Miss calculating… is there some easy way?

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Gaogier

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Hello

so, I am building the frame for my outdoor shed/work area, it’s small as I plan to use outdoor space more.

so… I have brought some cls timber for the frame, I brought 10, thinking that’s good for the doors… except I think I have miss calculated everything

i have enough for the outside frame, but I think I am short for the bracing. So is there a calculator that helps build the shed/barn doors, so I can try and get the rest of the wood asap.

I am trying to find a calculator, but it has taken me all day and not found what I need yet.

my door sizes are going to be… 73inch high, and 100.5cm wide as the total width is 201cm… if this helps any??
 
Gaogier said:
>>Snip<<
my door sizes are going to be… 73inch high, and 100.5cm wide as the total width is 201cm… if this helps any??
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Now here's some confusion - mixing imperial and metric in the same line. Anyway I'll not worry about it and do the conversion.

So then the length of your 'Braces' to calculate it Multiply the height 73inchs by 73 (Squaring) (= 5329)
Convert the width to inches 100.5cm = 39.6 inches.
Multiply that figure by 39.6 (39.6 x39.6) = 1568.16

Add those 2 resulting figures together = 6897.16

Then (and this is not so easy) get the "Square Root"* of the result (6897.16) = 83 inches

I expect the calculator App on your computer can determine Square Roots - look for the √2 or similar symbol (on Apple Mac's scientific calculator app it's 2√x)
 
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Believe this or not… sounds made up now… but I used to be really good at maths, I got a B in my GCSE’s somehow managed to get a D in English… no idea how.
The following contains some of my medical history, explaining why my brain has not really kept up with everything.

I now take a lot of medication (morphine strength) as my (theory by my surgeon doctor) Body didn’t grow correctly due to my autism, due to this, I have ripped my ligaments in my ankles, and they fixed via operation, but physio didn’t treat my body being different, my feet point at 10, and 2 instead of forwards, I physically can’t bring them to point forwards any closer, however I can point my feet backwards and walk… this has damaged my knees, (unfixable - needing to fuse my leg so I have no knees) but they won’t do that due to my hips facing backwards, again, they won’t fix that as I have spinal damage. After some 18 years of using aids to help me walk, i now have a shoulder problem where I have no strength in my arm.

I have had somewhere around 15 operations over some 16 years. The last one, they had to break my ankle as bone had been damaged and it regrew and trapped my nerves. This growth cut through my tendons and I have artificial ligaments now to try and give more support. I am extremely greatful for this as I can walk now but pain is the main issue. Before it was my ankles wouldn’t hold me up for walking, I was wheelchair bound. When they broke my ankle the new artificial ligaments still allowed me to walk to the bathroom at the hospital as the nurses were over stretched and I needed a wee. I only remember the nurse banging on the bathroom door as I had passed out due to pain. They couldn’t find my doctor to say I can carry on my normal pain medication.

I also suffer from something called aphantasia, this is a mental image issue, where I can’t picture things in my head, I know how I want things, but I can’t picture them in my head on what it should look like, so I can’t explain easily what i am after.


I used to do, software development then web development, and I created many daily use calculator, I think my most successful one was how much seeds one would need to grow grass, depending on type of grass, how thick the grass would be, to the soil and location. I say successful it was all collage work, I did this for both windows and Mac… but mostly Mac as I found it easier to use.


all of this and now I need help working simple thing out,
 
I was refused any of the construction classes at school, from woodwork to electrical… why? Basically my autism and the teacher could not get on with me.
 
Gaogier said:
I used to do, software development then web development
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Trimble SketchUp would likely be easy for you to learn, and perhaps drawing something out would help you picture it as you aren't trying to hold it in your head

The end result of your sketchup is a millimetre perfect drawing of what you want, that you can then get a broken down list of the components you've created that can be turned into a materials list to buy

Having a 3D model you can spin around are drop people, furniture etc into helps visualise how the final result will be used and whether it meets your needs
 
Eccles said:
My old woodwork teacher (60 odd years ago) always made us do a drawing to scale, he was not wrong and I built my latest shed from scratch doing exactly that - far cheaper than buying a kit or ready made.
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Isn't it potentially quicker and easier just to use Pythagoras and trigonometry? I appreciate that not everyone is comfortable with formulas but there are legions of online calculators.

Most of us only have access to paper as large as A4, it would probably take me longer to sit down and work out a suitable scale and then convert all of the component parts to that scale. And if I make an error, it may be less obvious that I have done so.

That said, regardless of which technique used, it becomes more difficult when working with nominal rather than finished sizes.

I am not a carpenter by trade but have never understood why, when buying timber, you are (often) presented with the nominal, rather than planned sizes. Is there a valid reason for that?
 
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