Development and Updates for the Medeek Floor Plugin

[Medeek]

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.

[Medeek]

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.

[Medeek]

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.

[Medeek]

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:

Code Select Expand

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.

[Medeek]

Metal bridging now updated for staggered joists:

[Medeek]

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.

[Medeek]

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.

[Medeek]

Version 0.9.9 - 10.01.2024
- Further updated the insulation, blocking, metal bridging and hanger modules to accommodate staggered joists.
- Added skewed hanger options into the Floor tab of the Global Settings.
- Added skewed hangers to the Draw and Edit menus.
- Added the following skewed (45 degree) Simpson hangers into the built-in library: SUL24, SUL26, SUL210, SUL214, SUL1819, SUL18111, SUL18114, SUL2069, SUL20611, SUL20614, SUR24, SUR26, SUR210, SUR214, SUR1819, SUR18111, SUR18114, SUR2069, SUR20611, SUR20614
- Updated and added a new subtraction mode to the SUBTRACT feature: SUBTRACT_JOIST
- Added Subtractive Geometry (Joist) in the General tab of the Global Settings.

[Medeek]

Version 0.9.9b - 10.01.2024
- Updated the Floor tab of the Global Settings with additional parameters for joist construction.
- Fixed a minor bug with the hanger module for double ply staggered studs.
- Fixed a bug in the Draw and Edit menus so that all hangers in the library are properly displayed.
- Added the following skewed (45 degree) Simpson hangers into the built-in library (skew_hangers): SUL410, SUL414, SUL214_2, SUL210_2, SUL26_2, SUR410, SUR414, SUR214_2, SUR210_2, SUR26_2

[Medeek]

Version 0.9.9c - 10.03.2024

• Enabled diagonal deck boards with the addition of a Board rotation parameter.
• Enabled 2-Ply rim joists with our without an air gap.

[Medeek]

Version 0.9.9d - 10.03.2024
- Fixed critical bugs with saving of floor presets.
- Improved robustness of floor attribute library and data lookup methods.

Some incremental improvements but necessary. 

IMPORTANT
Note that the last few updates prior to this update introduced a number of new features that effectively disabled the saving of floor presets.  Please download this latest update to restore the ability to save floor presets.

[Medeek]

Double rim joists with air gap, lapped and extended:



A quick test of the non-orthogonal floor types shows that the algorithm holds up as it should:

[Medeek]

Version 0.9.9e - 10.04.2024
- Updated 2-Ply rim joists with air gap to extend joists that are in a lapped configuration.
- Updated the Floor tab of the Global Settings with even more parameters for joist construction.
- Added the following face mount Simpson hangers into the built-in library: MIU1819, MIU18111, MIU18114, MIU18116, MIU18118.

[Medeek]

Tutorial #4:  Deck Boards (6:42 min.)

[Medeek]

Tutorial 5 - Rim Joists and Sill Plates (5:47 min.)