I am currently investigating a timberframe design for a new house in the Indianapolis area of Indiana, in the United States, and have decided to go with a timber frame design.

Right now, I am in the 'gather information, snap shots, ideas, and assorted data' stage - or just a little beyond: I'm laying out an actual initial floor plan. However, I have gotten to that stage where I require some actual engineering questions answered (although very simple engineering questions and very roughly).

1. In bent/bay dimentions listed on standard plans, what part of the frame are dimensions measured _from_? Beam center to center? Outer edge of beam? Inner edge of beam? We're looking at standard available frames from several companies - although we will probably have to alter the packages slightly.

2. In room layout design, how big are the beams? I assume that the space of the actual beams has to be taken out of the corners of the room's floorplan. I realize that this will vary _greatly_ with the design. Currently I am looking at the following rough design:

2 stories, 28 foot wide bents, with a 14 foot bay. 3 bays, for dimentions of 28' x 42' -- or 6, 14x14 foot squares, arranged in a 2x3 pattern. A fairly simple 2 story Yankee barn design, with one end being an open cathedral ceiling, the middle upper bay being an open loft with dormers on each side for dual office space. Ideally, but not absolutly required, would be hammer beams on the end great wall bent, and the bent framing the loft's overlooking the great room. We'd also like to use the pulin roofing system.

I also realize that the wood choice will affect beam cross-section, but we'd _very_ much like to build with planed white oak members.

I realize that for a detailed answer, I should take this to a professional designer and get a frame design done, which IS what we are planning to do; but we'd like to have a floor plan worked out before hand, designed around the way we live, as a starting point, and we're simply wondering:

a) how practical our current ideas are and
b) how much space we should allow for the beams in the floor plan layout.