Geodesic dome plans, made to measure
Plan your dome.
Cut with confidence.
Tell DomeFab your diameter and how you like to build. It draws your whole dome — every strut length and angle, the doors and windows, what to buy and what it costs — and answers the question every builder asks first: will it hold my snow?
This is the real engine — drag the dome, slide the diameter.
A plan set for your exact dome
Not a one-size PDF, not a bare table of strut lengths — a complete document generated from your dimensions, whether your dome is a 3 m garden greenhouse or a 20 m event space. Class I or triacon breakdown, level base if you want one, your choice of steel tube or timber.
Strut schedule
Every strut class with its cut length in millimeters and feet-inches, hole spacing, and end angles — color-coded so the pile on your sawhorses matches the diagram. Cut each class with a stop block and you can't go wrong.
Shopping list that adds up
The cut list is packed onto real stock lengths with saw kerf included, so the plan tells you to buy 83 sticks — not "about 90" — and shows you the offcut you'll have left over.
Doors & windows
Pick how many doors and windows you want and they land in sensible places — doors at the base, windows where rain sheds well. Each gets a framing cut list and shows up highlighted on the 3D dome.
Hubs, panels & CNC files
Hub and panel schedules with exact dimensions, plus DXF files for a plasma table or CNC router: hub plates with each joint's true strut angles, per-strut drill and bend templates, panel templates, and covering patterns with seam allowance.
Sample values from the free sample plan: 6.0 m 3V 5/8, 1" EMT, level base.
Will it hold? We'd rather tell you now.
Before you spend money on steel, DomeFab checks every strut class in your design against your local snow and wind — using the same strict load combinations building codes use — and shows you the result honestly: pass, caution, or this needs a rethink.
Don't know your snow load? Type your town or postal code — anywhere in the world — and DomeFab reads ten winters of climate reanalysis for that spot and fills in a sensible starting point.
When something doesn't work, the fix is usually one click away: step up a tube size, drop a frequency, or trim the diameter. You can watch every number update live as you try.
The check is a screening tool to help you design, not an engineer's analysis. If your dome needs a permit or people will live in it, take the plan to a licensed engineer — every assumption is printed in the plan to make that visit short.
How hard each strut is working, as a share of what it can carry. The heavier tube turns a red design into a green one.
Built on good shoulders
Nobody invents dome math alone. Buckminster Fuller made the geometry famous; Hugh Kenner's Geodesic Math made it usable; Desert Domes, Domerama and Acidome put calculators in every builder's hands and taught a generation — including us. Our engine is tested against their published numbers, and when we disagree with a table, we assume we're the ones who are wrong until proven otherwise.
What we're adding to that lineage is the distance between a calculator and a plan: the shopping list, the cutting layout, the door framing, the honest load check, the CNC files, and one document that holds it all together for your exact dome. The math belongs to everyone. The two days of spreadsheet work is what we'd like to save you.
Pay for plans, not a subscription
You're building a dome, not renting software. Design for free, and when you're ready to cut, buy the plan set — it's yours for good. (Demo note: checkout isn't wired up yet; every feature shown is real.)
Explore
- ✓ The full studio, nothing held back
- ✓ Live 3D preview and every schedule on screen
- ✓ Snow & wind check as you design
- ✓ Sample plan PDF to see the format
Plan set
- ✓ The complete plan PDF for your dome
- ✓ DXF files: hub plates & panel templates
- ✓ Change your mind? Revisions of this dome are included
- ✓ Yours forever — print it, share it with your crew
Workshop
- ✓ For folks who build more than they sleep
- ✓ Five full plan sets, any domes, no expiry
- ✓ Same files, same revisions policy
Fair questions
How do I know the numbers are right?
The geometry engine is tested against the published chord-factor tables (Kenner's Geodesic Math, cross-checked with Desert Domes and Domerama) and against canonical strut counts — a 3V 5/8 dome is exactly 165 struts (30 A, 55 B, 80 C), and ours is too. The 3D preview, the on-screen schedules, and the PDF all come from the same computation, so what you see is what you cut.
What's the "level base" toggle?
A quirk of 3V and 5V domes: their base vertices naturally sit at two slightly different heights, so the dome rocks on a flat foundation. Flip the toggle and DomeFab slides the base ring onto one plane for you. It 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 that some builders prefer for panelized construction. DomeFab generates both, and everything downstream — schedules, cut lists, load check — works the same.
Can I build a house from these plans?
Not from the plans alone. Anything people live in — and anything your building department wants a permit for — needs a licensed engineer's review and stamp, in Canada, California, and most places with real snow. What we can do is make that review fast: the plan prints the full geometry and every assumption behind the load check. Greenhouses, garden domes, event and festival structures are the sweet spot for building straight from the plan, wherever local rules allow.
Where do the prices in the shopping list come from?
They're honest ballpark figures from North American retail, and the plan labels them as estimates. They're there so you can compare a 6 m dome against a 9 m one before committing — your local supplier quote is the real number.