiv, from an Australian firm. SkyCiv uses a FEA (Finite Element Analysis) engine to perform very detailed structural analysis of a model you input in the S3D (SkyCiv Structural 3D) drawing workspace. …

DaveR, I am sorry to hear that. But thanks a lot for taking the time to write. :slightly_smiling_face:

Anssi, that is a brilliant idea actually. It may force me to pay more for beams, since a curved system can carry more load, and with trusses, even a lot more, I presume that less wood can be used for curved systems, compared to a straight ones. And they look a lot a lot cooler than hip or gable ones…

Just don’t forget that everything about a curved roof is ultimately more expensive, from the bare structure to every other sub involved.

Thank you very much for your answer. The building is simply rectangular, 18 meters x 7 meters. To make it look as good as the one in the picture I fell in love with, beams must cover the 18 meters distance, plus cantilever distance. Yes, gluelams will be deep, but they can be supported in the middle…

Curved roof load calculations

SketchUp

Rodman October 17, 2021, 10:45am 6

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Curved roof load calculations

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