Entry Door Parametric Modeling

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Gwendolyn on June 17, 2017 at 7:51am

I'm unfamiliar with Sketchup and door design, but my overall impression of what you want to achieve is: yes, you can absolutely make a definition in Grasshopper that parametrically builds your door, such that changing a slider from 36 to 38 would affect the overall door width and the location/size of all the details as well. The bad news is that I estimate this type of definition to be pretty complicated to build, so you'll need some commitment. I suggest focusing on building one detail in Grasshopper at a time (getting very familiar with the Curve and Surface components in the process), and then figuring out later how to link them all together. Unfortunately, I don't know much about any tutorials (hopefully someone else can suggest some), but you always have these forums to fall back upon when you get stuck! Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Kim hauer on June 17, 2017 at 10:15am

Are you in the of door manufacturing.business ? 

If not I can't see why one needs to show the exact type of joint profile that connects the top rail to the side rail of the door. Why would a door schedule not be the proper place to list all the Door stuff ?
There is a small list of parts, contained in a door schedule, that a designer would submit with the working drawings, that is required to price a door assembly

door width
door height

door closer
door vents

door thickness
door number:
door swing: RH, LH, RHR, LHR
number of butts
material frame: HM or wood
material wood: HM HollowWD, SolidWD
fire rating:
threshold: Flush Alum.
astragal:
weather seals:
smoke door stop
hardware: lock, latch
a space to reference head, sill and jamb details

Permalink Reply by Valen Coble on June 17, 2017 at 11:28am

Yes, I manufacture custom doors. The drawings are both construction drawings for me to pull dimensions from and reference as I build, and to present to clients to accurately convey what they are commissioning. Not for pricing. Examples of final products at Coble Craft. I have building methods, or standards in place. Such as the depth of rabbet on my jamb, which also need to be parametric and capable of resizing to fit the spec'd rough opening. From there, I size the door to fit within the jamb, then I modify rail and stile widths to spec, and add mullions where needed (different widths nearly every order) equally spacing them using simple math. For example, I currently have an order using a 1/4" deep profile instead of 1/2" which regardless of profile shape, deems my system useless for creating cut lists.

Permalink Reply by Kim hauer on June 17, 2017 at 1:34pm

It looks like you did a lot of work already in SketchUp using its dynamic component interface. That interface also has a very solid menu driven system, behind it.
Grasshopper does not have such a menu system, it only does simple sliders. I would not throw out the baby with the bath water.

I would replicate you SketchUp component menu template, and make a table of varying component styles, you plan to use.
Or you could also learn the SketchUp Ruby API, which also has parametric capabilities.

Permalink Reply by Valen Coble on June 17, 2017 at 2:31pm

I'll look into Ruby. As far as replicating the Sketchup component menu template...is there any way to isolate the dynamic component file info so that I can copy and paste it to some extent? Or do you mean to simply write the equations down, and build a new dynamic component for every profile I intend to use, in the obvious manner?

Permalink Reply by Kim hauer on June 17, 2017 at 5:05pm

I would become a member of the https://sketchucation.com/forums/ after which I would head over to the Developers Forum, there you can ask questions about Ruby scripting.
A word of warning! Learning the Ruby API, is not even close to the easy drag and drop grasshopper components and wire connect interface.
In Ruby you have to write all the code, however there are many scripts from which you can do cut and paste code. and yes there is a way Ruby does interact with all dynamic component you have created in SketchUp

Each dynamic door component you created could be linked to a drop down list menu created in the main Ruby routine that runs from your main Door script.

If I made all this sound easy breezy.... its NOT, be prepared for a rigorous learning curve.

Permalink Reply by macuso on June 17, 2017 at 2:35pm

It will be also useful to have a definition to generate all the needed shop drawings for all the parts of the door. Personally I'm doing other kind of furniture design but the same principles I can apply into my projects.

Just discovered today a nice plugin for generating shop drawings in Sketchup. It would be nice to be able to do the same things in Grasshopper.