My cabin will have scissor trusses. Yet I am unsure if I can use 2×10 or even 2×8 for the design, I live in the North east and I am not a engineer to actually figure out the the design, I have attached a pic of the truss I hope to use. Can anyone help? Also can the vertical and horizontal post be a smaller seize timber or should it be the same?
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This really calls for an engineer. Either a site-specific design for you to use in building, or an engineered-to-specification truss from a place that makes them.
Engineering analysis would start with the wall spacing, design loads, and consider the grade, cross dimensions, and length of all elements, as well as specific joining methods of all the elements.
your lumber supplier can order trusses build to your needs and have them delivered.
you should send your plans to a truss company. they do the engineering and manufacture the trusses for you. it's much faster, is engineered, meets code, a lot cheaper if you're counting all the cost including your labor, and if something happens you have warranties and insurance via the truss company.
the chords of most trusses are either 2x4 or 2x6
You also can consider rafter span tables, and rely primarily on the rafter.
Then the rest of the structure is purely cosmetic.
If you can extend the tie all the way to the rafter, the calculations are pretty simple.
for a 10 ft span (half of a 20 ft wide building), there are several choices which would let you choose 2x8 or 2x10.