Framing 101 - Plating a Valley


evergreen
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For illustration only, I am trying to plate my valley. See attached.

In the field, one way to construct a reversed gable is by doing a frame-over. In doing this, you plate the valley which receives the jack rafters . It seems as though CA ONLY constructs these valleys so the other roof members tie into a "valley rafter". Am I missing a tool/method that CA already offers, or is this a work around via p-solids? You can see my attempt falls short...hate to have to open AutoCAD to accomplish this...any feedback on this?

 

Also, did a camera view of this image and tried using "Save as thumbnail" but no DB opens and I am not sure where it is sent (if at all). What is the correct way to save thumbnail to attach in post?

This image was opened in a layout then exported.

post-82-0-59085700-1393198540_thumb.jpg

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I gotta say, only a 3D purist, and within that class of folk, the even-smaller class of purist, the 3D framing purist, would have a need for a lay-on valley sleeper.

 

Then there are those, rarer still, who want it beveled.  In 3D.  And textured to look exactly like #2 SPF, or SYP, or whatever.

 

Sadly, no, you won't get this in Chief.  But you can dream.  Short of that, and way too utilitarian perhaps, for your taste, you can show it in a CAD detail, and call it out on the roof framing plan with a nice dashed CAD line, to show the framing sub what to do.  He probably will never look at the drawing.  The ones I know wouldn't.

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I have seen roof planes used as well for the plate stock, but IMO that is a tough approach.  You also do not get the rafters cut to fit as your AC file shows.

 

Chief solids can provide the same thing as AC, but it is a tedious process.  I do it because I would rather spend the time building the model correctly than trying to clean up the drawings later.

 

There are issues that arrise when using any of these methods for 2D display over the supporting walls.

 

I would not rule out using AC if i were you.  Not because CA can't provide the end product, it just that the more complex the items are the more difficult it becomes due to Chiefs interface for working with solids.

 

I have a project coming up that will use serveral symbols created using solids in another application.  Other applications often not only provide a more user friendly interface for working with solids, they also have features that CA does not currently provide, and probably will not for some time to come.

 

If you are interested, let me know and I will try to post a few pix for you.

 

Edit:  Here is a jpg that shows the use of CA Solids in a project I did a while back.  This is the first attachment I have tried in the new forum, so I hope this works.

post-228-0-61358300-1393217953_thumb.jpg

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Thank you all for your input...

Randy, the video from Allen Brown is perfect, and what he did will works fine for me (without much effort)

Rod, what software did you use to create that solid?

Yeah, AutoCAD's 3D architecture is amazing. When creating this plate for example, you put the UCS in that roof plane and simply draw!

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All of the solids shown in the jpg I posted were done exclusively with Chief Architect.

No others in that view were done in any other software. There was an area where a timber frame was provided on a back deck area that was not shown. Like I mentioned before, sometimes even if it can be done in Chief, it is not always worth the time and effort when things get more complicated.

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Ok...

Question, when creating a new shape (within CA) like the valley plate mentioned above, what is best to use, slab?, p-solid?, primitives?, or something else (if there is a "something else")

I'm sure it depends of course on what is needed. If you can elaborate...

Thanks

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Use a 3D Box and set the angle to match the roof plane. Then move it into the proper elevation in a cross section veiw. From there you can rotate it to align with the valley. You just have to fiddle with it a bit to see how the settings in the dbx effect the orientation of the Box and which views you need to be in to work the the Solids. Not very intuitive, but you can do a lot of things with Chief's Solids if you are willing to wade through the process.

I cut the jack rafters 1 1/2" above the roof plane so I have something to align to. From there you can cut the ends off with other solids as reg'd. That is a quick and dirty rundown on the basic approach.

There are other methods to do this using solids. That is just the way I do it a lot of the time. Hope that helps.

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