Part 1 – Problem 11: Our final construction drawing shows every member in a single line and then states the thickness of each type of member in notes. When we calculate the weight of our design, can we still subtract out the weight of the overlapping connections to make it actually accurate? Or will you guys not account this reduction due to connections? We found that subtracting out the redundant volumes for connections can potentially make a 5% difference, which can mean getting a penalty or not.

For the sake of simplicity, we would prefer that this reduction due to overlapping connections is not taken into account when determining the weight of the structure. Also, consider that if you’re measuring lengths of members from centerline to centerline of perpendicular members, the overlapping member volume on the inside corner of the connection would be picked up by the missing volume on the outside corner of the connection so it would be more accurate to not include any reductions. This calculation becomes more complicated for braces and non-orthogonal geometries and it may be more accurate to apply the reduction for redundant volumes in these cases. If you do reduce weights because of overlapping volumes, we just ask that you clearly state this in your report and provide any example calculations to prove the accuracy of your reduction.