Energy Heel Trusses for Hipped Roof

[LevisL]

1 hour ago, JonathanWilliams said:

Getting the Girders and diagonals correct is a challenge and if any are off then some of the jacks then generate as cantilevers rather than raised heels.

 

In cases like this, it can be tricky to get the diagonals and small jacks to behave like you want, so it's often quicker to just draw cad boxes/polylines on the framing plan and be done with it! Especially if there's no section cutting through that area. That's what I did here. Most of the trusses are actual trusses in Chief, but the hip corner is just cad boxes on the truss layer and nobody can tell the difference!

[SNestor]

18 hours ago, JonathanWilliams said:

I missed that response with the video, just watched it. Thanks. I didn't know Chief would create hipped trusses to match the roof plane. I had previously watched a Chief video where they did that process with a gable roof and when they used the multiple copy tool it created identical trusses. I assumed it wouldn't change each truss as I copied. 

 

So I deleted the roof framing and tried this and it works pretty well. Getting the Girders and diagonals correct is a challenge and if any are off then some of the jacks then generate as cantilevers rather than raised heels. 

 

Thanks for your help.

 

 

Jonathon - the key to get Chief to build an energy heel is to enter a positive "raise off plate" value in the "build roof" dialogue box...of at least 7". Otherwise...you will not get an energy heel truss. 

 

[Alaskan_Son]

4 hours ago, SNestor said:

 

Jonathon - the key to get Chief to build an energy heel is to enter a positive "raise off plate" value in the "build roof" dialogue box...of at least 7". Otherwise...you will not get an energy heel truss. 

 

 

That 7" is dependent not only on the roof pitch as stated in the Help files but also on the size of the top and bottom chord of the truss.  For example, using a 2x4 top and bottom chord and an 8:12 pitch that works just fine but not so much if you switch to 2x6 top and bottom chords. 

 

At any rate, it doesn't really matter what the parameters need to be in order to automatically get an energy heel truss.  I can't just raise my roof up 7" to get the energy heel if that's not how we're actually building it.  I need to model it accurately and Chief won't automatically build an energy heel for some of our most common scenarios.  So, here's what I always recommend for most of those common truss configurations that Chief won't do on its own:

 

• Build all your trusses as usual setting the appropriate trusses to be Energy Heels...

• Group select at least all the energy heel trusses, change top and bottom chords to a very small dimension (1" should probably do it), check Force Truss Rebuild, and click Okay...

• With the trusses still selected, open them right back up, check Lock Truss Envelope, change your top and bottom chord back to what they should be, check Force Truss Rebuild, and click Okay...



 

 

[SNestor]

@Alaskan_Son - nice tip.
 

Take mouse...beat Chief into submission. 

[SH_Canada]

On 4/14/2021 at 2:23 PM, Michael_Gia said:

I just let my truss manufacturer send me back their drawings which I then forward to the city so they have them on file.

 

Isn't that what everyone does?

 

For parallel trusses with a ridge beam I show the detail of the connection on a section. I refer to the truss package date in the comments. For other trusses "Trusses for illustration purposes only. Actual Trusses to be supplied by 3rd party.

 

I like to see a truss in a section, even if it is only one.