First look at skewed hangers with staggered joists:



A little bit more complicated than regular joists due to the offsets but overall its pretty much the same routine.  Pretty excited that I actually can get this to work, at first I wasn't really sure if it was even feasible.

After another three hours of some productive thought and hacking away at some rather large blocks of code (and a few choice words) I managed to pull together a fairly efficient and robust algorithm for the cavity insulation between those irregular joists.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "Batt Insulation with Staggered Joists":






I'm exhausted, tomorrow I might take a small break.

Metal bridging now updated for staggered joists:

With staggered joists I am tracking how many rows of joists I need, the joist length and lapped length, so given that information (three variables) I can then run a quick check on each blocking row to see how it pencils out. This little block of code does the trick:

if @Spanno < 2
            stoffset = 'NEG'
        else
            lapcount = 1
            for lapi in @Stjarray
                if (distx > lapi[0]) && (distx < lapi[1])
                    stoffset = 'LAP'
                    break
                elsif distx < lapi[0]
                    if lapcount.odd?
                        stoffset = 'NEG'
                    else
                        stoffset = 'POS'
                    end
                    break
                elsif (distx > lapi[1]) && (lapcount == (@Spanno - 1))
                    if lapcount.odd?
                        stoffset = 'POS'
                    else
                        stoffset = 'NEG'
                    end
                    break
                end

                lapcount = lapcount + 1
            end
               
        end

As one can see there are really only three possibilities for the blocking: Lapped, Positive or Negative.

The end result is this:



Problem solved. Now I just need to apply this same logic to the metal bracing and implement it. Insulation is somewhat different so I still don't have a good solution for that one just yet.

So yes, staggered joist present a few issues.  For example if the blocking doesn't land in the lapped region of the joist layout you end up with this:



Right at the moment I'm not sure how to address this or actually determine when the blocking lands in the non-lapped sections of the layout.  The easy way out would be to do a boolean subtraction using the joists themselves, but then I would need to separate the resulting (multi-body) group into a bunch of groups/solids, this one is a bit of headache.

Version 0.9.8 - 09.27.2024
- Made the polyline/face icon (draw mode) in the draw menu clickable.
- Added a joist direction toggle button/icon to the draw and edit menus.
- Added a stagger joist option to the Draw and Edit menus.
- Updated the insulation, blocking, metal bridging and hanger modules to accommodate staggered joists.

Also an adjustment to the code for metal bridging, but I'm not sure if one would use metal bridging in this situation, seems like you would want solid blocking to sandwich everything nice an tight with staggered joists, further feedback and adjustments probably required:



Each new option to double, offset, remove or stagger the joists adds in further complications for bracing (blocking and bridging), hangers and insulation.

I am going to have to come up with a whole new algorithm for hangers when staggered joists are employed...

With insulation you end up with this:



I'm not 100% satisfied with this but I'm not sure how else to deal with it when the staggered joist present such an irregular cavity to fill. As such the volume on insulation calculated will be slightly under the actual insulation required which will make the data sent to the estimating module a bit inaccurate.

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.

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).

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

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.

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".

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.

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.