Siding Tool
Draw the siding on an elevation, cut out the windows and doors, and DimSum counts the net square feet, the squares and the pieces of siding from the type's exposure and piece length, plus the starter strip, corners and channels on the edges you click.
Overview
The Siding Tool is an Area tool for elevation pages. You trace a wall face on the elevation, cut out its windows and doors, and it gives you:
- Area: the square feet of siding, net of the cutouts.
- Squares: the area ÷ 100.
- Pieces: how many lengths of siding to order, worked out from the exposure and piece length of its type, plus waste.
- Edge members you click, like a joist area's rim edges: Starter Strip (on the bottom edge from the start), Outside Corner, Inside Corner, J-Channel, F-Channel and Trim Board.
Like every tool it is an assembly: a base with members, and types found in the Assemblies table by its Custom Properties.
Where to find it
- The top row: Siding, key 8 (rebindable in System Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts).
- The Tools panel: DimSum Defaults → Exterior → Siding Tool (Default templates).
- Elevation pages live in the Project Tree's Elevations group (Plan Levels).
How to use it
Draw siding on an elevation
- Open the elevation page and press 8 (or click Siding on the top row).
- Answer its form: Siding (Lap or Panel) and Siding Material (Vinyl, Fiber Cement or Wood) find the type; Waste % (10%) is asked with them. It starts at Lap and Vinyl.
- Click round the wall face, as with any Area tool, and finish the shape.
- Draw each window and door as a cutout. The area drops by each one.
- The siding counts show in Properties and on the Estimating tab, with the edge members listed under the siding item.
- Drawn inside an elevation region, the item takes that region's Side and Direction:
{Item > Side}reads Front,{Item > Direction}reads S (on the Maple Ridge demo set's A4.0 Exterior Elevations, the front elevation faces south and the rear north). - Drawn anywhere else, it still counts; its Side and Direction are blank.
The types
The Siding Tool's Siding (Lap or Panel) and Siding Material (Vinyl, Fiber Cement, Wood) properties search the Assemblies table for its type, the way every tool's Custom Properties do (Assemblies). Properties' Assembly Type row reads Fiber Cement Lap Siding · found by Siding, Siding Material, with Open type. DimSum Defaults ships three types:
| Type | Siding | Siding Material | Exposure | Piece length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vinyl Lap Siding | Lap | Vinyl | 4 1/2" | 12' |
| Fiber Cement Lap Siding | Lap | Fiber Cement | 7" | 12' |
| 4x8 Panel Siding | Panel | (blank: any) | 48" (the panel's width) | 8' |
- Exposure and Piece Length are the Siding Tool's own properties, worked out from the same two answers: a lap's exposure by material (Vinyl 4 1/2", Fiber Cement 7", Wood 6") in 12' pieces; a panel 48" × 8'. Pieces reads them.
- Change Siding Material and the item swaps to the other type in place, in one Undo: Fiber Cement to Vinyl takes the 330 sf face below from 52 pieces to 81; Area and Squares don't change.
- Lap + Wood has no type in DimSum Defaults: the row reads No type matches, Needs attention says which values it searched with, and the item keeps the tool's own members and still counts.
- When more than one type matches, the first in the table is used and Properties says so (2 types match — the first is used).
- Make your own types in the Assemblies table: copy the tool to a folder of your own, and its types come with it.
- The six edge members are the Siding Tool's own, shared by every type (the three siding types carry none of their own), so switching Vinyl to Fiber Cement keeps them and the edges you picked. A member you add to your copy of the tool goes on every type; a type's member with the same name replaces it, or turns it off when it's Off on the type.
What it counts
| Count | How it's worked out |
|---|---|
| Area (sf) | The face you drew, less the cutouts |
| Squares | Area ÷ 100 |
| Pieces | ROUNDUP(Area × (1 + Waste %) ÷ (Exposure × Piece Length), 0) |
| Waste % | 10% to start |
Worked example. A wall face 40' × 9' with two windows, each 3' × 5', in Fiber Cement Lap Siding (7" exposure, 12' pieces):
| Gross | 40' × 9' = 360 sf |
| Cutouts | 2 × (3' × 5') = 30 sf |
| Area | 360 − 30 = 330 sf |
| Squares | 330 ÷ 100 = 3.30 |
| One piece covers | 7" × 12' = 7 sf |
| Pieces | ROUNDUP(330 × 1.10 ÷ 7, 0) = ROUNDUP(51.86, 0) = 52 |
| Starter Strip | the bottom edge, on its own: 40' |
| The same face in Vinyl Lap Siding (4 1/2") | ROUNDUP(330 × 1.10 ÷ 4.5, 0) = 81 pieces |
Click the edge members
The edge members are clicked on the item's edges, like a joist area's rim edges. Each stands Upright on its edge. The Starter Strip starts on the bottom edge (its Edges setting reads Bottom edge: the outline's lowest edge on the page, and any edge in line with it, never a cutout's), so it counts as soon as you draw; the others go only on the edges you pick, so they count nothing until you click their edges. Each has its own pick:
| Member | Starts on | Pick its edges with |
|---|---|---|
| Starter Strip | The bottom edge, on its own (Bottom edge) | Starter edges… (to add or take off edges) |
| Outside Corner | Edges you pick | Corner edges… |
| Inside Corner | Edges you pick | Corner edges… |
| J-Channel | Edges you pick | J-Channel edges… |
| F-Channel | Edges you pick | F-Channel edges… |
| Trim Board | Edges you pick | Trim edges… |
- Select the siding item.
- Click the pick on the framing bar (it shows for a Siding item: Starter edges…, Corner edges…, J-Channel edges…, F-Channel edges…, Trim edges…).
- Click the edges that member runs along: the outside corners, round a window cutout, under the soffit.
- Each member counts the length of its own edges.
- Two members on one edge is fine. Each member's edges are its own, so Trim Board and J-Channel can both run round the same window: round a 3' × 5' cutout each counts 16'.
- Corner edges… on the 40' × 9' face's two short sides gives Outside Corner 18'.
What belongs on the wall, not the siding
- House Wrap goes on the wall: it's an Add-in for the wall's sheathing face (Assemblies, Wall tools), not on the Siding Tool by default.
- Siding stands alone on the elevation in 0.5.420. It isn't linked to the walls on the plan yet.
What's not in it yet
- Siding linked to the walls behind it, and its place in 3D from the elevation region's alignment (stored and shown only, in 0.5.420): later.
- The older elevation design (an Elevation Face line drawn on the plan, Face Align with a known elevation line, 3D face planes): later (Elevation Faces).
Related features
- Plan Levels → The Elevations group
- Assemblies: types, the Assemblies table, Add-ins
- Default templates: the DimSum Defaults shelf and the top row
- Area & Pitched Area tools: drawing areas and cutouts
- Wall tools
