Funky Framing

As I'm sure you probably know, you can use a roof or slab as a layout plane for your roof framing. This makes sloped framing a breeze. If the warping is simple, it still works. But what if your roof looks something like this-

Pretty tricky, right. The beams will have to curve and slope, and there's just no easy way to figure it out. Thanks to the Fall 2010 edition of AUGI/AEC Edge, I know how to now.

Step 1 -Define the surface. Hopefully, there's an in-place mass. If not, you need to create one that will match the surface.


Step 2- Host a wall on the curvy surface.


Step 3- Draw vertical walls that intersect the curvy wall. The face of the vertical wall should be aligned with the center of the beam you wish to model. Join the curvy wall to the vertical walls. it Should now look like this (with the roof and mass hidden)-

Step 4- Where the walls have joined, notice that there is a section cut out that has created an intersection face. We'll now use these intersection faces as a guide to frame the girders. Create a beam using the pick lines option (with 3d snapping turned on) by selecting the intersection faces.

Step 5 - Repeat Step 3 and 4 for beams in the opposite direction. Note that you may need to move some of the walls bac and forth to get the intersection faces correct.

Step 6- Add Columns as needed.

It won't always work if the surface is just too complex. This would have to be done with extruded masses along a spline. But this should work for the majority of cases you come across.