In certain situations you will need to regen the engineering loads and supports on a beam. A scenario might be where you edit the beam and change either its depth or width or both.

The regen engineering context menu item will allow you to do this and will appropriately reposition and/or resize the supports and loads to match the beam.

Insertion of a support:

An example of a beam with loads and supports:



Clicking the control key allow the user to insert supports by their center and then bearing length.

View model here:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/9e576bc8-88cd-4a71-9b47-3c0298b6e823/Beam-Engineering-3

The last matrix analysis engine I wrote was for the truss calculator, its been a while.  The good news is that I have my textbook on how to do it and it turns out that the beam analysis problem is really only a one dimensional problem, much less complicated than a two or three dimensional problem.  This is going to be fun, just so you guys no I'm on summer vacation right now so let me have some fun with a bit of engineering.

This is my reference and favorite text on the subject matter:

https://www.amazon.com/Structural-Analysis-7th-Russell-Hibbeler/dp/0136020607

An example of some distributed and point loads applied to a steel (W) beam:



I could also do something like this for the distributed load representations, thoughts?



Now I just need to add the supports and we are done with the engineering geometry.

After that I need to figure out the finite element analysis (matrix analysis) engine that will be used to calculate the shear, moments and deflections of the beam (single or multi-span).  Since the number of loads and supports is potentially unlimited there is no one classical equation that will solve this problem:

https://www.awc.org/pdf/codes-standards/publications/design-aids/AWC-DA6-BeamFormulas-0710.pdf

I've uploaded a very simple detached garage model that can be used to test out the electrical plugin:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/617e2cc7-a8df-42a3-a739-8e5c565b7375/Medeek-Garage-1

An example of point loads with Load Labels and Magnitudes turned on:

The loads and supports will be on the Eng layer, annotations will be on Eng2 and warning graphics will be on Eng3.

Here is an example of some point loads applied to a timber beam, now I just need to setup annotations:



The different color arrowheads indicate one of the six load types (Dead, Live Floor, Live Roof, Wind, Snow, Seismic).  The colors assigned to each load type will be able to be customized in the global settings.  The size of the arrowheads will also be customizeable.

Regenerating the beam geometry will not regen the loads, there will be separate context menu item (right click the beam) to regen the engineering loads/supports.

MK Electric has a very extensive product line. There is also the MK Grid Plus line which is similar to the Leviton QuickPort system however it is primarily for switches not low voltage ports:

https://www.mkelectric.com/Documents/English/EN%20MK%20Catalogue/Grid%20Plus.pdf

In the global settings there will be a new parameter for choosing the electrical standard.  The default standard will be NEMA (North America) with a new option for the BS (British Standard).

When you enable the British standard the usual toolbars will be the same however you will also get a third toolbar for British standard specific outlets and switches (and in the future possibly other specific items).  The regular NEMA switches and outlets will still be available with the main toolbar so in case the user wants a mixed installation of NEMA and BS components.  I may change this in the future depending on customer feedback.

The initial UK toolbar will be:



I wish the Union Jack displayed with a bit more clarity but it is hard to get a lot of detail when the icons are as small as they are.

Version 1.5.8b - 08.02.2020
- Added a semi-transparent polygon fill to the draw wall tool wireframe.
- Added an option for vertical ZIP Systems© 7/16" and 1/2" wall sheathing materials.



View model here:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/752a6027-fd47-42da-88e7-245eed5a5691/Zip-System-Wall-Sheathing-Vert

Version 1.5.8 - 08.01.2020
- Fixed a bug with all wall assemblies when auto-assigment of materials is turned off in the global settings.

Version 2.7.7 - 07.31.2020
- Fixed a bug with all assemblies when auto-assignment of materials is turned off in the global settings.

Still working on how best to graphically represent the various loads and supports but this a bit of a preview of how it will go:

Merging this topic with the previous structural plugin topic.