Geodesic dome plans
A 6-meter dome is 165 sticks.
Here's which ones.
Set a diameter. DomeFab returns the cut list, the shopping list, and a code-basis load check. Design free in the studio. Fabrication files are $29 per dome.
Free studio · $29 per plan set · No subscription required
Live engine, not a render. Drag to orbit. Slide the diameter.
- 3 to 20 m
- diameter range
- 4
- build systems
- PDF + DXF
- fabrication files
- $29
- per plan set
The deliverable
What's in the plan
One document, generated from your dimensions. 3 m greenhouse to 20 m event space. Steel tube or timber. Level base optional.
Strut schedule
Every class: cut length in millimeters and feet-inches, hole spacing, end angles. Color-coded so the pile on your sawhorses matches the diagram.
Shopping list
Cuts packed onto real stock lengths, saw kerf included. Buy 83 sticks, not "about 90". The offcut you'll have left is on the page.
Doors & windows
Doors land at the base, windows where rain sheds. Every opening gets a framing cut list and a highlight on the 3D dome.
Hubs, panels & CNC files
Hub and panel schedules, plus DXF for a plasma table or CNC router. Hub plates carry each joint's true strut angles. Covering patterns include seam allowance.
Sample values from the free sample plan: 6.0 m 3V 5/8, 1" EMT, level base.
Load screening
Will it hold your snow?
- /Every strut class checked against your site's snow and wind, using the load combinations building codes use.
- /Verdicts are pass, caution, or fail. We don't round up.
- /Type your town and ten winters of climate reanalysis fill in your starting loads. Anywhere in the world.
- /Most fails are one change from a pass: heavier tube, lower frequency, smaller diameter. The numbers update live.
Screening, not stamped engineering. Permitted or occupied structures require a licensed engineer's review. Every assumption prints in the plan to make that review fast.
How hard each strut works, as a share of what it can carry. One tube size turns red into green.
Provenance
Tested against the published record
Fuller's geometry. Hugh Kenner's Geodesic Math. The calculators that taught a generation of builders: Desert Domes, Domerama, Acidome. Our engine is verified against their published tables, and a disagreement is treated as our bug until proven otherwise.
A calculator gives you strut lengths. A plan adds the shopping list, the cutting layout, door framing, and a load check: two days of spreadsheet work per dome, done in one click. The math belongs to everyone. The plan is ours.
Pricing
$0, $29, $49 a year, or $99 once
The whole price list. The studio is free. A plan set covers one dome. The workshop covers every dome you design.
Explore
- ✓ The whole studio, no account
- ✓ 3D preview and every schedule on screen
- ✓ Snow & wind check while you design
- ✓ A sample plan PDF, to see the format
Plan set
- ✓ The plan PDF and DXF files for one dome
- ✓ One dome means its size, frequency, and build system
- ✓ Coverings, openings, and site stay editable
- ✓ 30 days of downloads; saved files are yours to keep
Workshop
- ✓ Every dome you design, not just one
- ✓ Save domes to your account, on every device
- ✓ Renews automatically at $49 a year
- ✓ Cancel anytime from your account, one click
Workshop, lifetime
- ✓ Every dome you ever design
- ✓ Save domes to your account, on every device
- ✓ Four plan sets is $116. This is $99
- ✓ Includes every update we ship
Guides
Reference reading, free to read whether you buy a plan or not.
FAQ
Questions
How do I know the numbers are right?
The engine is tested against the published chord-factor tables: Kenner's Geodesic Math, cross-checked with Desert Domes and Domerama. Strut counts too. A 3V 5/8 dome is 165 struts (30 A, 55 B, 80 C), and ours is. The 3D preview, the on-screen schedules, and the PDF come from the same computation. What you see is what you cut.
What's the "level base" toggle?
A quirk of 3V and 5V domes: their base vertices sit at two slightly different heights, so the dome rocks on a flat foundation. Flip the toggle and the base ring gets slid onto one plane. This adds a few strut classes near the base (the plan calls them out) and in exchange the dome sits flat on a ring beam or deck.
Can I build a house from these plans?
Not from the plans alone. Anything people live in needs a licensed engineer's review and stamp. Same for anything your building department wants a permit for. The plan prints the full geometry and every assumption behind the load check, so that review is quick. Greenhouses, garden domes, and festival structures are the sweet spot for building straight from the plan, where local rules allow.
Where do the prices in the shopping list come from?
North American retail ballpark, and the plan labels them as estimates. They exist so you can compare a 6 m dome against a 9 m one before committing. Your local supplier quote is the real number.