Glulam Building: Start to Finish – Part Nine B

 Welcome to our “Glulam Building: Start to Finish” series. Our goal is to provide an overview – from idea to completion – of a glulam building from the perspective of the glulam manufacturer and designer.

Part 9B: Layout

With a planed glulam billet in our finishing department, it is time to begin turning the billet into a finished part. Glulam members are typically shipped as finished components, fully fabricated for connections and ready to assemble into a complete structure in the field. The next step in the process is Layout.

During Layout, all of the cuts and holes originally created in our 3D computer model, then turned into 2D paper shop drawings, are now transferred onto the glulam billet. There are pencil or punch marks of were the fabrication will need to occur.

Left: Beam layout with hole for sprinkler pipe in end cut. Right: Chalk line for back cut at arch knee.

Laying out curved rafter tail

For parts with multiple cuts and lots of holes (like members of a truss), curved parts (like arches), or repetitive parts we will typically make a full or partial plywood template to facilitate layout. For other members, layout is transferred from shop drawings to billet by hand using tape measures, string lines, layout squares, etc. The billet with layout is then reviewed prior to proceeding with fabrication.

Shop fitting curved members of a hammer truss using plywood template