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Wood Framing Plugin?

Anonymous
Not applicable
Around a year ago i read about a wood framing plugin for Archicad, and didnt see any threads out here discussing it. Is this still around, and if it is, is it any good?
If not, how do i go about creating accurately framed residential buildings without having to create each stud individually?
13 REPLIES 13
Dan wrote:
I'm curious how you created your trusses - it looks detailed and time consuming.

I posted some info on this forum about how I make the trusses but I couldn't find it doing a search. I think I used some good pictures too. Anyway, it is very simple. I get the truss diagrams from the truss manufacture, import them into ArchiCAD, then I use the magic wand to make slabs 1 1/2" thick between the lines. View them in 3D from the top and save as a .gsm object. I use the same method to make lots of special framing members. Draw it in 2D, view it in 3D and make a .gsm object out of it.

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Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi,

We at Cadimage in Auckland New Zealand are releasing a Wall Framing Addon for ArchiCAD 9 in late January that provides complete 3d interactive wall framing along with complete elevations views with complete cut lists (which are also interactive eg change a stud position in elevation view and the floor plan and 3d model update) for production.

If you are interested in such an addon please email me off post so I can find out any localisation issues I may need to take account of.

Regards,

Campbell Yule
Operations and Development Director
Cadimage Solutions Limited
campbell@cadimage.co.nz
http://store.cadimage.co.nz
Anonymous
Not applicable
Campbell wrote:
Hi,

We at Cadimage in Auckland New Zealand are releasing a Wall Framing Addon for ArchiCAD 9 in late January that provides complete 3d interactive wall framing along with complete elevations views with complete cut lists (which are also interactive eg change a stud position in elevation view and the floor plan and 3d model update) for production....
Campbell,
This is great news!...look forward to seeing it. Please consider the following:

1.) All load bearing walls should somehow automatically place studs in relation to a "user defined" common start point. This is important if you are trying to do "in-line" framing. At a minimum, the user should be given the option to use a start point.

2.) After the framing is placed, it would be nice to be able to move/adjust all studs simultaneously in a wall. Currently you have to adjust them all individually.

3.) Please make all opening conditions independantly adjustable. Example: sometimes header conditions need to be different sizes/types on openings within the same wall.

4.) Please consider making the framing accesory capable of automatically sensing a defined core for the stud space in a composite wall and placing the framing within that core space. Please also consider making the framing capable of automatically sensing a wall or a core thickness and sizing the stud accordingly.

5.) I, personally, model all stud framed walls to the actual plate heights...some people, however, will include the depth of the floor framing within the wall height. Realizing this, you should give the users the ability to specifiy the plate height for the wall framing in cases where modeled walls are a different height than the actual plate height.

6.) Please consider giving the users an interface to define company specific "default" rules for various conditions:extra trimmers at wide opng's, ladder connectors at wall intersections, etc,etc,etc

7.) It would be nice if the accesory could read the name of a user defined wall composite and set all parameters for that type of wall automatically. example: If I have a wall composite "2x4 int wall" the accesory might already know to set the stud size to 2x4 and the spacing at 24" O.C. - If I have a wall composite "2x6 ext wall" the accesory might already know to set the stud size to 2x6 and the spacing at 16" O.C.

8.) For companies that are panelizing, it would be nice if the accessory could automatically break long walls down into prespecified maximum panel widths. (one wall after applying the accesory would have multiple panels) Currently the user has to manually split a wall if it needs to be more than one panel.

9.) How about giving the user good control over the panel numbering and automatically creating a schedule of all the panel cut sheets. Ideally the cut sheet views would have default basic dimensions.

What do you think?...is this doable?

Thanks,
Dan K
__archiben
Booster
Campbell wrote:
If you are interested in such an addon . . .
most definitely. as already mentioned above and in several other threads here, the wall accessory add-on is lacking when it actually comes to construction documentation (as well as some really silly usability quirks).
Dan wrote:
4.) Please consider making the framing accesory capable of automatically sensing a defined core for the stud space in a composite wall and placing the framing within that core space. Please also consider making the framing capable of automatically sensing a wall or a core thickness and sizing the stud accordingly.
this is by far one of the most important considerations for a tool that is competing with the current wall accessory add-on.

as already discussed above somewhere, placement relative to core/reference line/etc, etc makes the current tool painstaking to use when it should actually be the most important thing to get right first time. everytime i modify settings i have to check and double check the position of the [censored] thing!

somebody else has also mentioned here that they use this only for the creation of quick, accurate and more detailed sections rather than telling the framing subbie how to do their job. i am 100% behind this approach, but i do like to produce good detailed drawings - even if it is purely contextural information. for this reason i would love to see just one commercial add-on/object available for (or with!) archiCAD to actually have a good, flexible, scalable 2D representation in ALL window types. i get fed up having to modify just about everything i use to look the part on paper.

go surprise me!

cheers
~/archiben
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