The timber reciprocal frame designer: Free form design to production

The definition 'Reciprocal Frame' (RF) applies to structures that are feasible by means of circulating shear, compression or tension interactions between their constituent members. This relation indicates that beam depths and connections correlate to an RFs' structural geometry. Till date, a combination of RF form finding that regards both beam depths and structural design of connections has not yet been developed. Although researchers developed computational form finding methods to create geometrical solutions and described the global structural design, computational complexity may have prevented a direct inclusion of detailing in the overall RF design. This research presents a new RF form finding method that includes the structural design of beam dimensions and detailing. A parametric model to be referred to as 'The Timber Reciprocal Frame Designer' (RFD) is developed to design three- and four-member RF assemblies from any arbitrary NURBS surface. The RFD provides a practically verified tool in which designs can be produced by using industry standard machines stimulating structural designers to add RFs to their design pallet.