Development and Updates for the Medeek Floor Plugin

[Medeek]

I was thinking about hanger hardware for the joists but then I realized that things are quite a bit more complicated with these polygon floors.  For example look at this floor:



The situation gets interesting for the first six joists in the array, they would require four hangers each rather than just the normal two.  I'm going to have to really put on my thinking cap for this one.

And then you have the additional complication of non-orthogonal edges which may require special skewed hangers...  Fortunately those are probably not as common so I can probably ignore that case for now.

P.S.

I may have to bounce some ideas off of @DanRathbun and the other great minds on this forum to devise an efficient algorithm. 

At first glance I think I can examine each joist individually once they've been trimmed/cut and count the number of edges that run parallel to the joist (x-axis or y-axis).  For a regular lumber joist the total number of pieces will be the number of horizontal (long edges) divided by four.  That will tell me how many hangers I actually need.

I can then cycle through this collection of edges finding all of the terminal vertices/locations and assign to each one a direction (left facing or right facing).  From there it is simply a matter of running a for loop and placing the hangers.  I think this will work but it may not be optimized yet.

P.P.S

I also just realized that there is the possibility for some joists to be doubled, which will naturally require a different hanger, so the hanger selection will require two parameters, one for single ply an one for two ply.  However, there may be a situation where you want there to be hangers only on one side of the floor (ie. a deck with a ledger and beam supported on the other end) so four parameters for hanger selection:

1.)  Start Hanger (1X Ply)
2.) Start Hanger (2X Ply)
3.) End Hanger (1X Ply)
4.) End Hanger (2X Ply)

[Medeek]

Version 0.9.3b - 09.12.2024
- Fixed a HTML/Javascript bug in the Draw Floor menu.

[Medeek]

Not sure why anyone in their right mind would create a floor like this but it seems like the hanger algorithm is holding up even when I throw the kitchen sink at it. I will have to test a few more things and then I'll probably release the joist hanger update tomorrow.






It would be nice is one could specify every terminal end of joist (ie. hanger or no hanger and even specify a size). However I'm probably not going to go that granular yet.

[Medeek]

Version 0.9.4 - 09.16.2024
- Added joist hangers to the Draw and Edit menus.
- Added a built-in library of face mount and and top flange hangers.

[Medeek]

Tutorial 2 - Joist Hangers (19:57 min.)

[Medeek]

Version 0.9.5 - 09.18.2024
- Added a joist direction arrow to the draw floor tool.
- Added a "debug mode" parameter to the General tab of the Global Settings.
- Fixed a bug with deck board placement.
- Fixed a bug with the deck board offset parameter.

[Medeek]

I have had two requests now for metal bridging or bracing so I took about an hour and modeled up a Simpson TB27 between 2X10 joists @ 16" on center.  It actually looks really nice:





However some things immediately jumped out at me:

1.)  I based my TB27 off of the ICF file on Simpson's website so it is dimensionally accurate, however to do that takes quite a bit of time.  Modeling like this is fun but very time consuming and one thing I never have enough of is time. 

2.)  This is the TB27 configured for 2X10's on 16" centers, now think of all the other permutations (including I-Joists).  To make this look right would require a preconfigured component for each case.  The number of permutations is at least 130 or more.



3.)  If you also consider custom offsets of specific joists then it gets even more crazy. 

My thinking is that if I do want to enable something like this it will need to be less detailed geometrically (just a basic representation) and drawn on the fly using an algorithm that checks joist depth and spacing.  Rather than specify the exact part number (ie. TB20, TB27, TB30 etc...), just specify that it is metal bridging.

[Medeek]

Version 0.9.6 - 09.19.2024
- Fixed a bug with metric floor presets.
- Fixed a bug with the insulation module.

[Medeek]

I am changing up the way in which I do subtractive geometry from the way I've done it with the other plugins in the past.
If you enable Subtractive Geometry in the global settings you can use the SUBTRACT keyword to cut holes through everything as per normal. However you will now also have two other options:
SUBTRACT_SHEATH: This keyword will only subtract through sheathing, flooring and deck boards.
SUBTRACT_GYPSUM: This keyword will only subtract through gypsum
I may add others as the need arises or additional requests are made.
P.S.
SUBTRACT_FRAME: This keyword will only subtract joists, rim joists and insulation. I will probably extend this keyword to include in-floor beams once that feature is added.
This brings the number of subtraction geometry options to four.



I think this method is far superior to the system I employed in the Truss plugin and eventually I will update all the plugins with a similar system which will allow more granular control over these types of boolean subtractions within assemblies.