Posts made by KrisM

Premium discount does not appear to be working.

BimX is way to view a Archicad project. BimX only lets you look at the model and drawings. It does not export anything. You would have to get the Archicad file saved to the skp format for you to work with it.

I'm a user of Twinmotion and one of the things that has always been subpar is the lack of a true manual. In previous versions there existed printed directions for things. In the 2019 version, Abvent only had short videos for instructions. No speech, just try to see where the mouse is going and figure out what was happening. I am sure this was to avoid creating a printed manual in several languages. Lumion in this respect is far superior. That being said, Twinmotion is very easy to use and the results are quick. I think the acquisition by Epic is great and that Twinmotion will get much better (it's already good) with their level of support.

This would be GREAT addition to this plugin. I do this work manually at present and it is tedious to say the least. This would be a great time saver.
KrisM

Since you are looking at CMU sizes, in the real world the 3/8" mortar space sometimes gets fudged. For example, if I have a 100' long building, technically the block spacing would create a wall which is 3/8" short at one end. This doesn't happen. The block layers will stretch the spacing over some distance to get the last block to line up at 100'. The same thing happens at overhead doors and man doors. For example, a metal man door frame is typically 3'-4" wide, not 3'-4 3/8" wide which the accurate block spacing would require. When you are modelling everything to a theoretical accuracy, it sometimes doesn't jive with reality. Not sure how you resolve this.
KrisM

I would put a request in for all the Simpson Outdoor Accent Connectors as well as the CPTZ Concealed Post tie. I've modeled some of these for one project but it would be great if they were incorporated into your extension (almost called it a plugin ).

My best method is to export a dwg file from Revit but do a solid export. This keeps everthything grouped and exports to layers. There is still some cleanup to do but there is no perfect solution.

Logged into Sketchucation this morning and something looked different. My membership information has disappeared and my account is listed as basic. My automatic renewal to a premium membership was processed yesterday. Something is amiss.
KrisM

I have the exact same problem. Somethings broken. Not sure if this a Trimble problem or a Microsoft problem. Microsoft seems to break something every other update.

I'm quite familiar with SIPs. They definitely have their pluses and minuses. They certainly aren't cheap but can be quite effective if installed properly. The key here is that contrary to the suggestion from Eco Panels that low priced labour can erect their product, there better be someone on site who really knows what they are doing. I have seen some bad installs (not Eco Panel's products) and the long term implications are quite serious. While I have been a promoter of SIPs in the past, I think there are easier and cheaper ways to get good R values.

Canada is a great place - You better be bilingual so to speak -
We build a house in mostly imperial
We draw the site plan in metric.
We do the foundation forming in imperial.
We order the concrete in metric.
We frame everything in imperial.
We order the windows sometimes in imperial, sometimes in metric.
We order doors in imperial.
The surveyor locates the house in metric.
We order the backfill in imperial.
Of course, if you do anything for the government, you do it all in metric.
Keeps you on your toes.

Also -
https://www.grkfasteners.com/

Joe,
You can do most of the straight cut with your radial arm saw or a skil saw. Finish the rest with a handsaw (Japanese style is my favourite). Its really not that much work.
Here are a couple of links to various metal fasteners -
http://www.specializedtimberfasteners.com/products/ (look at SFS Intec & Sherpa in particular)
http://www.timberlinx.com/ (An American company)

Joe,
Here's one way to do it. Same half lap but the mating surfaces are on a bevel so that the weight from above locks the corner together. Put three timber screws through the beams (plates in timber frame parlance) down into the post. Two more timber screws from the bit of the post sticking up into the sides of the beams. Countersink and plug those two screws. The fact is that the timber frame industry in Europe has invented and uses a lot of metal products to make their industry more cost efficient. For example, the timber screws we now see came from products created in Europe. If you really want the whole meal deal, you could put the ends of the braces into a 3/4" deep housing and then also have a mortise & tenon connection with a peg. Authentic and strong. Also more labour intensive and costly than what you have drawn.
KrisM

Joe - France V8.skp

Joe,
Glad it works. Here's an explanation of what I did. The #value error message says that the formula is referencing cells which don't have the appropriate format. Using row 14 as an example, if you click on the cell at I14 (column I and row 14), you will see up at the top of the screen that this cell contains a formula which in this case is multiply the contents of cell E14 with the contents of cell G14. If we look at G14, we see it contains '6', a number. Cell E14 is seemingly blank. If we right click on e14 and look at the format setting, it is shown as general. This means that it can contain either text or numbers. When excel wants to use this cell in a multiplication operation as required by the formula and the cell is seemingly empty, it doesn't know what to do and gives the error message. What I did was delete the cell contents with the delete key which allowed excel to reevaluate what it wanted in that cell which it set to being a number. The cell was acting like it contained a space (a letter which you can't see). An alternate method is to type a 0 (zero) into every cell which is referenced by a formula which sets the quantity and establishes the cell as containing a number. I've attached the spreadsheet with 0's inserted everywhere that a quantity is required. Having blank cells is a bit confusing. Better practice is to have an entry in any cell which contains a number, even if that number is 0. Hope that makes sense.
The red box is displaying a setting that you can use if you want to apply a particular look to a cell (colour, text size, underline etc.). This is a setting that you can copy using the paint brush icon onto a cell that you want to look like that. Not really something you necessarily need.
You might find it useful to take a short excel course at your local college or wherever it is offered close to you. Excel is in fact quite simple and I am quite sure that you would pick it up quickly. Speaking from my own software experiences, I had to learn a new timber software which had me totally befuddled. After I was shown a few things about how it worked, it was in fact dead simple to use. Good to send your brain in a different direction once in a while.
Speaking of your timber frame skills, I would say that looking at your work, that your skillset is right up there.
KrisM

France Curved Azumaya-2.xls

Joe,
Fixed it. Ask your local repair guy about an Excel person local to you. They could explain it all firsthand. Basically it has to do with your spreadsheet programs thinking some number are not numbers but letters. As to why this has happened, I don't have a clue. Aren't computers great?
KrisM

France Curved Azumaya-1.xls

I can't comment on what happened to the files. Were they made in an old version of excel or some other spreadsheet program? There may be a conversion issue.
If you look at each formula in the @value cells, the referenced cells seem to have a "general" format. If you change that to a "number" format, then the formulas work. If that doesn't work, I selected the referenced cell and hit delete. Even though the cell is blank, this seems to correct things.

Actually, it doesn't work. Excel was doing something for a web imported file which made it look like it was working.
The Quantity column has no entries. If you put a number in it, the #value disappears.
KrisM

Joe,
Works fine for me. Excel 2010.
Here's a note from the help file -
How to correct a #VALUE! error
Excel shows the #VALUE! error when your formula includes cells that have different data types (text and numeric values). The #VALUE! error is also shown when a formula references one or more cells that have text instead of numbers, and uses the standard math operators (+, -, *, and /) to add, subtract, multiply, or divide the different data types.
KrisM

& Meccano