A few truss questions

[4ndrew]

Morning all,

Still pretty new to using HDP and having fun. In regard to trusses, there are a few things I'm trying to figure out. I'm imagining a large room (about 60' x 30') with a shed roof & cathedral ceiling. Pitch is 2:12.

 

 

1) I'm able to create trusses, but it seems they must be drawn manually. Is there a way to auto-generate trusses, with either automatically- or manually-chosen spacing?

 

2) Is there a way to show the top chord of the truss? I looked around but am not sure which setting might do this.

 

3) I set the default thickness to be 4", but it keeps drawing them at 1.5" thick. How can this be set to stick to the default dimensions?

 

4) In this image, the truss is disappearing into the ceiling on the left side. Can I lower the truss so that it meets the wall at the roof plane?

thanks!
 

[solver]

Have you reviewed the documentation on trusses available on the Home Designer web site, watched videos, searched the forum?

 

 

[4ndrew]

Yes, of course (documentation) - that's what I did to get to the image I posted. I followed this. I searched the forum.

 

FYI my process is typically searching before asking.

But like other research, there is a LOT to go through before finding (and in my case, not finding) an answer. And often, a partial answer.

 

Maybe I missed a step (I probably did) - I've gone through it a few times and will again. Since there are settings in different places that have an effect on this, I could have overlooked something basic.

 

And, maybe someone knows the answer(s)...

[DavidJPotter]

5 hours ago, 4ndrew said:

1) I'm able to create trusses, but it seems they must be drawn manually. Is there a way to auto-generate trusses, with either automatically- or manually-chosen spacing?

Automatically-NO. Since they are done manually, you can also control, manually their spacing

 

5 hours ago, 4ndrew said:

2) Is there a way to show the top chord of the truss? I looked around but am not sure which setting might do this.

Not sure what you mean by "showing the top cord" since the "top cord" is part of an truss once created

 

5 hours ago, 4ndrew said:

3) I set the default thickness to be 4", but it keeps drawing them at 1.5" thick. How can this be set to stick to the default dimensions?

There are default settings for Trusses found in "Edit - Default Settings - Framing - Trusses", where you can make default changes to resulting, manually created trusses

 

5 hours ago, 4ndrew said:

4) In this image, the truss is disappearing into the ceiling on the left side. Can I lower the truss so that it meets the wall at the roof plane?

thanks!

Not really, the way the truss tool is pre-programmed to function is to fill (with a created truss object) the void between the ceiling surface and the underside of the roof surface, so that would preclude manually raising or lowering a truss object

 

NOTE: as stated in your Reference Manual is a disclaimer by Chief Architect Inc. that Home Designer and Chief Architect software applications are NOT State Licensed Structural Engineers and are thus completely conceptual in nature. Software is not licensed as a valid Structural Engineering source. Thus any and all trusses you may create are purely conceptual in nature (just for show).

 

If you want a visual truss that you can control completely, then you would create one from soffits and sloped soffits to emulate the look of a decorative truss. This, compared to using the truss tool is rather laborious but can be done in Architectural and HD Pro (the key is the ability to create sloped soffits for the top cords and webbing) 

 

DJP

[solver]

Yes, you missed a step. -- right at the end.

 

The article would say if there are automated ways of doing this.

 

5 hours ago, 4ndrew said:

3) I set the default thickness to be 4", but it keeps drawing them at 1.5" thick. How can this be set to stick to the default dimensions?

 

There is no way to set the default thickness of a truss. Like the article shows, you create a single truss, make your changes, then copy it to other locations.

 

5 hours ago, 4ndrew said:

4) In this image, the truss is disappearing into the ceiling on the left side. Can I lower the truss so that it meets the wall at the roof plane?

 

Trusses build between the roof and ceiling. Adjust those 2 things, build your truss, then change them to show the truss as you like.

 

Read about the settings in the truss specification dialog like Force Rebuild

[4ndrew]

33 minutes ago, DavidJPotter said:

Automatically-NO. Since they are done manually, you can also control, manually their spacing

Ok, thanks

33 minutes ago, DavidJPotter said:

 

Not sure what you mean by "showing the top cord" since the "top cord" is part of an truss once created

In the image, the top chord is above the ceiling plane. I'd like to be able to see the top of the trusses, though I realize this means it would have to simulate the ceiling plane resting on top of the chord.

33 minutes ago, DavidJPotter said:

 

There are default settings for Trusses found in "Edit - Default Settings - Framing - Trusses", where you can make default changes to resulting, manually created trusses

Yes - that's what I did, but any trusses I create after setting the defaults, as noted, revert to 1.5" wide.

33 minutes ago, DavidJPotter said:

 

Not really, the way the truss tool is pre-programmed to function is to fill (with a created truss object) the void between the ceiling surface and the underside of the roof surface, so that would preclude manually raising or lowering a truss object

Hmm... sounds like I have some experimenting to do!

33 minutes ago, DavidJPotter said:

 

NOTE: as stated in your Reference Manual is a disclaimer by Chief Architect Inc. that Home Designer and Chief Architect software applications are NOT State Licensed Structural Engineers and are thus completely conceptual in nature. Software is not licensed as a valid Structural Engineering source. Thus any and all trusses you may create are purely conceptual in nature (just for show).

Thanks - yes, this is just for a visualization.

33 minutes ago, DavidJPotter said:

 

If you want a visual truss that you can control completely, then you would create one from soffits and sloped soffits to emulate the look of a decorative truss. This, compared to using the truss tool is rather laborious but can be done in Architectural and HD Pro (the key is the ability to create sloped soffits for the top cords and webbing) 

Thanks, will try that out.

33 minutes ago, DavidJPotter said:

 

DJP

 

[Jo_Ann]

 

 

[4ndrew]

1 minute ago, Jo_Ann said:

 

 

 Hi Jo_Ann... yes, saw that one... would rather not get into manual building

However if I did, I'd use a different program to build the geometry, then import.