Medeek Wall

The horizontal trim elements (frieze, band, skirt) are now interacting with the exterior window and door trim as one would expect:

When no trim is installed (wall to the right) the band board is cut at the opening(s) flush with the sheathing and cladding. When trim is installed the band board and skirt terminate at the edge of the window/door trim.

Little details really, but the devil is in the details.

Reminds me of the days working construction for a general contractor in Utah some 20 years ago. I was installing faux log siding on a high end residence and if our pieces butted up with a gap anymore than 1/32" he would make us pull it off and redo it (especially on the front of the house).

Version 0.8.4c - 07.07.2018

  • Horizontal trim elements terminate at window and door trim.
  • Added the following door types: flat four panel, flat two panel (single and double).

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Had a question on door hardware this morning.

I should point out that within the door install menu (and door edit menu) the user can pick between seven different styles of door hardware. Currently only Style1, Style2 and Style3 are active which means that the component (.skp) file exists in the components sub-folder.

If you want to add more hardware components, just name them (Style4, Style5, Style6 or Style7) and place them in the “components” sub-folder.

At some point I will probably move the door hardware into the “library” sub-folder and provide a better system for selecting and adding additional hardware within the global settings. The current system is limited and rather primitive.

Note that Style2 is a lever handle while Style1 is a typical doorknob. Style3 is a doorknob/deadbolt combo.

Just for curiosity sake I gave crown molding some more thought this morning and it quickly became apparent to me that interior trim is far more complicated than I originally thought.

The problem arises when you have a long ext. or int. wall that is adjacent to multiple rooms, where multiple walls tee into this wall. Some of these rooms may have crown molding and some may not.

To make this completely parametric would require some very serious logic.

Another option would be to decouple the crown molding from the wall panels and just make a separate tool for this function.

Option C would be just to leave this venue to other plugins like Profile Builder. The problem with this option is that with baseboard and chair rail the door and window openings would have to be manually removed.

For now I don’t have an optimal solution for interior trim, I will need to give this some more thought.

Plugin utilization breakdown:

Foundation Plugin: Not parametric, slab on grade foundation, less than a minute

Wall Plugin: Fully parametric, exterior walls only with some doors and windows, about a minute

Truss Plugin: Rafter roof not parametric and required manual editing to complete this roof framing, approximately 30-45 minutes of trimming members with the trim tool (Truss Plugin).

Based on this test the area I am falling down in most is the roof. I need to be able to automatically create complex roofs and also have them fully parametric, this has always been the holy grail of the Truss Plugin and I have not yet achieved it.

In my mind the Wall Plugin has already surpassed the Truss Plugin in ability and functionality.

I just noticed this morning that I don’t have a vertical offset for doors, funny nobody else has noticed this yet:

Version 0.8.4d - 07.05.2018 thru 07.09.2018

  • Added a vertical offset parameter for doors that allows a door to be positioned below the bottom plate of the wall.

Door is vertically offset 12" into blockout in concrete stemwall.

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To better reflect the distinction between a plugin and extension I will be re-branding the plugin and renaming it to just “Medeek Wall”.

From here on out I will also be referring to it as an extension.

The entire collection of plugins will be re-branded as:

Medeek Architect - A SketchUp Extension Library

Added the APL4 Beam-to-Column Tie per designer request:

Installed in pairs with total of six STN22 decorative washers.

I’m framing a header as a flush framed rim in the floor above. Is there no way to pick “none” as a header for door and window openings?

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Currently it will draw a header but I can setup something to eliminate the header entirely. However, if we eliminate the header then I suppose we don’t need the trimmers either.

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Version 0.8.5 - 07.11.2018

  • Added the Prairie Grille for picture windows.
  • Added “Casement” and “Fixed” to the window installation types, these currently are modeled identical to the picture window type.
  • Added a “No Header” option for windows.
  • Updated the licensing system to include a 30 day limit of the trial version.
  • Added Simpson Strong-Tie APL4 Beam-to-Column Tie to the beam hanger library.
  • Name of plugin changed to “Medeek Wall”.

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Trying to get to the big stuff but ended up working on some fires and adding some window grilles per customer requests.

The following grille options now available will be:

  • None
  • Standard
  • Prairie
  • Perimeter
  • Short Fractional
  • Farmhouse

View model here:

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Version 0.8.5b - 07.12.2018

  • Added the following Grille Types for all windows: Prairie, Perimeter, Short Fractional, Farmhouse, Grid2x2, Grid2x3, Grid3x2, Grid3x3.

A Grid3x2 would be three columns and two rows (6 lite).

There are now 10 variants available for window grilles. One of these days I might consider adding in the Diamond and Queen Anne patterns but right now I’m “grille fatigued”. On to bigger and better things.

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Beyond the trim and grilles the only exterior window treatment I am missing is shutters:

I will need to add in another set of parameters for shutters and associated menus.

The parameters will be:

Shutter Geometry: Single or Double
Shutter Style: Louver, Raised Panel, Flat Panel, Board & Batten
Shutter Material
Shutter Thickness

By default they will be half the width of the window opening and their height will be the same as the window opening. The shutter(s) will be offset 2" from the edge of the window to simulate the space taken up by hinges. I will not be showing hinges or any other hardware so as to keep the poly count reasonable.

The poly count on the various styles should not be too much of a problem except for the louvered style. Not sure how to model this variant without adding a lot geometry which is going to make the model heavy.

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Version 0.8.6 - 07.14.2018

  • Added shutters: Solid, Flat Panel, Raised Panel, Louver to rectangular windows.

View model here:

Available shutter styles are:

  • Solid
  • Raised Panel
  • Flat Panel
  • Louver

I have not yet enabled shutters for arched windows, that will be next.

I also need to add in a board & batten shutter which is also quite popular.

Also note that you can position the shutters on either side of the window (left or right, single shutter) or the more common double shutter configuration as shown.

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Board and Batten Shutters:

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Arched window with flat panel shutters:

These arched shutters are proving to be a bit more challenging. I will need to figure out a new algorithm for board and batten shutters and louver shutters.

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I think I’ve finally been bested by the complicated geometry and the limitations of SketchUp or perhaps my ability to model within SketchUp.

Notice the raised panel shutters for an arched windows shown below:

To create the raised panel effect I will draw the three outlines and then use the transform_entities method to move the edges into the plane. The problem is when I try this with a curved outline(s) as shown SketchUp does not know how to handle the curved planes/surfaces being created.

This is done entirely with Ruby. You do need an algorithm to determine how many segments you will display for a given radius.

Provide a complete path and the follow me works.

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