ACADuser

Thanks for the info Gerry. Much appreciated.

Started reading up on Ruby today in my spare time (not enough of that) but did get my first code to work. I use closed polylines to do some crude load calcs. In this one I am attempting to get the Soil Pressure from the foundation, wall & roof. This is just an approximation based on the tributary area of the roof (40 PSF TL). I use a 1' wide rectangle spanning to the midpoint between bearings to the eve in this case. The code appears to work but I wanted to get some advice of the coding style I used. And any other comment relevant to the coding. One issue I could not overcome was the use of puts which made the code chuck & wobble. Any helpful comments are welcome. I tried to use puts like this but it doesn't work: _area = referenced.area _roofTL = $roof_tl _RL=(_area * _roofTL) plf = (685+123+(_area * _roofTL)).round(1) psf=(plf / 16 / 12).round(1) puts "Roof Load "+ _area.round(1).to_s + "x" + $roof_tl.to_s + " TL="+ (_area.round(1)*$roof_tl).to_s + " PLF" puts "CMU Wall 685 PLF" puts "16x8 Foundation 133.4 PLF" puts plf.to_s + " PLF TL on Soil" puts psf.to_s + " PSF Soil Load" My working code: _area = referenced.area # tributary area _roofTL = $roof_tl # Global Roof Total Load = 40.0 _RL=(_area * _roofTL) ftr_w=16.0 #footer width in inches ftr_h=8.0 #footer heith in inches ftr_wt=(ftr_w*ftr_h/144.0*150) #footer weight in pounds wall_wt=685.0 # 9'-4" CMU wall weight with 3 course stem wall (MOL) plf = (wall_wt+ftr_wt+(_area * _roofTL)).round(1) psf=(plf / (ftr_w / 12.0)).round(1) str="Roof Load "+ _area.round(1).to_s + "x" + $roof_tl.to_s + " TL="\ + (_area.round(1)*$roof_tl).to_s + " PLF" \ + "\nCMU Wall #{wall_wt.round(0)} PLF\n16x8 Foundation 133.4 PLF\n" \ + plf.to_s + " PLF TL on Soil\n" + psf.to_s + " PSF Soil Load"

That's odd, the OP said a SQUARE plan. There are no ridges in a square plan unless two opposite side has a different roof pitch. So are you trying to put a ridge vent on a Hip Ridge?

I thought there were potential issues when you have two copies of the same schedule?

Thanks Joe. I just got back to this & have the text Macro as you pointed out. See attached How do you incorporate the "Roof TL" into the area_40 macro? "Roof TL" macro value is 40 with no other text

So there is no way to control the display accuracy/rounding of this tool separately from the active Annotation Set / Dimension Set?

As an aside see attached beam design for BE2. It illustrates the flaw in the area method. The Bearing load is higher due to the asymmetrical loading of that beam with the girder truss. Krutsinger BE2.pdf

Just to expand on the example of snaps needed as I work my way through the porch beam loads. I needed 4 Dim snaps and they are measuring the beam spans.

Way too much work IMO. I just draw extra lines in plan & then delete them but that would not be necessary with the DIM Snap

I give it a go tomorrow. Thanks Joe.

Thanks Joe. My work is just in the text object & no real macro on my part because I'm clueless. See attached Using Your AreaPline macro for the area which is area.round(1). My macro is just a value of 40 I don't know how to multiply them in Ruby. Having only a 2 day work week this week but will return this weekend so I can explore Ruby further then. I just thought it would be a simple procedure for someone familiar with Ruby. The equation would be something like (%AreaPline%*%Roof TL%) Thanks again.

Thanks fellas, Yes I have joe's macro & no size info. The 8.375" refers to the stem wall thickness as the foundation is 16x8 I will add a request to Chief.

The Roof TL is entered into a text macro I created with a value of 40 (20# DL & 20# LL per sq ft) Yes the area of the poly would return with the use of %AreaPline% Yes again as the equation is (%AreaPline%*%Roof TL%) I beg to differ Joe, the conventionally framed hip is more complex but a Hip Truss Assembly load is more like the polygon shown. The only flaw if you will is that the beam load carrying the girder truss creates a point load the is not quite evenly distributed on the Beam. But the COLUMN load is very close to real. If it was conventional framing the HIP Truss load is like the picture in this post and the column load is P plus the adjoining triangles. Ignore framing in the picture below.

Automated Foundation Size in a text? Might have asked this before but can't find it. I was trying to have a leader & text do display the Foundation Size from the foundation wall. Text like this CC Foundation 16x8 w/ 2 #5 rods Where 16 & 8 come from the wall, but I can't seem to find the foundation size. Also in the Foundation default only see one option for rebar number & size. The current house has at least 3 different foundation types and the number of rebar varies. And at times the size of the rebar may be different as well. Can it be that Chief only allows one foundation type setup for the entire house?

Trying to move more of my behind the seines work from ACAD to Chief and I guess I must learn Ruby. What I need is a simple macro calculation. In the text I have: Column Load %AreaPline% x%Roof TL%TL= 5896# The "Roof TL" is simply 40 in this case which I assume is a string 40. What is necessary to multiply %AreaPline% by %Roof TL% to get the total rounded to no decimals? Would someone show me an example of what is needed for that to happen? Or point me to an example someone posted? Thanks

Most often when I am doing framing I draw a rectangle to get the area of load. In that picture attached I need the middle of the beam SPAN. I use a dimension to measure the exact span needed for calculations & the I draw a rectangle from the middle of the span to the middle of the roof (in this case lower left of the rectangle). Then I stretch the rectangle on the dimension side to the roof edge & now have the area of load applied to the column. In my example the middle column is decorative.

I often use the middle of the dimension line to snap to in Autocad. Is there any way to snap to the midpoint of a dimension line? Right where the Dim text resides.

Thanks for the quick responses. I always forget the Symbol option. So I would need 3 symbols with different names, one for each column row. Then I can edit one symbol in that row and all will update to the correct size? Gotta run but will give it a try later this afternoon.

I have three groups of eight 8x8x16' steel columns in the plan. I know the height will change & maybe the size too. Wanting to be able to change one & have the rest change too I need them to be blocks. But making then out of Solids only Arch Blocks are created & they can not be edited like regular blocks. Am I stuck modifying all eight separately? This is one of three lines of columns & each line will be different shape & height.

Florida residential may use a prescriptive method to design the foundations but there are a lot of variables to consider. https://codes.iccsafe.org/public/document/FRC2017/chapter-4-foundations An engineer is a valuable asset in the structural end of things.

Sorry Joe I never thanked you for your advice. Your method works well. Thanks

Larry that's a nice start. Thanks for the tips, Mick. This one may be comped. I owe a colleague some payback so this may be an Excercise for me. Joe I'll give that a try this weekend.

Thanks for the input. Start has been postponed for a few days. Work overload.

OK I did find this https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00598/creating-a-post-and-beam-structure.html#perimeter But I thought I had seen a video years ago.

I need to create a 30'x60' Shelter 10' plate height and 6/12 asphalt roof. The attached pictures are of one I want to copy. Although much larger. Note that the post are set in about 4 feet from the drip line & where the slab will be. The ends are not treated like the side with respect to the post placement but I think you could do that method. So for me the trick is getting the roof framing to build correctly. There is no frame wall but a beam for the rafters to cut & sit on. Just thought I would throw it out there & see what to watch out for for framing to work correctly.