I have found the whole program a lot of fun to use so far and watching all the videos has taught me a thing or two about Sketchup that I was not aware of.
Being a person in a hurry to do it the way I want to it. That is creating wall panels for a prefabrication system. I have found the multi-skin wall the closest to achieving the outcome. All I need is to be able to change the external wall to timber, not masonry and having external and internal walls different thickness. At the moment it does not like the changes I want to make. The other option is creating the walls separately. Which I have not tried yet
Below is one example of what I want
A lined internal wall - 90mm studs - 4.5mm ply brace - 40/50 thick insulated cavity - 70 thick external wall a membrane and 16mm UBIQ Renderboard. Both frames are tied together and have crane lifting points which a this point can placed manually. Each panel will include all Windows doors and services aleady at locating riser ducts with shortest paths to where they are required
Also look forward to supplied and installed prices (I have already worked these out) and imputing mass (for crainage)
As I have used a lot of CAD programs I have always used work arounds if a program does not want to do as I want it to
Thanks, Ian, can you send me a wall that you have drawn manually in Plusspec/ Sketchup and annotate that wall so I understand exactly what you require? , it may be able to be done if so I will take a look and make suggestions or possible changes to PlusSpec if required?
Can you do me a favour and contact any manufacturers that are not in plusSPec and let me know who they are. I will follow them up and see if they would like to be a default product. This will help all of our users and that is our main aim.
Modular construction is something we (plusSpec) do well, there are a few tricks to understand and a couple of workflow things, I will make a video on how to identify when you go over the maximum length that is available with a specific product. EG 90*45 max length is 6m in Australia and 2x4 is 18ft in the USA, there is a really easy way to distinguish this. I assume you have worked out how the scenes work? The following image shows a few tips. Are you using Cassette floors as well?
As you may know, the new version of Plusspec is coming soon and i know a lot of the functionality will be of assistance with modular, especially “add structure to wall” for lifting points. BTW are you simply adding an extra stud or two and flat strapping top and bottom plates and then drilling and placing a chain with D shackle or have you devised a special method? If it is proprietary please do not add it here. Send me an NDA if you need, I have a lot of experience in this that I am happy to help you with .
Ian, I did a quick video on how to control lengths of materials which is good for modular construction. It is uploading as I type, it will be available soon. https://youtu.be/b33Gkr07TSA, I hope it helps
On the detailing of the wall, I have now done several walls I will come back to you when I have done a bit more work. Also, I am one of the manufacturers
I found that I can not change the termite barrier on a wall. On multi-story building, I want to use RothoBlaas xylofon used for waterproofing, load bearing and soundproofing it sits between wall and floor/roof cassettes
In response to your termite barrier enquiry, have you tried creating a material for the RothoBlaas xylofon? To do this, click the ‘Create Material’ button under the field where the termite barrier is and follow the steps. There is a blue and white question mark that will take you to some tutorials that are related to creating materials. Please note that you will need to create or find an image to use for the material.
Would you be able to please let me know if this fixes the issue you’re having?
Hi
Further to the post, I also have a problem with creating walls.
I have a wall that requires – 90 mm studs, 3 x 45mm horizontal battens with insulation in between the battens and an outer fibre cement (or foam) cladding. At the moment my solution is to use the “lightweight framed with cladding” wall and have a 45mm cavity. This works on the drawing re the width but does not do the takeoffs quantities for the battens or the extra insulation. I would also like to draw various unit party walls such as Shaftliner party system, as well as others on the market. Again drawing them is ok with a cavity but the takeoffs do not show the material. Both these examples are industry standard walls and it would be great to be able to add them to the wall tool template as required. If this is not possible could Plus Spec add them when new wall systems are introduced?
We are looking at adding battens into the Wall Tool in the future but it hasn’t been confirmed yet on when this will be. What I would recommend to do is to use the new Beam Tool to add in the battens as this will then give a more accurate takeoff. I would strongly recommend to only do this after window and door locations have been confirmed to save you redrawing the battens.
Regarding party and other walls, we are looking at adding more type into the Wall Tool but there hasn’t been a date confirmed yet either. If you’re wanting to create a party wall, what I would suggest to try is to use the ‘Double Internal’ wall type with a large cavity size (go the the ‘Manual Overrides’ section of the Wall Tool dialog) and then use another wall type (either the ‘Solid Wall’ or ‘Internal Only’ would be my suggestion) and draw it in the cavity of the first wall.
Would you be able to please let me know if this works for you?
