Please help on custom rafter family...

[Kroke]

I'm having all kinds of troubles making a custom rafter under the "Structural Framing - Beams and Braces.rft" template.

Here is a screeny of what I'm trying to do, it's a 4x12 rafter with a notched end. I intend on making refrence planes and 'drawing them' in plan view to be dropped in at the appropriate reference. I have done similar beams/rafters, they seem to work with 12x12's etc, but I can't seem to get this to work in my roofs for some reason.

Or, perhaps I'm going about this whole process in a wrong way, what's the best way to make a family like this with custom notched ends so that I can create my structural timber roof system?

ANY HELP appriciated!

PS, Also, why when you 'draw' in the timber, doesn't it snap to anything? It would be nice if things snapped into place like linework so I knew it was being layed in perfectly....

Open to any suggestions at this point...thank you...
http://home.bendcable.com/draftsman/rafter.jpg

Here is the family as well, thank you!

[ita]

Kroke

You are not alone inthe quest for framing members. The attached rafter filke was my first attempt at a structural family member which I needed to complete a project. Although it is a metric family, it works - well sort of. It may give you a starting point to create an approach that we can all share.

It has a lot of limitations. For instance you will probaly need to construct two jack rafter families for when you trim the head or tail to meet a hip or valley rafter - that you will need to calculate the length and ensure that it mitres in the correct plane. I started these but thay are not finished yet - ran out of time.

I found that by using the xy axis of the front back plane as the springing point (to the wall plate toe) the you could change the pitch, span, tail overhang, set back for ridge width etc.

Hope this is a good starting point for you

[Steven Campbell]

Try this one...
Don't attach anything to the stick symbol ref planes. They are intended for the resizing of the course stick symbol line only and should not have any model geometry attached to them.

Steven Campbell
Autodesk Revit

[Kroke]

Steven and ita,
Thank you for the help! I don't mean to be rude for replying so late, I have been very busy and no time online. So thank you for the help I do appriciate it big time!

Thanks!

~Kroke