Try it out, but I believe when you make changes to an assembly, it rebuilds the entire thing, so regardless of what you renamed a subgroup to, it’s going to be deleted and redrawn. I know what you’re wanting in retaining the ability to edit the wall, but all the examples I’ve seen of Nathaniel doing this involve renaming the entire assembly.
@medeek OK my question is: Is there a way to integrate an actual profile for say metal siding. In particular the “T-4” siding from Metal Sales. The reason being is that when we install this product the ridges have to line up with the window and trims pretty accurately. If we could get a profile integrated into Medeek Wall the the openings would allow us to immediately identify which heights work and which need adjusted. If not then it is what it is. Thank for the plug in…making my work load so much easier!
1 Like
Ok, I tried it and it worked great, I need the siding and the sheathing to extend up to a sloping roof but the wall was a rectangular wall. I used the Medeel extend tool and extended the sheathing and siding, renamed both with prefix CUSTOM_ and then edited the wall assembly and unchecked create sheathing and cladding, the plugin re-drew the wall left the changes in the group.
That’s good news! I’ve added my own blocking into a wall before and made it a separate group, only to have it deleted on rebuild, so this surprises me a little. Although, thinking back on it more, I may have copied one of the existing studs to do that, so the problems could have stemmed from that.
I use this approach. This method allows me to identify and isolate all the changes that I have made in a model. I add a special tag name. It also makes me wonder if the other approach is used, and there is an update to the extension, what effect there might be. Hope this helps.
Putting the key word “CUSTOM” anywhere in the group (entity) name will allow it to be retained within the wall assembly upon a rebuild, edit etc…
I have discussed this in some detail in previous posts, however this thread is quite long now so it is buried somewhere within.
If you don’t add the keyword “CUSTOM” then OldManPaterson is correct the plugin will delete those groups when the wall is edited and regenerated.
P.S.
1 Like
Tell me more about what requirements you have as far as this siding product goes.
Currently there is the ability to offset a cladding texture/material vertically however if it is advantageous I could also introduce a horizontal offset so the user could align siding in the horizontal axis.
Additional feedback in this regard is welcomed. Would this be a feature that you would utilize?
First look at a trapezoid window (only the sheathing is cut out thus far):
The important point I want to make is that the left window is with the Window Direction parameter set to “LEFT”, and the right window is with the parameter set to “RIGHT”.
The window height is always measured from the low or short side of the window. So if you need to match a certain overall height one would need to do a little math to get to that number. (Which makes me think it may be useful in the draw and edit menus to have this value calculated automatically for the user, and also make it an editable value.)
First look at some framed trapezoid window openings with sloped headers:
I’ve never seen a raised header with a sloped opening framed like this before but I guess it is a possibility:
@medeek I will attach a file of what our walls look like basically. There is a “watermark” with the profile also in the drawing. Attached is also a picture of the wall.
Here is the fileMetal Siding.skp (2.4 MB)
1 Like
If you adjust the “Shiplap” siding you can approximate this type of metal siding quite closely. Then you can use the cladding vertical offset parameter to adjust the vertical positioning.
1 Like
Stacked openings with various raised headers and trapezoidal window openings:
I still haven’t even gotten to the other wall types yet (ie. gable, shed and hip), one step at a time I guess.
I now need to look at the insulation algorithm and then on to all of the window modules (ie. Trim, Casing and Installation). None of this is really all the difficult to code it just takes time to go through all of the various permutations and make sure nothing breaks down.
If coded correctly, in other words the logic is efficient and modular, then not every case needs to be accounted for. The same module for the trapezoidal window trimmers and top cripples is used regardless if the windows are stacked or not. Unfortunately, things are not always this neat and tidy but that is my goal if I can achieve it.
View model here:
1 Like
First look at some trapezoid picture windows:
I only need to work on the exterior trim and the interior casing for trapezoid windows.
I will probably leave shutters disabled for this window type, I’m not even sure how one would configure shutters (exterior) for a trapezoid window without it looking a little wonky.
Yes I agree, shutters would look funky.
The only thing that I can see being an issue with the header above like that is future work. Say a builder comes in to work on that window and has to remove it. If I’m doing the work, and I see that there is no header in that spot, I’ll likely try for a change order to install one, very likely not noticing the remote header above, mostly because of oddity. Not until it’s far too late would I possibly realize there was already a header in place. I could very likely install a new header without ever discovering the original. Just a thought. Like you, I don’t have a “good” reason not to, but I don’t know if it’ll happen.
1 Like
I agree, I’m not completely sold on the raised header either but there is a large enough crowd who has requested that they be implemented, so it is simply a matter of giving people the options they want or need.
1 Like
We use the raised header condition for commercial storefront projects – though typically this is a steel structure, but we have done wood framed in certain conditions. Usually these are large spans (more than 16’) with steel beams or glulams. This allows retail tenants more flexibility in designing their own storefront. The raised headers/beams are typically 12’ to 18’ above finished floor but never at plate height (or at least we haven’t done it there).
In response to OldManpatterson1979’s comment regarding future work, for liability concerns we ensure that the owner’s or landlord’s tenant lease agreements show limitations of what tenants can build and what they can/cannot demolish like bulkhead (beam locations), structural columns, demising walls, floors/foundation, roof/roof structure, etc. To my knowledge, we haven’t had issues with contractors demolishing or damaging the structure – though we did have an incident where an improperly supervised plumber cored through a post-tensioned concrete slab 
…
1 Like
That makes perfect sense. I work in the commercial field now, but I was thinking about it from a residential standpoint. Yes, for a commercial client, making a stable envelope to do whatever they need inside of makes a lot of sense. I was just flashing back to years ago when I would find things like headerless windows in a house and want to cry.
1 Like