Timbercraft Timber Frame Homes  Built For Life What's New at Timbercraft Homes
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    Timbercraft Design and Engineering
  • Nearly 3 decades of experience in structural timber
        design and engineering
  • 3D computer modeling using customized Auto CAD
        solutions (Architectural Desktop, HSB-CAD)
  • Email exchange of drawings in multiple formats (DWG,
        DWF, DXF, any raster format)
  • Presentation renderings in multiple formats (hard copy,
        raster files, VRML, AVI)
  • Direct link of CAD models to state of the art CNC
        equipment
  • Multiple crews skilled in traditional timber framing and
        conventional construction
  • Extensive history of hand cut joinery in historical
        restorations, reclaimed wood, and natural logs
    		•  Click to view a short Flash Presentation.

    Click to see a Flash program

    COMPUTER MODELING

    AutoCAD is one of the oldest, most flexible, and most common CAD systems available today. Not only does AutoDesk produce many “vertical” solutions for specific purposes (architectural work, mechanical design, mapping and civil drafting...) but they also publish information that allows other companies to design programs, which work inside Auto CAD. One of the most impressive systems in HSB-CAD, which has been designed specifically to model wood frame construction and translate these designs to CNC machinery. Timbercraft uses Architectural Desktop 2004 and HSB-CAD to provide an actual head-toe 3D modeling approach to design (commonly referred to as Building Information Modeling or BIM). Since timber frames and frequently SIP panels are precut, accuracy and coordination of design information is vital to success.

    		 Computer Modeling

    EMAIL EXCHANGE OF DRAWINGS

    Whatever your needs and capabilities, Timbercraft can tailor our communications to suit your project. Traditionally, distribution of paper drawings has accounted for a large portion of the time and money spent on design development. With the advent of the Internet, data transfer is cheap, fast,and widely available. It is also more complex. DWG files are small and can be viewed with the AutoCAD Express Viewer, which is freely distributed, buy these files are 2D in nature. Nearly any computer without added software can open JPG files, but printing to scale is difficult and these files are also 2D in nature. VRML files are 3D and viewers are freely available, but exact dimensions cannot be obtained from them.

    		 Email Exchange of Drawings
    PRESENTATION RENDERINGS

    In the early days of CAD, 3D renderings were separate from actual construction documents. If a computer rendering of a design was desired, the rendering specialist would first have to re-create the design in 3D, then apply appropriate textures and lighting in a process totally removed from the actual design data. If changes were made to the design, then the 3D model would have to be manually updated or completely redone. With the advent of parametric, 3D architectural software most of these in-between steps have been removed. Renderings, floor plans, sections, elevations --all are simply views of the same 3D model. When the model changes, all of the relevant views are automatically updated to match, and since a 3D model is already available no time is spent developing one for rendered views. In ADT 2004 materials can be applied to building components from the start, and when a wall is configured to be brick it’s sections hatch with an appropriate hatch, elevations show the appropriate bricks, and Viz Render shows it as a brick wall without the need to manually attach textures.
    Presentation Renderings Presentation Renderings

    Presentation Renderings

    CAD TO CNC

    Timbercraft had designed and produced it’s own CNC machine for producing traditional joinery before one was available to the industry, and Timbercraft was one of the first owners of the Hundegger CNC machine in the US. HSB-CAD can export a timber frame drawing directly into the machine control language of the Hundegger with no intermediate steps or human intervention. This machine control file is then fed to the Hundegger along with the sided planer to clean all faces and make sure the final product is dimensionally accurate and square. What the designer sees onscreen is automatically cut without the errors and extra time inherent in manual layout/cutting. The few joints the Hundegger can’t cut are completed by experienced craftsmen, and they also double check every piece before the frame is shipped to ensure accuracy.