Timber

Thickness (mm)

Width (mm)

Price / m³

Overall size

Height (m)

Diameter (m)

Ground surface (m²)

Diamonds 1

diamond

Individual strut

Drag to spin

Strut — flat pattern

Cut specifications

Angle Alpha — α

L2 — sides

Beta — β

Assembled diamond — flat, to scale

Diagonal brace (optional)

Angle between rows

Full cutting list

Details

Extra background behind the numbers on this screen — not needed to cut your timber.

This row

Glossary

Strut: One straight timber piece — one edge of one diamond or triangle panel.
Mitre cut: An angled (not square) saw cut at the end of a piece, so it sits flush against its neighbour instead of leaving a gap.
Lap joint: Where two struts' cut ends meet flush along each other's edge — this is how struts close into one diamond or triangle with no overlap.
α / β on a diamond row: α is the diamond's own pointed corner angle for that row, and L1 the strut's finished length — both shown in the "Full cutting list" table and the diamond's own cut specifications.
α / β / L1 / L2 on a triangle row: A triangle row has two different cuts, so it gets its own pair of labels: Strut 1 is the base (L1 its length, α the angle at its two low corners); Strut 2 is the two identical sides (L2 their length, β the cut at the top of each side — half the triangle's apex angle, so the two sides together close the apex).
Raw board: The board length to start from before the mitre cuts are made at each end. For a diamond strut it is a little longer than the finished length; for the triangle pieces, whose ends are both cut inward, it equals the finished length.

How to use the zome calculator

Order is how many diamonds go around each row, which is also the number of spirals.
Shape sets how pointed the diamonds are. A higher number gives a taller, steeper zome; the calculator shows the lowest value that still closes into a dome.
Scale sets the size, in metres: the horizontal width of one diamond in the top row.
Size it. Once you like the shape, type the height, diameter or ground surface you want under the 3D view: the zome scales to match and keeps its shape.
Rows is how many rows of panels come down from the top. With fewer rows than the order, the bottom row is triangles that sit flat on the ground; with as many rows as the order, you get a full sphere.

Press Build this zome to get, for each row, the strut length and cut angles, the assembled diamond drawn to scale, optional brace lengths and the angle between rows. Enter your timber thickness and width for raw board lengths, the number of boards, and the timber cost at your price per m³. More questions · What's coming in Pro

Zome Calculator