I am eagerly awaiting the Gable wall module, that I hope will include Shed roofs. 
Also, high on my list are sliding glass doors, pocket doors and sun tunnels.
Keep up the work on these great extensions !
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I have been contacted by SketchUp (Educational Programs Coordinator) with regards to using SketchUp for electrical work. They are looking for some examples of recent work to share with the IBEW and ETA (electrical union) to showcase the use of SketchUp in the design and layout of electrical systems.
I am not an electrical contractor so I don’t have any actual real life case studies to share or demonstrate but I am hopeful that some of the current users of the electrical plugin might have some examples they are willing to share with the rest of the electrical community.
If you would be interested in sharing some of your work as a case study please contact me at nathan@medeek.com.
In the global settings there will be a new parameter for choosing the electrical standard. The default standard will be NEMA (North America) with a new option for the BS (British Standard).
When you enable the British standard the usual toolbars will be the same however you will also get a third toolbar for British standard specific outlets and switches (and in the future possibly other specific items). The regular NEMA switches and outlets will still be available with the main toolbar so in case the user wants a mixed installation of NEMA and BS components. I may change this in the future depending on customer feedback.
The initial UK toolbar will be:
I wish the Union Jack displayed with a bit more clarity but it is hard to get a lot of detail when the icons are as small as they are.
Added some MK flush and surface mount boxes, now I just need a few more switches and we should be ready to go.
The following MK boxes added:
861ZIC
862ZIC
866ZIC
878ZIC
886ZIC
K863
K2140WHI
K2142WHI
K2153WHI
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MK Electric has a very extensive product line. There is also the MK Grid Plus line which is similar to the Leviton QuickPort system however it is primarily for switches not low voltage ports:
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I’ve uploaded a very simple detached garage model that can be used to test out the electrical plugin:
Version 1.1.6 - 08.11.2020
- Updated all electrical drawing tools to be compatible with Medeek gable, shed and hip walls.
- Improved compatibility with the SketchUp Grid Tool.
Slightly off topic but I really like using the Grid Tool to help with laying out walls, foundations and even electrical components:
https://extensions.sketchup.com/extension/a784fd64-f0ae-492b-8ca4-06aaec6afec6/grid-tool
My self imposed timeline for getting the UK switches and outlets released is Oct. 1, 2020. However I may be able to push that sooner if I am able to shuffle a few things.
After comparing my UK switch tool and the US (NEMA) switch tool it became abundantly clear that there isn’t too much to do in order to get the UK switches up and running so I bit the bullet and opened another can of worms…
First look at some flush mounted MK Logic Plus switches with metal boxes:
I still need to enable the 2D symbols but now I am wondering if the symbols used by the Brits are different from what we use here in North America, knowing my luck they are probably not the same.
To be perfectly honest I didn’t think this plugin would be widely used or adopted, kind of niche thing for a few electrical contractors or guys like myself who like to show a lot of details in their models. I actually got the initial idea from reading through John Brock’s book and I really liked how he was placing electrical components into his models. It seemed like too much work to have to place pre-made components into the model at the right depth into the walls and also the height, hence the plugin was born, which automatically sorted out these details for you.
As with my other plugins as I have continued to develop them they have garnered more interest and I’ve tried to make them more flexible to accommodate more users and standards. I’m currently working to release the British Standard upgrade which will include some typical UK outlets and switches (and boxes). However, a lot more remains to be done to truly make this flexible enough for a worldwide audience.
Keep sending in the feedback, it ultimately helps me fine tune this plugin to better meet the needs of you the user.
Trying to figure out the 2D symbols used in the UK for switches and outlets. A real mish mash of information online. Does anyone have any reference documents they could point me to as a definitive source. For now I will just use the typical NEMA symbols until I have better information and more clarity on the subject.
Version 1.1.7 - 08.13.2020
- Created the Medeek Electrical UK (British Standard) toolbar, with two additional functions/tools: Draw Switch, Draw Outlet.
- Enabled the Draw Switch (UK) tool with the following switch types (MK Logic Plus): single pole, dimmer, blank.
Since I am using manufacturer’s part numbers to specify the switch and box with the new UK module I thought it made sense to provide a thumbnail to aid in the selection process:
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Version 1.1.7b - 08.13.2020
- Added preview thumbnails to the draw and edit menus of the UK switch tool.
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visual references, yaaaiiieee!
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I follow this thread as an interested observer from the UK (retired, and never a housebuilder, electrician or plumber professionally).
I’m always amazed and totally impressed at your attention to detail and the facility with which you provide such well crafted interface dialogues.
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Thank-you, I think that is the best compliment I have ever received.
I can’t say I’m proud of all my user interfaces but I do think I am slowly getting better at putting them together. Usually it comes down to time, if I had more time to devote to them I could probably polish them even further.
But well deserved, I think.
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I’m trying to wrap up the outlet module for UK outlets however I’m trying to figure out what symbols to use for the single, double and triple gang outlets, some are also switched.
The concept of a duplex and simplex outlet doesn’t really seem to make sense for the UK outlets.
Any guidance from someone familiar with the electrical code and schematics for the UK would be very helpful.
After some further digging about on the internet I really only came upon three or four reference documents for UK outlet symbols. Based on those examples here are my proposed symbols:
Please provide feedback or suggestions.
I planning on using the abbreviation “SW” for switched since I am trying to keep the length of the text in the legend to a manageable length, or I could spell it out in full.
There will probably be other outlet types (ie. fused outlets or connector outlets), but this is all I have for now.
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