The trickiest part of the brick ledge module was the tool that selects the foundation edge. I have it working stably now but I need to add some additional logic which prevents the user from duplicating a brick ledge along the same foundation edge.
I also need to add in some additional logic which offsets the anchor bolts the appropriate amount given the width of the brick ledge.
Similar to the slab depressions the brick ledge module makes no accommodations currently for rebar placement. The logic and algorithms for that will take some considerable effort.
I am seriously considering adding the ability to slope the slab depression and would actually like to work on it before I move back to the complex roof module.
I have a few questions:
1.) With a sloping floor do you typically measure the depression from the high side as your reference and then slope it downward? Or do you measure where you want the doors to end up and then slope upwards?
2.) What is a typical slope in a garage slab depression? Is a 1/4" per foot typical? On a 24’ deep garage this would mean a vertical difference of 6 inches from front to back. This seems like a pretty steep slope.
3.) If a depression is sloped then I would assume that the slab thickness in the depressed region would remain a constant thickness and hence the bottom of the slab at this region would also slope?
The sloping of the depression can be either in the X or Y direction, in the future I may allow for other directions. To reverse the slope, the slope differential can be entered in as a negative number in the edit or draw menu.
Giving a little thought on how to created stepped foundation the last couple of days as I wrapped up work on the slab-on-grade foundations.
Creating a single (closed-loop) stemwall foundation assembly with steps is proving to be difficult. After giving this some additional analysis it seems that it would be better to break it down into separate (polyline) assemblies, somewhat similar to the Wall plugin.
If I switch to this type of system then creating steps in a foundation is just a matter of adding step “segments”. I’ve identified three basic type of steps in the detail below:
Note, that there would also be a right and left hand version of each, this comes into play with non-symmetric features such as foam insulation and anchor bolts.
So essentially I need to create a whole new system for stemwall foundations, the current system is not scalable. The three main tools need to be:
Each polyline segment will be able to be edited similar to the how you edit the outline of a stemwall or slab-on-grade foundation outline now.
Similar to the wall plugin the drawing direction will be counter clockwise in order to face the exterior of the stemwall to the outside. This becomes important for anchor bolts, insulation, brick ledge, and joist pockets.
Each segment will be an independent assembly (group) that the user can simply move around (laterally and vertically) with the native tools.
I’ve got quite a few icons now for this plugin and I’m still not entirely sold on my choice of icons/images for these toolbars but this is what I have for now. I did try to create some 3D icons but at the resolution available for the toolbars it is very hard to create a legible 3D icon.
With regards to the step tool I also need some more information on how best to handle the footing rebar and the stemwall rebar for a step in the foundation. I’ve examined a few details online as well as some of my own but additional feedback would be helpful.
Note that the three different types of possible steps are represented in this model.
View model here:
Also note that I will be providing for the ability to offset the footing from the end of the stemwall (both positive or negative) so that the user/designer can easily butt up against other foundation walls (ie. create T or cross intersections, corner).
As I was working on this initial model/concept a couple of days ago my teenage son noticed that I spent most of the afternoon constructing the model and then adjusting it. He thought that it was funny that I spent a couple of hours mucking around with the model and actually pointed that out to me. Even though most of my time was spent pondering the model (rather than creating the model), he did have a point; it should only take a designer a few minutes to generate this type of foundation, and it should be relatively easy to do. This is the goal of this new module, quick and effortless.
In the model you will notice that I added cripple/pony walls to bring the floor elevation all to the same height. These walls were generated with the wall plugin in less than 60 secs.
When you right click on a polyline stemwall you should be able to edit it, move a segment and also edit the polyline itself.
Technically the “edit polyline” function is redundant with the move segment function however the move segment function would be useful where you just want to quickly move one particular wall segment perpendicular to itself.
To allow for this I will include a start angle and end angle parameter so the ends of the polyline assembly can be adjusted to account for various intersections with other foundation elements.
I will also include a start and end footing offset so that the footing can be offset (neg or pos) from the stemwall at the ends. Note that this offset dimension will always be measured perpendicular to the end face as shown.
I’ve been giving this new module some serious thought and I am hoping to get it right from the outset. All of the menus will be advanced HTML menus and everything will be parametric and available in imperial or metric units.
Similar to the slab-on-grade foundation the polyline stemwall foundation will allow the user to specify brick ledges on a per edge/segment basis. I will also setup a tool for joist pockets using the same template as the brick ledge tool.
The user will be able to toggle a polyline assembly left or right. This will switch the direction of the interior/exterior which affects things like brick ledges, joist pockets, insulation and anchor bolts.
This new module is practically an entire rewrite of the original stemwall module (even though I will leave the original stemwall tools intact as they are), and will probably take me another week or two to complete. As I’m digging into it, there is a significant amount of code to complete.
If you see a feature that you think I am missing or I should change something up please feel free to voice your opinion, now is the time to influence the direction of this development.
In the other forum the following question was asked:
Does the polyline stemwall tool automatically hide the butt edges of adjoining sections? In your render with the pony walls, the lines appear hidden, but in the screenshot above that they are clearly visible.
My response:
Technically, each of the stemwall segments are separate assemblies (groups) so they are not welded together (ie. one solid).
However, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve in this regard. I can enable an option which will hide the edges of the solid so that the foundation can appear to be all one solid. I’m already doing this sort of thing with the Wall plugin, however it is on a global settings scale. I think it makes more sense to set this up on a per segment basis since there may be times where you do not want to hide the edges of a particular segment. I will need to give this some further thought.
Personally I don’t find this to be a very important concern since rendering eliminates these unwanted edges, however I can still see that there might be an issue when generating elevation or plan views.
Only the Basic Options appear when all of the other options are toggled off.
Similar to the Wall plugin it will allow the user to draw a polyline section of foundation and then continue on and keep drawing more sections, updating settings as required.
Note the inclusion of the hide edges option in the updated menu.
Other options like brick ledges, joist pockets and openings will be on a per edge basis, so they do not appear in this menu or in the edit menu.
The basic template is now in place however I am still considering how to best terminate the tool while the user is picking points. My thought is to terminate the picking process by having the user hit the Enter key. Unlike the polygon method the user is not needing to return to the start point so there is no natural detection of when the user wants to terminate their picking of points.
Any thoughts on what the most intuitive method of handling this should be?
