Trying to put it all together

[Dave Seabury]

We scripted some door and window parts and worked out the bugs. While scripting the objects we thought it would be a smart idea to add a structural header to the doors and windows. If the window changes size the header would as well. Seemed like a good idea.

Problem is the header does not show up in the section cut and we do not have a 2d symbol for use in structural drawings. How is everyone else handling this, in the script for the object or seperately?

Thans

David

[Erika Epstein]

Interesting idea, but I 'm not convinced that combining these two is appropriate. The header is a structural member and the door, a different trade.

The header can be inserted into the model as its own framing element. Or in sections can be represented with a 2D symbol.

Which of these approaches I would use would be decided on how much framing will be modeled for the project.
My 2 cents

[Karl Ottenstein]

I agree with Erika. Making the header part of the door or window will create more limitations than will be worth it.

For example, turning off windows/doors in 3D will also turn off your headers - thus you cannot get a 3D structural model. You would not be able to export just your structural model for an engineer (or import their model) either. And, scripting limits how the header can be modeled. There are times when you will have a beam span several openings, possibly with intermediate columns to reduce the beam size / deflection, and accomodating that within a window or door part could be challenging.

Getting the header to show up in section cuts / etc is all possible, though. If you were a manufactured home firm, for example, and had a very specific inventory of windows / doors and very specific assembly methods, then maybe combining headers into W/D would make sense for modeling speed. For a general design practice, I'd advise against it.

Cheers,
Karl