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.

[Medeek]

Adding in the advanced floor options into the Global Settings:



I am working on adding in metal bridging with some associated parameters:



P.S.
I was going to combine the metal bridging with the solid blocking however after some thought I realized there might be cases where you might combine both forms of bracing in one floor (solid blocking and metal bridging). Hence I need a separate module for blocking. Unlike the wall blocking floor blocking may be regular lumber or I-Joist blocking so that further complicates the matter slightly.

The parameters for the blocking module will probably be:

1.) Blocking Type: Lumber/I-Joist

If blocking type is Lumber:

Blocking Width: 1.5 in (default)

Blocking Material: Lumber / PT Lumber / LSL / PSL / LVL etc...

If blocking type is I-Joist

Blocking I-Joist Family:

Blocking I-Joist Type:

other general parameters are:

Row Spacing: 96 in. (default)

Stagger Blocking: Yes/No

Remove Row: empty by default

Quite a few more parameters ( 8 ) to add into a number of files, this will keep me busy for a couple of days at least.

[Medeek]

First look at metal bridging (I-joist and Lumber):





Geometrically a lot simpler and more lightweight than the preconfigured component that I made based off of the Simpson IFC model.  I'm using my galvanized texture/material but I may change it slightly.  There are quite a few parameters that one can adjust to customize the look and feel of these metal bridging straps, hopefully that should make things configurable enough for most power users.

As noted per the Simpson literature the crossing straps should not be in direct contact to avoid screeching noises when they move under load.  Hence the default 1/8" gap, but this can be modified as can be seen in the menu.

I've also included a thickness parameter for the straps.  The correct thickness for a 20 gauge strap is probably around 0.035" however I've rounded the default value to an even 0.04".

[Medeek]

Version 0.9.7 - 09.23.2024
- Updated the SUBTRACT feature with three other options.
- Added seven advanced options in the Floor tab of the Global Settings.
- Added metal bridging to the Draw and Edit menus.
- Added solid blocking (Lumber and I-Joist) to the Draw and Edit menus.
- Fixed minor bugs in the HTML menus and preset system.

[Medeek]

Tutorial 3 - Metal Bridging and Blocking (10:28 min.)

[Medeek]

One click toggling of the joist direction:



I found myself constantly switching between 0 and 90 degrees and even though two mouse clicks isn't much it is still too tedious. The one click "toggle" icon is just a more convenient option.

Also in the "draw" menu one can click the polyline or face icon in the right hand corner of the menu to toggle between draw modes, I also find this easier to do and more intuitive than using the "up arrow" hot key, (both methods are now available to the user in the upcoming release).

[Medeek]

First look at a couple of staggered joist floors (solid sawn and I-Joist):



Joist length is set to 96" with a 24" lap.

Now I just need to give some thought to the blocking and bridging modules and figure out how best to handle a staggered joist floor. Some extra logic is probably necessary.