I might actually designate the initial release a BETA number but I'm still not decided on that yet.

Right now the plugin is all torn apart as I continue to add in a few additional features like presets and the "remove joist list" option:

This is my current desk setup, I've just added the big monitor to my left which gives me more screen real estate and improves my coding efficiency.  This is where all the magic happens, at least for now.

I also initially used the slab-on-grade code for moving edges of the floor perimeter but now that I'm testing it more extensively it appears that I should probably switch to the code I use for the complex roofs, so some additional adjustments required there as well.

This is how the sausage is made, one line of code at a time.

My wife said my design was boring so I saved a new version and let her try to come up with something a little more interesting…

I'm not sure if I want a basement or a second story but this is already bigger than I initially wanted. The water heater (and possibly furnace) will have to live in the basement or second floor (attic). The cut out for the stairs isn't final yet since I don't know what the basement depth might be.

The rectangular outside dimensions is 28'x40', which already puts me at 1,120 sqft for the main level. The bedrooms are quite large, but I prefer larger bedrooms than smaller ones.

Its good for me to use my own plugins once in a while, it helps me find the weak spots or should I say the annoying things about it. One of those things is the placement of doors along a wall when there are other walls that tee into the wall you are trying to place the door into. I need to have some mechanism for snapping or measuring from these other walls. Once can always go back in and adjust or move the doors to fine tune the placement (which is what I had to do) but it does burn too much time. I guess I learn something new everyday.

Most of my time was actually spent trying to space plan and figure out what made sense, its kind of like playing Tetris. For this sort of thing a rough layout tool might be useful, but just the native tools at this stage is adequate for most of it. The biggest aid was using the grid to help me find my way. Once my initial layout was more or less final, I popped in the walls in less than two minutes.

Fussing over the windows and doors probably took another hour, and then another hour grabbing fixtures from another model and placing them and then mocking up the kitchen cabinet layout (counters, sink, range, dishwasher and fridge). At this stage I'm not too worried about rendering or making my fixtures all that amazing, so mostly they were added just to make sure my space planning was still logical.

I don't design houses professionally (I've only ever really designed three actual residences and a few detached garages) so if this design is a bit of a cludge please forgive my lack of experience and designer feng shui. Most of my professional work was as an engineer and to be honest that type of work is less about creativity and more about the numbers. I find this type of work far more challenging and invigorating.

Version 1.9.7 - 04.23.2024

• Fixed a compatibility bug with SketchUp 2024 (Fixnum & Bignum) while maintaining backward compatibility with previous versions of SketchUp.

Version 3.4.3 - 04.30.2024

• Added ceiling gypsum for tray and coffer trusses.
• Enabled the "Edit Truss Assembly" function for tray and coffer trusses (imperial and metric units).
• Enabled labels for tray and coffer trusses.
• Updated the license verification system with a more secure and improved algorithm.

The original 3D cladding tutorial showed the following four materials:

• Board and Batten
• Shiplap
• Log
• Lap

The three additional ones added since this video are:

• Metal
• Shiplap (Vertical)
• Dutchlap

There are now seven different types of 3D cladding materials one can configure within the Custom Material Library.

Version 3.5.0 - 05.26.2024

• Enabled "flat" ceiling gypsum for dutch gable rafter roofs.
• Enabled "flat" ceiling gypsum for hip rafter roofs.
• Fixed a bug with the global settings for rafter and truss roofs when the layer/tags option is turned off.

CRITICAL BUG FIX!
Version 3.4.7 introduced a bug for both rafter and truss roofs when the layers/tags option is turned off. This release fixes that bug. I highly recommend that everyone download this latest update to correct this bug.

Double sliders are kind of interesting windows.

Sometimes I forget how cool it is to be able to create something like this in SketchUp and have it animate like it does. Can I say I love my job?

The new Rafter Roof menu should be a bit more visual and intuitive for selecting the appropriate roof type:

Version 3.5.6 - 07.03.2024

• Enabled a graphical user interface for Rafter Roof selection.
• Enabled a graphical user interface for Floor selection.
• Fixed a bug introduced in Version 3.5.3 for all I-joist, lumber and truss floors (when adv. floor options disabled).

Version 4.6.4b - 06.16.2026

• Added preview thumbnails into the stair draw and edit menus for posts, balusters and baluster shoes.
• Added a "None" handrail profile for deck railings that effectively disables the cap rail.

Version 4.6.4 - 06.15.2026

• Added a "deck" option to the railing module.

Note that when Railing Type is set to "Deck" there will typically be a cap rail along with an upper and lower rail. The upper and lower rail provide the support for the balusters or pickets.

I will probably need to enable an option to disable or turn off the cap rail.

Version 4.6.3 - 06.14.2026

• Enabled open treads for curved stair assemblies.
• Enabled handrail fittings for curved stair assemblies.
• Added six additional parameters into the curved stair sub-menu for handrail extensions and upper fitting rail drops.
• Enabled handrail posts for curved stair assemblies.
• Enabled OTP, CUT, and VERTICAL (PTP) handrail options.
• Added a vertical offset parameter for top posts.

I've been also thinking about the framing that goes under these stairs and it seems to me that the methods are as varied as there are carpenters. I could provide a basic curved wall framing as shown in the screenshots below but I don't know how much use this would be to anyone as they will probably frame it differently, thoughts?

Here are a couple additional screenshots of slightly different framing methods applied to a curved staircases:

It appears that I have handrail fittings mostly working now for both circular and elliptical curved stairs. However just as with the balusters we will need a separate handrail ext. for top and bottom and a rail drop for each side (inner and outer handrails). This means another six parameters in the curved stair menu. Due to the asymmetry or nature of these curved staircases there is really no way around it.

Version 4.6.2 - 06.10.2026

• Added balusters and baluster shoes for all curved stair assemblies.
• Added separate baluster spacing, offsets and quantities for inner and outer handrails of curved stair assemblies.

With circular stairs it is possible to carefully control the spacing of the balusters so that a specific number of balusters lands on each tread (two on the inner and three on the outer). However with elliptical stairs the tread arc length may vary significantly so this may or may not be as controllable. I may need to come up with a different way to space balusters on elliptical stairs.

Note that in the second screenshot where the balusters are attached to the closed stringer this is not an issue.

Each side can be adjusted separately with the addition of the six new parameters within the Curved Stair Options sub-menu. This level of granularity is required for curved stairs at the expense of making the menus a bit longer.

Balusters on curved staircases is a bit challenging, I'm not going to lie. My algorithm(s) are mostly working, and I think, as I suggested in my previous postings, I will need to add in some additional (curved stair specific) parameters. At this point I really hate to add more parameters to these already substantially bloated menus. Too many settings and options tend to overwhelm the casual or new user, but at the same time we need enough controls or knobs to fully adjust these assemblies, its a bit of a trade off I guess. As the Japanese say "Shikata ga nai" (仕方がない).

This screenshot is of a "circular" curved staircase with 1/2" square balusters and baluster shoes. As you can see the baluster spacing is not quite right for either side (inner and outer handrails). To get exactly 2, 3 or 4 balusters per tread one will need to carefully and probably iteratively adjust the spacing. Since these arc lengths won't be nice even numbers the exact spacing number will be some fractional value. I've got some ideas on this to make things a bit easier for the user to compute these exact spacings but I need to experiment with it further.

Its funny how when I start down one of these rabbit holes I don't usually don't know the full solution to the problem or even fully understand the problem itself. But as I slowly unravel and work my way through one of these problems it ultimately becomes clear and then along the way I seem to always find better ways to address the problems that I encounter.

Version 4.6.1 - 06.06.2026

• Added tread covers, carpet and stair runners for all curved stair assemblies.
• Enabled a “code” clearance envelope for curved (elliptical and circular) stairs.

Version 4.6.0b - 06.06.2026

• Added handrails to curved stairs.
• Fixed a bug with labels for railing labels with metric templates.

After mucking around with the follow me API call and a few other algorithms I decided to strike out on my own yesterday, and with a little help from ChatGPT and quite a few iterations I was able to finally generate the closed helical stringers. Using the same principle and by rotating the profile I am now able to generate a similar mesh for the handrails. These are high poly but it does look great and we now have eliminated the twisting issue that I had never resolved using other methods. So a major step forward.