Geodesic dome plans
A 6-meter dome is 165 sticks.
Here's which ones.
DomeFab turns a diameter into a cut list, a shopping list, and a snow check. Design for free. The plan PDF is $29 when you're ready to cut.
No subscription. It's a dome, not a service.
This is the real engine. Drag it. Slide the diameter.
What's in the plan
One document, generated from your dimensions. Works from a 3 m greenhouse up to a 20 m event space. Class I or triacon breakdown, level base if you want one, steel tube or timber.
Strut schedule
Cut length per class, in millimeters and feet-inches. Hole spacing and end angles too. Classes are color-coded, so the pile on your sawhorses matches the diagram.
Shopping list
Cuts are packed onto real stock lengths, saw kerf included. The plan says buy 83 sticks, not "about 90", and shows the offcut you'll have left.
Doors & windows
Say how many you want. Doors land at the base, windows where rain sheds well. Each one gets a framing cut list and a highlight on the 3D dome.
Hubs, panels & CNC files
Hub and panel schedules, plus DXF files for a plasma table or CNC router. Hub plates carry each joint's true strut angles. Covering patterns come with seam allowance.
Sample values from the free sample plan: 6.0 m 3V 5/8, 1" EMT, level base.
Will it hold your snow?
Every strut class gets checked against your local snow and wind, with the load combinations building codes use. The result is pass, caution, or fail. Fail means fail. We don't round up.
Don't know your snow load? Type your town. DomeFab reads ten winters of climate reanalysis for that spot and fills in a starting number. Works anywhere in the world.
Most fails are one click from a pass. Heavier tube, lower frequency, or a smaller diameter. The numbers update as you try.
This is a screening tool, not an engineer's analysis. If the dome needs a permit, or people will sleep in it, take the plan to a licensed engineer. Every assumption is printed in the plan, so that visit is short.
How hard each strut works, as a share of what it can carry. One tube size turns red into green.
The math isn't ours
Fuller made the geometry famous. Hugh Kenner's Geodesic Mathmade it usable. Desert Domes, Domerama and Acidome put calculators in every builder's hands. That's where we learned. Our engine is tested against their published tables, and when we disagree with one, we treat it as our bug first.
What we add is the distance between a calculator and a plan. A calculator gives you strut lengths. You still owe yourself a shopping list, a cutting layout, door framing, a load check. That's about two days of spreadsheet work per dome. The two days is what we sell. The math belongs to everyone.
$0, $29, $49 a year, or $99 once
That's the whole price list. The studio is free. A plan set covers one dome, meaning its size, frequency, and build system; you get 30 days of downloads and the files you save stay yours. The workshop covers every dome you design: $49 a year (renews until you cancel) or $99 once, no renewal.
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
- ✓ Renews automatically at $49 a year
- ✓ Cancel anytime from your account, one click
Workshop, lifetime
- ✓ Every dome, for as long as DomeFab runs
- ✓ Four plan sets is $116. This is $99
- ✓ For people who build more than they sleep
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.
What's the difference between Class I and triacon?
Two ways of dividing the sphere into triangles. Class I (the default) is what most calculators and kits use. Triacon (Class II) uses even frequencies and gives a different panel pattern; some builders prefer it for panelized construction. DomeFab generates both. Everything downstream works the same.
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.