What is meant by the weight should not exceed 5 lbs?

The weight should not exceed 5 lbs. This includes the base plate, roof plate, and the damping devices. “For scoring purposes, the Structural Model Weight, ????????, is equal to the weight of the structural model including damping devices but does not include the weight of the floor dead loads, roof dead load, base plate, or […]

The building footprint, ????????, is defined as the maximum floor plan area projected onto the base plate in square inches. Does this mean all the floors or just the first floor?

Taking whichever floor has the largest area when looking from above – this is the building footprint

Is there a minimum or maximum distance in the vertical plane?

Yes. The minimum height clearance of each floor between members is 2.25”. There also needs to be access points within each floor that measure 2.5” x 1” (rectangular in shape) in order for areas to count as rentable areas. Section 8.2.d Also see Section 8.2.a for elevation requirement. There is a 1/4″ tolerance. Table 4 […]

We are exploring the possibility of reducing the area of Zone 3 in our design. In reference to the design guide, particularly the rule stating, “Typical floor plans of maximum buildable areas for different zones of the building are shown in Figure 8,” we are considering a design where the building follows the sequence from ground to top as Zone 1 – Zone 2 – Zone 1. We seek your clarification on whether this modification is permissible. To clarify further, our primary objective is to minimize the impact of dead loads in Zone 3. In other words, we seek to prevent inserting dead loads in Zone 3. To achieve this, we are considering a design where the building follows the sequence from ground to top as Zone 1 – Zone 2 – Zone 1. This strategic arrangement aims to optimize our structure while adhering to the guidelines set forth in the competition.

Teams may choose to have floors that are smaller than the maximum buildable areas in their corresponding zones. However, it is also each team’s responsibility to make sure that the dead loads can be properly applied at each location. With that being said, for Zone 3, floors with 8” x 12” size are not permitted […]

I would like to ask you to clarify a point if possible: From which side will the reinforcement stick be inserted into the model? Is it certain?

Floor dead load connections are required in both North-South and East-West directions and to be placed according to Figure 2 in the official rules and the drawings found in the Design Guide. They are required in both directions because the shaking direction (and therefore the dead load orientation) is not known until the day of […]