#Structural
From Model to 6-Meter Steel Cutting Layout and Workshop Cut Sheet
Read part lengths from the model, consolidate duplicates, then arrange a first-fit decreasing cutting layout on standard 6-meter stock with a 3-millimeter saw kerf allowance, plus a notch-and-bend option for right-angle corners that reduces joints from 12 to 6
Quantity Takeoff from SketchUp Models with Ruby Scripts
A finished model already contains every number a quantity takeoff needs. Give groups readable names from the start, then write a script to grep through them, with two traps to watch for that can double your areas.
Thai Steel Framing Conventions for Buildable Drawings
A steel frame model that looks good on screen but makes a fabricator shake their head usually gets a few conventions wrong—member order, stock sections, stacking instead of interweaving, purlins that must be open C sections, and bearing edges on sloping beams that cause steel to intersect when chosen incorrectly.
Driving AutoCAD from PowerShell via COM — Scripted Drafting
AutoCAD exposes COM for scripting just like Excel. Connect to the running instance with New-Object, then draw lines, circles, text, and 3D boxes, create layers, add dimensions, and save files entirely from PowerShell, with four traps I hit myself and learned never to repeat.
Porting Excel Formulas to the Web: Floating-Point Traps
Porting engineering formulas from an Excel file to a web calculator produced differences around 1e-13 — not a math bug, but differences in how JS and Excel evaluate floating-point powers and multiplication order, with a method for reading formulas and values separately using openpyxl and building fixtures that actually catch regressions.
Claude Builds a Steel Shed in SketchUp, Then Runs FEA and a Heatmap
In the final part of the series, I ask Claude to build an entire mono-slope steel shed in SketchUp, layer by layer from concrete columns to roof tiles, then analyze its strength with PyNite and apply a heatmap based on the actual forces.
Driving SketchUp with Claude Code, Part 1 — uv and PyNite Setup
Start a series on using Claude Code to draw 3D steel structures in SketchUp and run FEA calculations. This first part covers setup only, configuring Claude permissions, installing uv, and creating a conda env with PyNite.