DESIGNING A HOUSE WITH ICF

To all & PLUSSPEC HQ,

A new project has come into the office & was considering to use PLUSSPEC for the entire drawing process rather than my other CAD software. I confess to have owned a copy of PLUSSPEC since it was originally released & kept it up to date, but only played with it now & then & not for real projects. Anyway the project is a new dwelling using an ICF building form, the product in question is called DURISOL, see website link for further info durisoluk.com/ & file attachment if this works…ahhhh … no pdf’s allowed… :frowning:

The new dwelling will be designed with one of their 365mm wide blocks for the external walls & the 170mm wide blocks for the inner walls. The external finishes in part will be a cut type cladding stone veneer on the ground floor on some elevations, but mostly render & render to the first floor levels. The inside will be a typical GYPROC-WALLBOARD plasterboard on dabs or 50x38mm service battens. I guess my main question is, how much or little detail is advised (or possible) to be drawn with PLUSSPEC with regards to this block plan wall profile, would it be just two lines for the plan main block widths, or could the block plan profile be drawn in more detail with its profile hollow core/with concrete fill & insulation.

From the PLUSSPEC videos I’ve seen to date, it suggests just line work (no block profile) would be the route to take & the block profiles can be executed in larger scale details. I perhaps could just model a single block profile in SU & use this for the details. If just line work for plans (1:50) then I’d think I’d add the external & internal lines for the finishes as part of this wall form.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Over & out,
CJT50.

I think I am reading your post correctly? You want each individual block drawn? I would not recommend this type of detail unless you are simply doing a vignette just as a detail in Layout like this https://3dlibrary.rubysketch.com/entries/pronto-panel-3d-residential-detail or this https://3dlibrary.rubysketch.com/entries/double-brick.

PlusSpec and Sketchup will do more than you would think, we have some users doing projects up to $70 million which is amazing, however, it isn’t what PlusSpec was designed for. It is great to see many getting the advantages in the commercial world. I must say that the main reason PlusSpec/Sketchup slows up is due to imported components, DWGs or imagery. High-resolution photos and textures are not recommended in any 3D or 2D cad programs including Revit, Archicad or Vectorworks, yes, it can be done, but that does it mean it should be done.

I looked at the link you provided yet there are several products and many images, we would love to have their products available if you can be clear on what you need, send them and us and email, and we will get right on it. If you could screenshot the PDF or add it to a zipped folder, we can take a closer look.

BTW we have been and continue to work on battening walls. In the interim use the beam tool.

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the reply, most appreciated, I think I answered my own question the more I thought it through & by looking a various videos of PLUSSPEC as I wrote, this you’ve now confirmed. So yes, as you say, just use multi-lines for this wall type for 1:50 scale plans & the detailed items can be done by modelling one 3D-block used multiple times for various small sections as various locations.

I take your point on high level of detail for construction plans not always being required to be drawn & slowing the system down, this comes across on your videos. However, although I agree to a certain extent, I always draw all the required lines for a particular wall type for the outline thickness. e.g. for a typical UK partial fill insulated 310mm wide cavity wall using conc. bl’wk on both inside & external leaves, rendered externally & dry lined on dabs inside with plasterboard, all those lines would be shown at 1:50 & the same for timber frame cavity walls, examples enclosed for both. These plans by the way were produced in a 2D CAD format programme.

The problem with most 3D CAD systems, as with PLUSSPEC, is being able to programme a software system to control the additional line work for dry-lining & external wall finishes as part of a 3D-wall type. If a software system can’t provide this, then theses extra details, whatever the user wants, should be able to be added on the saved view port image (or in LAYOUT) in 2D, as after all, this is the image we save out anyway to the final 2D flat plans. In this context, & rather than using SKETCHUP TOOLS, I can see an avenue for PLUSSPEC to have a set of really good 2D tools, quick & easy to use within SKETCHUP for drawing these embellishing items as part of the layered system. I sort of do this anyway, but SU tools aren’t really designed for this, there’s an extension just for drawing 2D flat lines which is fixed at ground level, so when you have your saved 3D view ready to go to layout, you can draw theses extra items on your plan or section. I know layout has these tools to do this as well, but I’d rather them linked to the plan at point of origin, as these can be accidentally moved in LAYOUT.

Yes DURISOL provide various block widths, these details can be freely downloaded, but I enclose the screen captured range anyway as suggested.

Looking through some of your videos, the one I think would be most useful to me under ADVANCED VIDEOS is called: Creating Composite Walls (walls with many layers) but says coming soon, do you know how soon & what you are planning for this video to show ? In the mean time would you recommend any other videos to look at.

Over & Out,
CJT50
1-50 plan example-01 B+BR.PNG
1-50 plan example-02 B+BR+TF.PNG
DURISOL BLOCK RANGE-01.PNG