First look at a mitered sill plate (pressure treated).

Notice that I don't have an end grain for LSL or PSL materials yet, not a huge deal but something to add to the todo list when things slow down a bit.

Nathan,

Good Morning, The floor extension looks great, cant wait to add it to the suite.

Thank You,

Wayne

First look at a mitered rim joist:





I know, no one builds it this way but I'm just covering all my bases.

I just need to test the sill plate algorithm tomorrow morning and I think we are ready for an initial BETA release.

I've updated the algorithm for non-orthogonal cut lumber so that even angled cuts will now show an end grain texture:

Goldplating for sure, but I think the proper material helps visualize better what is actually going on within the construction project.

In the Materials tab of the Global Settings you can switch between the more realistic textures/materials for lumber and pressure treated lumber:

Batt and Blown insulation are now enabled:

Added a "Floors" tab to the global settings, I'm sure this tab will get more populated as development progresses.



The tool tip in the draw and edit menu.

How soon should I release the BETA version?  I'm currently checking the floor preset functionality and I will also look at the addition of insulation (bat or fill) tomorrow.  The gypsum (ceiling) seems to be working great, but eventually I will add in battens because I know someone will request it, but it is not top priority right now.

I'm thinking I will push out the opening and beam modules after I release the BETA, they will complicate things and may take a few weeks of tweaking and testing before they are ready for prime time.  The opening module will be the higher priority of the two.

I've created the template for the integration with the estimating module, but this will also require further fleshing out.  In addition there will need to be updates to the cost database and weight database modules that integrate materials for the floor assemblies.

I'm honestly not sure how useful the connection function is as compared to the Truss plugin, but it will be a feature since most of the heavy lifting is already done.

The CUSTOM and SUBTRACT feature will be similar to the Truss plugin, it is in place and appears to be working as it should, further testing would be prudent.

The I-Joist libraries (sizes and types) is much more organized than the previous system and should be easier to maintain and if required more manufacturers can be easily added.  I may also add in a "custom I-Joist" option which would allow one to specify the full set of dimensions for a custom sized I-Joist (depth, flange depth, flange width, web width, web material etc...)

Similar to the Truss and Wall plugins, one can specify a comma deliminated remove list to remove specific joists from an assembly. 

Still lots to do but it is almost close enough to the finish line to think about putting it out there and start garnering feedback and suggestions.

I think what I will do is provide three options for the joint treatment of both sill plates and rimjoists:

1.) Lap
2.) Reverse Lap
3.) Miter

Option #1 will be the default.  When reverse lap is instantiated the long sided boards will run parallel with the joists.  Most floors will be orthogonal and contain an even number of sides, so that makes things fairly straight forward.  However, there is the possibility for odd sided floors (ie. 3, 5, 7, etc...), in such a case you will usually end up with a non-orthogonal corner somewhere along the perimeter of the floor.  Even if option 1 or 2 is selected, if there are non-orthogonal corners I will simply miter those (for now).  In the future I may add an additional global setting which also allows for lapped non-orthogonal corners, but right now I don't want to spend too much time in the weeds on this.

Thoughts?

Here is an example of the three options for handling joints of both sill plates and rimjoists.  Note that they are independent of each other:

I've been pushing the plugin all afternoon trying to find ways to break it and a few things eventually did jump out at me. One of which is the rim board algorithm and the sill plate algorithm (essentially the same algorithm but utilized differently). Other than that the basic joist (framing) algorithm seems very robust at this point no matter what strange configurations I try to attack it with:



My initial framing method for the rim joists was to simply bevel/miter the joints, which makes sense if things are non-orthogonal but in practice when things are orthogonal the joints are usually lapped, at least that is what I've always seen in the field. If they are lapped then the question becomes do you lap the long or short parallel to the joists themselves. What I've always seen is the long rim joists are perpendicular to the joists however the user may want some control over this, so it is probably best to make this user definable (yet another option).

I will put my thinking cap on and start a new day tomorrow...