I wanted to build the biggest and strongest dome EVER, but reality set in after researching the effort, costs, and complexity of different sizes and frequencies.  On the smaller side, I wanted it to be at least as big as a typical tent that could be bought at a store.  I finally settled on the common starter dome specs.  MiJa Gourlay talks about this on his web site:

Maximizing dome size with optimized waste
http://fiea.ucf.edu/~mgourlay/dome/f2c1-15ft/
"Imagine that we want to make the largest 2-frequency dome we can out of 10-foot poles while minimizing waste. That is, we want to use each 10-foot conduit pole to make 2 dome poles. We want to find the dome pole lengths such that they add up to exactly 10 feet, and still have the correct length ratio. Assume 3/4 inch of padding at each end and 1 inch between the vertex and the bend. After doing the math, you will find that the corresponding dome has a height of about 100.5 inches (about 8' 4.5"). This yields dome poles with nominal lengths of 62 inches and 55 inches. Accounting for bending and padding would yield total lengths of 63.5 inches 56.5 inches, which adds up to 10 feet."