These are cross sections of identical shipping containers, except one is rotated 45 degrees. The cross sections are squares, 3 meters to a side. I drew dashed lines to show where they're suspended by a crane.
Note also I put a cross beam inside of them, connected at the corners.
In general, which orientation can hold more weight? Does it matter?
(If you need more specifications, I can make them up. But the idea is that they're the same thing, just rotated 45 degrees, so I didn't think the exact width of the walls and beams mattered so much.)
The purpose here is to make a very heavy-duty shipping container than can hold bulk ores, which can be very dense. (Imagine lead ore, granite, etc.) That's why I put a cross beam, to help the container stay rigid. So I want to know the most efficient way of orienting the container.
Note, I don't know what tags are good for this question. I looked for something along the lines of "abstract". Feel free to help me with tags.