This page is being written. The screen exists and works; the guide for it is on its way. The What is this page? button in the app has the short version.
Frames
<!-- unverified: the content of the Checks, Bracing + tie-down, Connections, Stress test, Foundation, Production + cost and Machine files tabs was read from headings and labels only; the saved-frame flow (Save, Save as new, Link, Stage estimate) was read from the toolbar but not exercised, and what Link produces in Manufacturing was not followed through. -->
The house-frame designer: wall panels, floors, trusses, ceilings, bracing and tie-down framed from the job's floor plans. You pick the storeys to frame, the material and the design settings; the frame is worked out from the plans and shown in 3D with checks, shop drawings, a cut list and an order. A saved frame is a specification, and the frame is re-derived from the plans each time, so what the page shows is what gets saved, linked and priced. Designers and estimators on residential jobs use it.
- The Design module is on (Settings → Team modules).
- At least one floor plan with walls, drawn on Floor Plan. A house has one plan per storey; the plan's storey is set in the floor-plan designer.
- The framing settings for your business (material, roll former, wind class, costing prices) come from your company settings. Where the job is sets the default wind class when your business has not.
- Under Floor plans — one per storey, tick the plans to frame. The page offers to frame storeys you left out.
- Pick the frame material, the site wind class, the roof (pitch, eaves, truss centres, roofing, trusses), the ceiling, the maximum panel length and frame height, and the bracing to try first.
- The frame appears in 3D frame as you change settings. Layers switch what is shown.
- Click a wall or a truss in 3D, or pick it under Selected.
- Change the stud and plate size, spacing, plates, height, noggins, bracing, panel joints or lintels for that wall, or the form, ridge, pitch and ends of a roof block. Reset this wall or Reset block goes back to the engine's choice; Remove block takes a roof block out.
- Everything you pinned is listed under Pinned; the frame is redesigned around it.
- Name the frame and press Save. Save as new keeps yours when the assistant saved a revision while you had unsaved changes.
- Link makes or updates the frame's joinery unit, materials list and drawing set, so it appears on Designs and in Manufacturing.
- Stage estimate prices it from the rate book onto the estimate through the assistant, which shows you the lines first.
- Checks lists every load-bearing check with its detail and a suggestion where one fails; a frame with a failing check is marked not for construction. Bracing + tie-down shows racking, bracing walls and tie-down.
- Drawings holds the shop drawings per sheet, downloadable. Cut list lists every member by group with an order and the hardware; download it as a CSV.
- Production + cost (or LGS alternative on a timber frame) compares materials, cost, crew hours and tonnage.
- The frame is re-derived from the plans by the same engine on the page and on the server, so a saved frame always matches what you saw.
- Rate-book prices for steel are read for the costing; a linked row in the wrong unit is reported and not used.
- If the assistant saves a revision of the frame while you are editing, the page says so and offers to reload it rather than overwriting your work.
- A frame with no ground on the Foundation tab says "no ground"; set the site class before relying on the footings.
- Link and Stage estimate need a saved frame with no unsaved changes.
- A plan with no storey declared is framed as the first level; set the storey in the floor-plan designer for a two-storey house.