With the new polyline and step tools (stemwall foundation) you will be able to create a foundation like this:



Each polyline segment will be able to be edited similar to the how you edit the outline of a stemwall or slab-on-grade foundation outline now.

Similar to the wall plugin the drawing direction will be counter clockwise in order to face the exterior of the stemwall to the outside.  This becomes important for anchor bolts, insulation, brick ledge, and joist pockets.

Each segment will be an independent assembly (group) that the user can simply move around (laterally and vertically) with the native tools.

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/64ad5502-ed0d-4975-b5ea-74ead46c449c/Multi-Step-Stemwall-Foundation

First look at the new Stemwall toolbar:



The three functions/tools are:

- Draw Polyline Stemwall
- Draw Interior Bearing
- Draw Stemwall Step

I've got quite a few icons now for this plugin and I'm still not entirely sold on my choice of icons/images for these toolbars but this is what I have for now.  I did try to create some 3D icons but at the resolution available for the toolbars it is very hard to create a legible 3D icon.

With regards to the step tool I also need some more information on how best to handle the footing rebar and the stemwall rebar for a step in the foundation.  I've examined a few details online as well as some of my own but additional feedback would be helpful.

Running my conceptual tools through their paces this morning.  Here is another example of a fairly complex multi-step stemwall foundation:



Note that the three different types of possible steps are represented in this model.

View model here:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/0c27a17e-3773-4dfa-8ae4-a1e90de4d73e/Test-Foundation-2

Also note that I will be providing for the ability to offset the footing from the end of the stemwall (both positive or negative) so that the user/designer can easily butt up against other foundation walls (ie. create T  or cross intersections, corner).

As I was working on this initial model/concept a couple of days ago my teenage son noticed that I spent most of the afternoon constructing the model and then adjusting it.  He thought that it was funny that I spent a couple of hours mucking around with the model and actually pointed that out to me.  Even though most of my time was spent pondering the model (rather than creating the model), he did have a point; it should only take a designer a few minutes to generate this type of foundation, and it should be relatively easy to do.  This is the goal of this new module, quick and effortless.

Sometimes you may have a situation like the one shown in the image below:



To allow for this I will include a start angle and end angle parameter so the ends of the polyline assembly can be adjusted to account for various intersections with other foundation elements.

I will also include a start and end footing offset so that the footing can be offset (neg or pos) from the stemwall at the ends.  Note that this offset dimension will always be measured perpendicular to the end face as shown.

I've been giving this new module some serious thought and I am hoping to get it right from the outset.  All of the menus will be advanced HTML menus and everything will be parametric and available in imperial or metric units.

Similar to the slab-on-grade foundation the polyline stemwall foundation will allow the user to specify brick ledges on a per edge/segment basis.  I will also setup a tool for joist pockets using the same template as the brick ledge tool.

The user will be able to toggle a polyline assembly left or right.  This will switch the direction of the interior/exterior which affects things like brick ledges, joist pockets, insulation and anchor bolts.

This new module is practically an entire rewrite of the original stemwall module (even though I will leave the original stemwall tools intact as they are), and will probably take me another week or two to complete.  As I'm digging into it, there is a significant amount of code to complete.

If you see a feature that you think I am missing or I should change something up please feel free to voice your opinion, now is the time to influence the direction of this development.

First look at the draw menu for the polyline stemwalls:



Only the Basic Options appear when all of the other options are toggled off.

Similar to the Wall plugin it will allow the user to draw a polyline section of foundation and then continue on and keep drawing more sections, updating settings as required.

Note the inclusion of the hide edges option in the updated menu.

Other options like brick ledges, joist pockets and openings will be on a per edge basis, so they do not appear in this menu or in the edit menu.

The basic template is now in place however I am still considering how to best terminate the tool while the user is picking points.  My thought is to terminate the picking process by having the user hit the Enter key.  Unlike the polygon method the user is not needing to return to the start point so there is no natural detection of when the user wants to terminate their picking of points.

Any thoughts on what the most intuitive method of handling this should be?

Footing offsets and mitering is now stable:



When the foundation outline is a closed loop the polyline tool will automatically close the stemwall foundation and draw it as if it were a closed polygon as shown above.

Version 1.3.4 - 08.01.2019
- Added the Stemwall Foundation toolbar and icons.
- Enabled the "Draw Polyline Stemwall" tool.
- Enabled footing offsets and mitering within the draw polyline stemwall tool/menu.

Note that the ability to edit polyline stemwalls is not yet active.  I am putting this out a bit earlier than I normally would so that users can give me additional feedback on the functionality and features.

Also note that to terminate your point selection process you depress the "Down Arrow" and not the Enter or Return key.  I would like to change this to the Enter key but I'm not quite there yet.

The polyline tool will only draw the concrete currently, all other additional options like rebar, anchor bolts, insulation, vents and joist pockets are currently not available.

Back in the saddle.

Looks like the rebar is now working for the polyline stemwall.  Lots of possible configurations so I've got to try and break it for a few more minutes to be sure it is 100% stable:



Anchor bolts are next.

Anchor bolts with rebar:



After an almost three week sabbatical it took me all of yesterday to just get back into the full swing of things and figure out where I left off.  It's good to be back laying down some serious code.

Developing these plugins has got to be the most satisfying job/business I've ever had.  Thank-you SketchUp for making all of this possible and more importantly thank-you to my many supporters and customers who continue to support my efforts, I will do my very best not to disappoint.

Frost protection for a polyline stemwall:



Note that the polyline tool allows the user to create not only polyline segments of stemwall foundations but also closed loops and single linear sections.  Making sure the code behind the scenes is flexible enough to handle all of this is a bit of a task but I think the end result will be very functional and efficient.

Foundation vents are now working for the polyline stemwall tool:



The next item of business is to create the edit menu and then check that all of the parametrics are working as advertised.  Once the edit functions are up and running I will release the next version and then begin working on the "Step" tool.

I've also been giving the interior bearing tool some thought and I think I will start with only two basic types (stud wall and posts & beams).  There are also quite a number of other variations that are commonly used such as steel posts etc... but I will wait until those are requested directly by the designers before diving into those.

I've also been giving brick ledges (and stemwalls) some thought and trying to come up with the most logical way of handling this type of construction.  Typically when a brick ledge is called out the stemwall is thickened however the rest of the segments within a foundation may not have brick ledges and will be a different thickness.  So brick ledges needs to be on a per wall segment basis.

Another item of interest is including more rebar when the stemwall is actually a full basement wall and also including vertical bars.  How deep does the rabbit hole go?   When it comes to full basements I will also need some tools for cutting windows and door as well as placing window and door hardware similar to the wall plugin.  Additionally if the user does cut an opening in the foundation wall the rebar must be adjusted to account for this opening.

I've also had a number of requests for CMU stemwalls rather than concrete.  In my opinion modeling of a CMU wall is no different than what I already have I just need to incorporate some fancy material application logic to make the solid look like CMU (similar to what I have done with the wall plugin).  I will enable a CMU option that will allow the user to create CMU stemwalls.

The basic edit function is up and running:



I'm quite pleased with the performance of the edit tool, it is very fast.

The last piece of the parametrics is the ability to edit the polyline that actually defines the foundation outline.  About a month ago I began to explore this problem and the necessary algorithm that will be required to do this: 

https://forums.sketchup.com/t/inputting-a-polyline-extracting-its-vertices/99776

I haven't arrived at a solution yet but I will begin to tackle this problem next.

Version 1.3.5 - 08.24.2019
- Enabled rebar, anchor bolts, insulation and vents for the "Draw Polyline Stemwall" tool.
- Enabled the "Edit Stemwall Assembly" function/menu for polyline stemwall foundations.
- Enabled the "Edit Stemwall Outline" function for polyline stemwall foundations.
- Added a "Hide Edges" option in the draw and edit menus for polyline stemwall foundations.

Note that the hide edges option only hides the edges of the concrete at the terminal ends of the stemwall and footing.  This feature will come in useful where the user is utilizing the upcoming stemwall step tool to adjoin sections of foundation together.



Checking end conditions with FPSF option enabled:



The next item to be addressed is the stemwall step tool that will work in tandem with the stemwall polyline tool just completed.  Being that this is a completely new feature there may be further refinements necessary or features that further improve the functionality.  Please send me any feedback via the forums or email.

After looking at various details (including some of my own) I am wondering if enabling an option to include a 4" DIA drain pipe along the footing might be of some interest.  Please let me know know your thoughts on this.  I haven't had too much call for it but I have often called one out in many of my own plans and drawings:



http://design.medeek.com/cad/autocad/STEMWALL_DETAIL.pdf

Version 1.3.6 - 08.25.2019
- Added a drain pipe option in the draw and edit menus for polyline stemwall foundations.
- Added a drain layer in the Global Settings under the "Layers" tab.
- Fixed a bug with the hide edges option with regards to closed loop polyline stemwall foundations.



** NOTE **

If you have previously installed the plugin and are upgrading to this latest version in order to utilize the new drain pipe feature please do the following action once you have installed Version 1.3.6:

1.) Click on the global settings tab.
2.) Click on the Layers tab within the Global Settings.

This action will initialize the "Drain Layer" for future use.  New installations of the plugin will automatically initialize the new layer when they enable the layers options for the first time.

**********

In order to help minimize the model size I've limited the drain pipe circle profile to 16 segments rather than the usual 24 segments.  Visually this seems to be the best compromise.

I've also added the option to draw the drain pipe as a simple solid or hollow as shown with the "Hollow Pipe" option.  By default this is set to "YES".

The drain pipe is positioned with its bottom level with the bottom of the footing.  Currently there is no vertical offset, but I'm not opposed to adding one if there is call for it.

The other parameters are fairly self explanatory.

Version 1.3.7 - 08.26.2019
- Added a drain pipe option in the draw and edit menus for rectangular and polygon slab-on-grade foundations.
- Increased the speed/performance of the drain pipe modeling method.



The smoothing routine I was using was a major slowdown/bottleneck so I have removed it for now.  I will need to experiment with an improved smoothing routine but for now it is not imperative, the pipe is a proper solid and group.

As you can see in the model there are some visible edges at each elbow, these can be removed by adjusting the smooth normals/soften coplanar options within the Soften Edges tool in the SketchUp Default Tray.

Working on the step tool this evening.  This one gets real interesting, lots of possible configurations even though it is a simple linear piece of foundation (ie. Top Step, Bottom Step, Double Step).

I haven't spent too much time looking at the rebar yet for a step but I'm starting to now and just wondering how everyone would like it drawn/configured.  I can terminate the rebar lengths at the step or I can extrude them along to follow the path of the step(s).  Any thoughts, cad drawings or details showing preferred rebar layout would be extremely helpful. 

I have enough tricks in coding toolbox now that I can pretty much make the rebar do anything you want, I just want to make it as realistic as possible without getting overly complicated.

Along that same vein I think I have the other advanced options figured out for a stemwall step:  Anchor Bolts, Vents, Insulation.  However, I don't know what I want to do with the drain pipe just yet.  Obviously it needs to transition from one height to another but what is the preferred way to model this?

After some serious head scratching and tossing around various parameters I've managed to boil it down to this:



Three different step configurations:  Top, Bottom, Double (see previous drawing for details)

The Double Step has three additional parameters as well as the option for the Ftg. transition.

As you can see it gets rather complicated, or at least appears so.  In actuality it is fairly simple once you understand what each parameter does.

First look at the wireframe preview for a stemwall step:



Tomorrow I start in earnest to code the concrete portion of the module now that all of the supporting infrastructure is in place.  Then from there it is rebar, anchor bolts etc...

Hopefully this module combined with the polyline stemwall module will give designers the flexibility they need in order to model any type of stemwall or basement foundation.

First look at a Type A (Top Step) concrete, with and without hidden edges:

First look at some bottom steps with 24" steps:



Notice that the optional footing transition has been toggled on. 

Now I just need to wrap up the concrete for the double step and then I'll release a new version so that everyone can test out this new feature.

Version 1.3.8 - 08.29.2019
- Enabled the "Draw Stemwall Step" tool with the following step types: Top, Bottom, Double.
- Enabled the "Edit Stemwall Step" function/menu for stemwall steps.
- Added a "Hide Edges" option in the draw and edit menus for stemwall steps.



Currently the other  options are not yet enabled (anchor bolts, rebar, insulation, vents, and drain pipe).  I will work on these this weekend and try to wrap up the stemwall step module by Monday.

After that I will put together the Interior Bearing tool and then move back to the Truss Plugin development for a while.  However, if there are specific requests for features or bug fixes I will continue to address those in the next few weeks.

This is kind of what I have in mind for the rebar for a top step:



Note the typical 3" clearance for the very top bar.  Also note how the other top bar extends beyond the step by 12".  I can provide another parameter that allows the user to specify the length of this lap/extension.

I apologize that the dimensions are so small in the image, I should have increased the text size to make it more readable.

The bottom step and double step would be similar.  Thoughts or a different rebar configuration?

For the drain pipe with a step I'm looking at three possible ways to model the vertical transition:



The first model just follows the concrete step and makes a vertical jump.

The second model transitions with a couple of 45 degree elbows.

The third makes a more gradual transition with 16" of lead in before beginning the slope.

Which is the preferred way to model the drain pipe?