Development and Updates for the Medeek Truss Plugin

[Medeek]

Version 2.4.1 - 05.25.2019
- Parameter hightlight (input) color added to General tab of global settings.
- Parameter change highlighting enabled for the gable and hip rafter roof edit menus.
- Added the indexing parameter for roofs and floors to the General tab of the global settings.



A few minor items addressed per recent customer requests.

[Medeek]

Since the hip rafter roof now has soffit and fascia I thought it would be fitting to add the same treatment to the gable roof, however the gable roof is surprisingly more complicated when it comes to soffit and fascia.  Take the example shown below:



A number of questions arise:

1.)  The sheathing terminates at the sub-fascia (at the eave, per previous discussion) however should it extend out to the gable fascia? or just terminate at the gable sub-fascia as shown?

2.)  The cladding may need a different treatment even for hip roofs and for gable roofs.  Rather than relying on the cladding extension parameter to bring it out over the fascia maybe bring the cladding out to the fascia by default and then the extension parameter brings it beyond the fascia if desired?  The cladding extension parameter should also really be per the horizontal rather than per the roof plane due to complications with asymmetric roofs.

3.)  A number of possible configurations can exist at the corner where the eave and gable soffit meet.  Ideas?  I don't even know what these variants are called, but I've seen them all.  Some architects really don't like the soffit boxes but even these are popular in many regions.

http://diydiva.net/2010/11/building-soffit-boxes-and-wood-soffit-installation/

4.)  Should the gable fascia terminate as shown or extend beyond the eave fascia (projection).  The projected gable fascia seems to be very popular in western Washington.

5.)  The gutters will naturally be offset if fascia is specified but should I extend the gutters to terminate flush to the gable fascia or leave them so they terminate flush to the gable sub-fascia?

These roofs are complicated business.  Lots of little details.  Even though I'm not an architect or designer I've still got to deal with them all since I'm creating a tool that involves all of these subtle design decisions.  Structural elements tend to be a bit simpler in my opinion.

[Medeek]

I really have no idea if this is the correct way to build a soffit box but here is one possibility:



A couple things jump out at me:

1.) Note the double miter cut of the gable fascia.

2.) Note the addition of the two pieces of fascia to create the soffit box.

3.) I've shown this soffit box with a 15" return (the minimum return) however one could extend the return further and the eave soffit would then morph into an L shaped configuration.  So if this type of soffit configuration is specified I should also provide the user with the ability to set the return length.

With gable roofs and their soffit and fascias it looks like I've open yet another can of worms.

[Medeek]

Here is a soffit box with an extended return (4"):



Note the L-shaped eave soffit.

[Medeek]

Version 2.4.2 - 05.27.2019
- Enabled soffit and fascia for gable rafter roofs.
- Enabled a roof cladding extension parameter for gable rafter roofs.
- Enabled custom materials for roof sheathing and roof cladding in the HTML edit menu for gable rafter roofs.
- Added the soffit box extension parameter for gable rafter roofs.



View model here:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/37d083b2-1a35-4094-90c0-34d3524ac4f2/Soffit-and-Fascia-Gable-Rafter-Roof

Note the trimming of the ridgeboard if required.

Currently there is only one way to soffit and fascia the gable roof but if there is enough call for it I can also look at this type of configuration:

[Medeek]

The other configuration I've noticed being used quite a bit locally is the angled soffit:



Personally I think this type of soffit works better where the rafter tails are square cut and not plumb cut otherwise the sub-fascia will probably need to be adjusted (beveled) on its bottom to ensure that the soffit fits correctly.

The one thing to note with this arrangement is that the gable soffit and eave soffit should be coplanar.  In order for that to happen the depth of the rafter tails must equal the depth of the rake board (barge rafter).  One way to achieve this if the rafters are quite deep is to trim them as shown in the image.  An alternative approach is to match the barge rafter with the actual rafters but this will result in a very deep/thick fascia and a heavy look.

I'm just thinking out loud here so correct me if I'm seriously mistaken with any of my musings.  The angled soffit is certainly another option that I could add in but I need to make sure there is call for it and that I've got it right.

[Medeek]

Now that I have at least one option for soffit and fascia for a gable type roof it makes sense that I extend this functionality to the truss module.  However with common trusses I also have the option for various roof returns:



I will need to add some additional logic into the soffit and fascia module so that it can properly handle these more classical roof returns. 

If you look at this a little bit further it becomes apparent that you have the gable soffit dropping down into the roof plane of the return.  I'm not entirely sure how this would be framed out, but it sure would be helpful to watch a crew installing soffit on a gable overhang where it comes down and meets a hip roof return like the one shown.

The fascia and eave soffit with its extension seem pretty straight forward.

---

A quick mock up of a truss roof with hip returns and soffit and fascia:









View model here:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/421108b3-d0dc-4898-a096-0cf7d1999eb2/Hip-Roof-Return-with-Soffit-and-Fascia

I could get all fancy and try to trim the gable soffits so they intersect the hip returns perfectly but looking at it now it doesn't seem to terrible if I just terminate them as I have shown and the carpenter in the field will adjust to suit.

[Medeek]

First look at soffit and fascia applied to a common truss (fink) roof:



If you look closely you can see the roof cladding is extending out over the gutter (0.75"), I'm adding the cladding extension parameter to the advanced options for trusses.

Even though this is working great now for the common truss I still need to add the logic in to handle the hip roof return and full return configurations.  I also have the configuration where the back side of the assembly is truncated to allow for abutting next to a wall.  This will require yet another soffit and fascia configuration. 

[Medeek]

Due to the complications caused by roof returns I had to jump through a few more hoops to get the soffit and fascia (and roof cladding extension) fully functional for common trusses:







Unfortunately, I still cannot release these latest upgrades to the public because in changing up the advanced options module I may have possibly broken other truss types.

Tomorrow I will need to do some thorough checking to make sure the other truss types:  attic, scissor, monopitch, cathedral etc... are working correctly and can now work with the soffit and fascia module.

[Medeek]

View model here:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/2b5f829b-62e2-4dce-a88b-aa1794b52bef/Truss-Roof-with-Hip-Returns-and-Soffit-and-Fascia

[Medeek]

Probably another solid day with soffit and fascia (extending it to many of the other truss types) and then I will be back on the rafter module and pushing hard to get something pulled together for secondary and complex roofs.  I still need to come back to the drip edge but I think it can wait until I have the more important stuff dealt with.  The nice thing about drip edge is that it will not affect other geometry or modules, it will just be an add-on, much less complicated.

In the process of revamping the gutter and roof returns module in order to handle soffit and fascia I did manage to turn up a few additional bugs which I have addressed.  Its always nice to kill two birds with one stone.

As the complexity and depth of the plugins have increased I am finding it more difficult to juggle all of the plugins at once.  Lately, I have given the other plugins a rest (except for critical bugs or minor fixes) and then dived deep into the current plugin of interest.  At some point it would nice if I could bring on additional help so that development is ongoing with each plugin on a daily basis.

[Medeek]

Quite a number of fixes to the attic truss module.  The floor sheathing option is also now exposed in the attic truss edit menu.



Full Return:



Roof labels and callouts also added to this truss type.

[Medeek]

Soffit and Fascia now available for Scissor and Cathedral trusses:





I've also taken the time to make the cathedral truss type parametric (edit menu).

I only need to look at the monopitch truss edit menu and address a few changes to it and then I will be ready to push all of these changes out to a new version.

[Medeek]

Version 2.4.3 - 06.02.2019
- Enabled soffit and fascia for the following truss types: common, attic, scissor, monopitch, cathedral.
- Enabled a roof cladding extension parameter for truss roofs.
- Enabled the "Edit Truss Assembly" function for all cathedral trusses (imperial and metric units).
- Added the floor sheathing option to the attic truss edit menu.
- Parameter change highlighting enabled for truss roof edit menus.
- Roof returns (full and hip) enabled for monopitch trusses.
- Addressed some minor bugs with the truss gutter module.
- Soffit and Fascia added to truss roofs with full or hip returns.
- Labels and callouts added to attic, scissor, and cathedral trusses.
- Added the soffit box extension parameter for truss roofs.

Monopitch variants:









This was a fairly substantial upgrade with lots of changes.  I wrapped up quite a few hours of testing today but there will probably be something that gets away from me, there always is.

Now its time to go after the much larger fish... Complex and secondary roofs.

[Medeek]

*** The Medeek Truss extension will no longer officially support SketchUp 2015 and SketchUp 2016, only SketchUp 2017 and newer will be supported. ***

I have reluctantly made this decision based on the additional time and effort I am spending trying to put in place additional logic (band aids) within the code base to ensure that the plugin maintains compatibility with these older versions of SketchUp.  At some point it is simply no longer worth the effort.

If you are plugin user currently running one of these older versions of SketchUp, I would strongly suggest that you upgrade to ensure continued operation of the extension.  The current version of the extension will probably still work with either SketchUp version however moving forward there will be no guarantee of compatibility.