Alternatively that same opening could be framed as below:



For the size of the opening one would probably use some PSL or LVL Beams rather than a couple of I-Joists but the concept is the same, compare with the previous example where the opening would probably be supported from below by bearing walls.

I've been giving some thought to framed openings in floors, see image below:



Generally, at least from what I've seen most holes in floors are either rectangular, L-shaped or U-shaped, but I guess any outline is possible.

What I've shown in the image above is LSL or LVL framing out the opening however the actual framing might be significantly different depending on what is supporting the floor below.

In some cases the rectangular opening might not be supported by bearing walls from below, in that case the two LSL boards running parallel to the joists would probably be larger beams and the headers would be hangered from these beams and would also probably be more substantial.

The point is how to make this feature flexible enough to accommodate most framed openings but at the same time keeping it as simple as possible so the user is not overwhelmed with parameters.

View model here:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/a879f0c7-0900-47f5-9caf-acc1c3a53f25/Framed-Opening-TJI-Floor

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I am also going to make this feature editable so that the actual hole can be altered after the fact.  This should be an interesting programming challenge.

Version 2.1.7c - 03.11.2018
- Added ceiling gypsum and ceiling battens to cathedral trusses.





View model here:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/b689837e-5378-4b28-adaf-12367154ba2c/Cathedral-Truss-with-Ceiling-Battens

Tutorial 7, Edit Function and some changes to the global settings:

Version 2.1.7b - 03.10.2018
- Enabled the "Edit Truss Assembly" function for all common roof trusses (metric units).

Also addressed some minor bugs with the roof returns option.  There may be other minor issues that still may pop up with the edit feature as they always do when I introduce something new.

Please feel free to email me with any issues.

I suppose one could argue that the discrepancy caused by poor interpolation will probably result in a wind speed difference of only 2-3 mph which will not drastically alter the wind speed analysis and loads calculated for a structure.  However, I would argue that we are doing engineering here not just throwing around warm fuzzy numbers that are somewhere in the ballpark of where they need to be.  If this is the case then we can probably dispense with most of our current, overly complicated wind load chapter and all its factors and other accoutrements.  Why go to all the trouble to devise such a complicated wind load analysis when don't really even know the wind speed for a particular site? 

This brings to mind the numerous discussions regarding significant figures that I had from my university professors back in the day.  We are misrepresenting our data and falsifying its accuracy when we use such ambiguous maps but then turn around and try to provide such in depth analysis with our complicated algorithms.

I don't know about the rest of you but when I look at the new wind speed maps in the ASCE 7-16, in particular the eastern United States I find the contour lines a bit confusing.  With that in mind I spent a couple minutes this morning trying to fill in some of blanks so to speak, see below:



Its obvious that there a number of saddle points in the isolines and that is what complicates things at first glance.  I am curious how well these hand sketched isolines would correlate with the ASCE hazard tool.

The way the map is shown in the printed manual doesn't define the isolines in enough detail in my opinion, too much is left to interpretation and user error.  The one spot value at the end of Lake Michigan is a case in point. 

Below is a screenshot of the edit panel:

Version 2.1.7 - 03.06.2018
- Enabled the "Edit Truss Assembly" function for all common roof trusses (imperial units only).

To edit a roof truss assembly just right click on the assembly and select the "Edit Truss Assembly" option. 

Note, that this function is only available for common trusses with imperial units (template).  Metric will be next.

It seems to be working fairly robustly but I'm sure there will be some minor bugs that pop up considering the complexity of the code and the sheer numbers of variables that I am working with.

Please report any errors by using the ruby console to record the error and email it to me.

Once this feature has been out for a while and I know it is running fairly stable I will then work on updating all rafter and truss assemblies so that the user can edit them.  I can already see that this will be a very useful upgrade to the plugin.

The edit feature is slowly coming to fruition.  I've added so many advanced options to the common truss type that it is quite an ordeal to even put together the HTML form that fully encompasses all of this information and does it in an organized and neat manner.  There is a possibility of 72 unique (user entered) parameters for a common truss assembly.  Some of these are dependent on others, its an interesting web of dependencies (spaghetti) that must be taken into account for the edit feature to work properly.  I've probably got another week just in debugging before I am ready to release the first version of this feature.

Version 2.1.6b - 03.03.2018
- Added Soffit Cut within Advanced Options for all Shed type Rafter Roofs.
- Added gutters for all Shed type Rafter Roofs.

Version 2.1.6 - 03.02.2018
- Added Soffit Cut within Advanced Options for Hip Rafter Roofs.

Looks like I have the soffit cut function working for the hip rafter roof:



I will roll this out on the next release.

Making some good progress on the "edit" function.  I will initially start with the common trusses and then once I am satisfied that those trusses are running stable I will begin to make this feature available for all other truss, rafter and floor assemblies. 

I'm a little bogged down with the advanced options (there are too many) but it is just a matter of putting in the time and slogging through all of the data entry and HTML and javascript.  Probably by the end of the week I should have something ready to go and I will roll a release so everyone can begin testing it.

I took a step back today and pulled my head out of the sand, so to speak.

The truss plugin does some pretty cool stuff and its fairly detailed where I've fleshed out certain truss and roof types. However, it is missing one major feature or has a major flaw depending on how you want to word it.

Currently the plugin is "fire and forget", with no ability to edit an existing roof or floor assembly.  This needs to change. 

I have a mental picture of how I want to handle this but there may be some flaws with my thinking.

I briefly discussed this with a few others at this thread:

https://forums.sketchup.com/t/right-click-menu-items/54916

My idea is to right click on a roof or floor assembly, then click "Edit Assembly" at which point the plugin will bring up a very concise list of parameters for the assembly.  Changing any one of the various parameters or settings will essentially redraw the entire (roof, truss, floor, dormer) assembly.  The list will remain open after each edit and only be closed if the user decides to close it. 

My original idea was to have the edit process walk the user back through each UI menu but this is too time consuming and probably unnecessary.

Any manual edits made to the assembly will of course be lost but this is the price of having a fully editable assembly.

I think I can implement this fairly easily, the various modules are all utilized the same as when I originally created the assembly, the only difference being the user interface.