Yes, I keep finding myself in that boat, thought “subtract” and "custom have helped.
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Haha, don’t weary yourself with it. What you are creating is a piece of art. Lord bless you!
Would this plug produce a layout for the floor joists to help with the problem of when joists should change direction ?
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I’ve finally wrapped up my recent move (Utah → Missouri) and the dust is beginning to settle some. The next few weeks I will be working in earnest on the Floor plugin and try to get it put together and released before the end of the summer and prior to the upcoming SketchUp Basecamp.
This will be the fourth and final piece of the mdkBIM bundle. Those who have purchased the bundle in the past and/or hold permanent licenses to all three of the BIM plugins will be entitled to a free permanent license for this upcoming plugin.
I haven’t determined the pricing yet for this new plugin but it will probably be similar to the Foundation plugin or perhaps slightly less depending on how many features I am able to squeeze into it.
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Looks like I’ve got most of the basic Global Settings all put together now. Fairly basic to start with, I’m sure as this progresses it will diverge from the initial template quite a bit:
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I thought of a feature … in floor radiant heat. I saw them do this on “This Old House”.
I think they put down wood strips and ran the tubing back and forth between the strips. Then the flooring went down on top (with care not to nail through the tubing.)
The constructive layers probably differ between concrete and wood floors.
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I will give this one some consideration.
I’ve been out in Utah the last couple of weeks for my daughters wedding, life has been getting in the way of my programming but I am back in the saddle and hopefully I can make some serious progress in the next few weeks.
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There are several ways to do radiant heat, both hydronic and electric. One of the slickest for hydronic is Warmboard products. Electric doesn’t add much actual thickness, but hydronic does. To pave the way for several options, perhaps a floor assembly should consist of at least:
- Finish Floor
- Underlayment
- Subfloor
- Framing
- Furring
- Finish Ceiling
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I think with the finish floor/Underlayment I should leave this pretty much open ended, in other words don’t make a distinction between the two and allow for as many layers of underlayment/finish as the user decides. Typically I wouldn’t think one would need more than two layers on top of the subfloor but with all the different heating and cooling options you never know.
Maybe you might need a layer of foam, then furring, then another layer of sheathing, then carpet pad and then carpet.
I’ve found that as soon as I try to limit or anticipate what builders might need they always surprise me with just one more option that I failed to consider. 
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I saw a builder use two inch foam, then two layers of sheathing, one sheathing layer running perpendicular to the other (on concrete, mind you.) So then if he had carpet, there would be two or three more layers on top of that.
Gotta get me a wall sandwich with all the fixins’.
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Here is a first look at what the updated Floor plugin Layer tab in the Global Settings looks like:
I just realized that the Layer Control in the Project plugin does not have a control in place for the new Floor plugin, there is always more to do.
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oOoOO he’s touching the floor plugin
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The edit menu and draw menu are pretty much done now, just a few more tweaks and error checking and we might be able to start creating our first real floors with this thing:
I was going to include the blocking as an advanced option but after some further thought it seemed like it might be more intuitive to have the blocking be similar to beams and openings, where you can really customize the location and size etc… of each row of blocks independently.
I usually have a pretty good idea how I want things to go even before I start coding but sometimes you get halfway into it and you realize that an alternative method or system would be more optimal.
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Really excited!
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Still working on the plugin and pushing as hard as I can. I have to apologize to everyone, my goal was to have this out by the end of this month but my progress in the last week has been slower than expected. The primary reason for the slow down has been my back injury acting up again, I guess I’m just getting old, not 25 anymore.
I can still program but I just can’t sit very long so instead of my usual 12 hour marathons I might get in 3-4 hours per day. I’m hoping everyone can bear with me a bit longer.
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Have you asked your doctor about a standing desk setup?
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I have looked at that but the main thing is that I need to be more careful and somehow stop re-injuring the existing injury.
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How does one “carefully” sit in an office chair?
Have I been doing it wrong? 
I assume you mean duration and not the technique.
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I have been working on the Floor plugin the last few weeks, interspersed with bug fixes and minor upgrades to the other plugins. My sincere apologies for the delay of the release of the plugin.
Due to another ongoing medical issue (not related to my back injury) I will probably be out of the saddle for a few weeks into October, and then back at it again.
I appreciate everyone’s understanding and patience. The last twelve months have been challenging for me.
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