Hello,
I am in the process of creating a custom wood parallel chord roof truss and am curious as to how some of the guru's on this site would approach this task. A little background on the task first.
So I had a project that had a fairly complex roof slope that sloped in 2 directions on each face. The framing was not perpendicular or parallel to either of the slopes. After trying to place the OOTB trusses and searching the interwebs for a truss family that I could manipulate the way that I needed to I was left with only 1 option to create the truss family myself. So the daunting task began with a generic model work plane based family. A few parameters and geometry and I was in business. Then another project came along with a similar roof design and with it some new roadblocks. Long story short the progression of the truss evolved slightly with each new project leading me up to my current task.
The concept of this custom parallel chord truss family is to provide a sense of familiarity for the end user to what they were used to seeing in ACAD details with parametric control of many graphical options. I know this breaks 1 of the Revit cardinal rules, "This is Revit not ACAD. Do not expect the same results as you normally would." Breaking this rule proved to be relatively easy using a sweep or extrusion with voids, at first, then creating the voids in the extrusion sketch to be controlled via parameters. Its the additional graphical options that are beginning to become a little much.
Now I am left with a list of options that aren't hard to create but with a sense that maybe the route I'm taking while creating this custom family might be longer than what it needs to be.
The options are as follows:
Control of the size of chord members. The top chord independently from the bottom and end chords.
Control of the angle for the vertical end chords so that they can be set perpendicular to the finish floor when the truss is sloped.
Optional outriggers that can vary in size or differ from the top chord.
A sliding web panel for use in mid point bearing details.
So after about the 4th time creating this truss I'm on path that seems like the family may become overweight with so many types.
Family types is where I'm really ending up with this, What I've got so far is
2x4 chord
2x4 chords w/ 2x6 top chords
2x4 chords w/ 2x8 top chords
2x4 chords w/ 2x10 top chords
etc.
This continues on with 2x6 through 2x10 chords and none of these include the outrigger options yet which if I continue down this route will grow that family even more.
Does anyone have a better solution or work flow that I could use to create a custom family for a parallel chord wood roof truss that will allow for options 2x4 - 2x10 for the top chord independently, the (2) end chords & bottom chord, and outriggers on both ends for all variations of the 2x members to be used?
I am in the process of creating a custom wood parallel chord roof truss and am curious as to how some of the guru's on this site would approach this task. A little background on the task first.
So I had a project that had a fairly complex roof slope that sloped in 2 directions on each face. The framing was not perpendicular or parallel to either of the slopes. After trying to place the OOTB trusses and searching the interwebs for a truss family that I could manipulate the way that I needed to I was left with only 1 option to create the truss family myself. So the daunting task began with a generic model work plane based family. A few parameters and geometry and I was in business. Then another project came along with a similar roof design and with it some new roadblocks. Long story short the progression of the truss evolved slightly with each new project leading me up to my current task.
The concept of this custom parallel chord truss family is to provide a sense of familiarity for the end user to what they were used to seeing in ACAD details with parametric control of many graphical options. I know this breaks 1 of the Revit cardinal rules, "This is Revit not ACAD. Do not expect the same results as you normally would." Breaking this rule proved to be relatively easy using a sweep or extrusion with voids, at first, then creating the voids in the extrusion sketch to be controlled via parameters. Its the additional graphical options that are beginning to become a little much.
Now I am left with a list of options that aren't hard to create but with a sense that maybe the route I'm taking while creating this custom family might be longer than what it needs to be.
The options are as follows:
Control of the size of chord members. The top chord independently from the bottom and end chords.
Control of the angle for the vertical end chords so that they can be set perpendicular to the finish floor when the truss is sloped.
Optional outriggers that can vary in size or differ from the top chord.
A sliding web panel for use in mid point bearing details.
So after about the 4th time creating this truss I'm on path that seems like the family may become overweight with so many types.
Family types is where I'm really ending up with this, What I've got so far is
2x4 chord
2x4 chords w/ 2x6 top chords
2x4 chords w/ 2x8 top chords
2x4 chords w/ 2x10 top chords
etc.
This continues on with 2x6 through 2x10 chords and none of these include the outrigger options yet which if I continue down this route will grow that family even more.
Does anyone have a better solution or work flow that I could use to create a custom family for a parallel chord wood roof truss that will allow for options 2x4 - 2x10 for the top chord independently, the (2) end chords & bottom chord, and outriggers on both ends for all variations of the 2x members to be used?
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