I’m working with several other people this week building an odd shaped piece onto a golf clubhouse and the roof is kinda time to finish. We haven’t started it yet but tomorrow one of us will be figuring out the materials list for the two roofs.
Some person drawed up on computer, the floor plan but never had the “proper” computer program to design and print out some kind of 3-D pictures to show how each roof member was gonna’ go into place. One of us wondered today on breaktime what would be a good software program that could show you how each of the rafters, etc. of the roof would go together. I told the guys that I’d post something on here to see what all of you have to say.
It’s nice to have some kinda print outs from a computer to show everyone on site, espicially the apprentices, just how things are gonna fit together. It gives everyone an idea about how the roof will look.
Anyways, what kinda programs are out there to do such 3-D drawings?
Paul
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Not to blow you off, but have you tried a search on this yet? There are many previous discussions on this.
“The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds..” – Hume
Google Sketchup - free download. Some find it fairly intuitive and easy to learn.
you don't have the time or money for anything else at this point in time.
Have you ever done any unique roof framing? the program is just a tool, not a brain.
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Some find it fairly intuitive and easy to learn.
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Google SketchUp has already been mentioned as a good program to draw the framing plan in 3D. However it sounds like you want a program to design the framing members correctly, i.e. the correct size, and then draw a plan which shows all the members in a plan view and/or a 3D view. SketchUp will not do that. It has no more knowledge of wood framing than the person using the program. If you need a design level framing and drawing program they are priced accordingly. I am not sure that Softplan or Chief Architect will actually design the framing that they show. Please somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
Back to Google SketchUp, I recommend that you look at the book, 3D Construction Modeling by Dennis Fukai, published by Insitebuilders.com. This book will help you learn all the features of SketchUp to produce accurately framed 3D model drawings.
HTH, Jim
SU will do that. Members here have posted numberous drawings demonstrating this. If you want a rafter that is 1-1/2" x 7-1/4" at 33.5°, that is what you draw.what it does not do is tell the guy how to place it or where. He has to know something about framing roofs to start with.
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To Piffin, Gene Davis, and others
I'm sorry I wasn't more clear in what I was saying. I think that we all agree that SketchUp will draw almost any layout in 3D that one could want.
But only if the person using the program already knows what the correct and minimum size, spacing, material and length of each member in the roof needs to be and they correctly tells the program how everything fits together. SketchUp will let you draw an entire house built out of 1 x 2's or match sticks if that is what you enter.
It seemed to me that the OP wanted a program that would draw a 3D drawing of all the roof members and make sure they were of sufficient size and spacing to do the job. SketchUp will not help you size the members, it will draw the correct size if you tell it to.
Again I apologize for not being clearer in my first posting.
HTH, Jim
yeah, I'm agreeing there. SP will let yopu draw anything you want too, but the brain still is in the human body.I also got the impression this guy thought some program could just spit something out woithout his spending a couple of weeks learning how to use the programe
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I've downloaded rubyscripts and loaded them into Sketchup to soup it up.
Now it sizes all my framing members, models my structures without any input from me, and phones for Chinese takeout. ;-)
But will it make pasta?
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
"Google SketchUp has already been mentioned as a good program to draw the framing plan in 3D. However it sounds like you want a program to design the framing members correctly, i.e. the correct size, and then draw a plan which shows all the members in a plan view and/or a 3D view. SketchUp will not do that."
I beg your pardon.
Everything you see here can be cut right from dimensions and angles SU will give me.
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If you want a program to get a feel of the 3d, the visual weight, etc.. for design purposes then google sketchup is free and pretty fast and easy.
but to me it sounds like you want a program which you can draw a 3d shape and it can show you how to frame it. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but nothing like that exists.
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--> measure once / scribble several lines / spend some time figuring out wich scribble / cut the wrong line / get mad
Chief will draw correct framing.. if you build the model corredctly.. it takes extra time to get all the framing members exactly as they should be... IE: you usually have to do editing
the great thing about a program like Chief is that it is reality based... it will only draw what the designer tells it to draw ( even if one doesn't know the correct commands to tell it )
it can't bend planes.. so the roof planes wind up landing just where you tell them to
i found it easy to fudge complicated roofs on a drawing board... but you can't fudge them in CAD
even so.... the designer is still the one who is going to size the framing members, who's going to determine where the intersections should occur, who's going to check the clearances, who decides what heel to use... where to change the pitch in a breaking roof....
i know Chief has all the roof tools you need to correctly draw a roof... having all the skills it takes to use those tools doesn't get shaken out of a box
the program will still only draw what you tell it to draw.. the benefit is.. you can actually draw something ( correctly ) and it will all fit together in the field..
now.. all of this takes time.. and your field measurements have to be correct..
sometimes it is just faster to get a concept roof down and go out and frame it... but again... having all the tools you need to frame it, doesn't mean one knows how to correctly use them
basic answer.... Chief, Softplan, Vectorworks,Acad, Sketchup... they can all design your roof... with the right CAD jockey in the saddle Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Design your roof does not equal correctly size your structural members. It sounds to me that's also what the original question meant.
joe... i think the OP knows how to frame it.. he doesn't know how to draw it so a neophyte ( sic ? ) can visualize before they build it
do you use BeamChek ?Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
AH! i stand corrected. i might have to look at that piece of software.______________________________________________
--> measure once / scribble several lines / spend some time figuring out wich scribble / cut the wrong line / get mad
So Paul,
Got that roof framed yet?
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No sorry, the weather up here in Eastern Canada is BAD lately. We just finished up the last two walls today. Monday we start the roof.
Paul