OK, so I have often browsed through the old Daisy Wheel Topic and read what is there a few times already. I thought about posting to that topic, but it hasn't been active for quite some time. Beyond that, I have a specific point to make so I decided just to start a new thread.

I want to describe to you all how I use the daisy wheel (well I guess I have used it like twice) to lay out a building. This is the result of a lot of reading and studying, and most importantly experimenting. That last step is the most important, we will never know how valid our ideas are until we try to put them to use. And when we try to use a system like this, certain things only become obvious once we try.

When I first studied the daisy wheel, I looked at these circles and reasoned that the intersection of the various circles was the key to everything. This is of course true, but it is incomplete and very limited. If your building lines rely solely on the intersections of circles, then there are but a few practical structures that can be built.
What is needed are straight lines. I drew a diagram of 7 circles, then took a ruler and connected every point on those circles. What you end up with is an interesting assortment of triangles, rectangles, and useful angles. Of interest is the fact that once all points are connected, the lines form 12 equilateral triangles of equal size within the central circle that all combine to form the "star of David" figure (All 3 angles on an equilateral triangle are, by the way, 60 degrees)

There is also the prevalent rectangle repeated over and over which has a ration of 1:2 between its short side and its diagonal (the long side would be an irrational figure somewhere close to 1.73 times the short side) The daisy wheel also provides a means to divide this rectangles into perfect thirds along its long side -which would be impossible mathematically since the long side is irrational. The figure produced by this was apparently used frequently in medieval windows.

Now when I am laying out a building I can use any intersection as a line of reference, intersections between circles, between lines, and even between a line and a circle. This allows me, with just 7 circles, to create a large number of different building layouts. The best thing is that they all have very excellent and attractive proportions.

Now I like to try to make my designs at least somewhat transferable to standardized measurements -this helps me to get a picture in my mind of just how big a structure will be, and also helps a lot when calculating materials and so on. To do this, I set my dividers to 4 inches, or sometimes 3 inches. Having the radius of your circle equal to a standard imperial measurement will result in a lot of your dimensions easily reflected with feet and inches. I have yet to investigate, but I would feel pretty safe to say it is easier to convert to the imperial system from the daisy wheel than it is to the base 10 metric system, due to the prominence of 12 and of fractals on the daisy wheel itself, and the fact that the imperial system is based around the number twelve, and the inch is broken down into fractals (coincidence? perhaps not...)

I promise you all that I will put up some pictures. I am actually needing to make a new layout for a building I am working on, so I can just take pictures of all of the steps in creating this layout.

Now when I am laying out a building, I lay out every single principle framing member according to my "daisy lines" The most important pieces -the walls, roof line, ties, etc. I lay out using the lines from the daisy wheel itself. But once I have created the basic outline of the structure, I suddenly have a whole new set of lines, angles, and intersections that I can use to lay out the rest of the fame. For example, on one structure I have a double sloped roof, to calculate the slope of the shallower, lower portion I drew a line from where the main pitch intersected one of the daisy wheel's lines to some other point on the chart. Basically if you look hard enough, any basic design will tell you how to lay it out further. I think of it like this: Lay out the basic outline of the building, and then let it lay itself out from there. Just follow its instructions and you will be pleased with the results

Pictures to come, I promise!