Easiest, quickest way to do a truss layout?

[still.james]

Does anyone have any tips on what is the easiest, quickest way do draw a truss plan?

(im used to autocad and drawing lines lol)

[dhurtubise]

Depends if you really need to model them or not. If you do you will need to create the truss family and array it. If not, simply put ... lines ;-)

[still.james]

i dont need to model as that will be done by the truss manufacturer, i will see what lines/arrays i can come up with :)

thanks

[dhurtubise]

If you plan on reusing, consider building an annotation family

[jmctamney]

Is there anyone in your office using Revt Structure? If so ask them to use the truss wizard to create it for you.

[still.james]

no one here uses structure, but that sounds like a good wizard to use!

at present i made a detail line component and im doing it that way.

[jmctamney]

I just finished a job that had some good sized trusses. The arch created an in place family. They drew the geometry (centerlines) and then extruded the shapes they needed (hss in this case) along those paths. Don;t know how quick it would be but it seems simple enough.

[Carlos GT]

I found a very interesting video about how to create a truss framing layout in revit. Go to dgcad.com, you will find a bunch of videos, then go to Revit 9 (detailing), then go to the lesson 4: detailing framing plans.
Basically they create a detail component family, simple truss or 1 ply, but this family could be changed to a 2 ply or 3 ply. Just remember this a 2d layout so this would help you just for the truss framing. By the way the video is free.

Good luck.

[still.james]

I found a very interesting video about how to create a truss framing layout in revit. Go to dgcad.com, you will find a bunch of videos, then go to Revit 9 (detailing), then go to the lesson 4: detailing framing plans.
Basically they create a detail component family, simple truss or 1 ply, but this family could be changed to a 2 ply or 3 ply. Just remember this a 2d layout so this would help you just for the truss framing. By the way the video is free.

Good luck.

cheers carlos, this is what i watched to and has helped no end!

i cant wait till im 100% on Revit and know it inside out.

[Motorcity]

You COULD try to make trusses out of a wall rather than investing time in making families. Make the wall the thickness of the truss member, edit the profile, cut voids and set your desired material to make some quick trusses. Array them as necessary.

[dhurtubise]

If you dont need the 3D data, just avoid over modelling.

[DoTheBIM]

This suggestion really depends on your workflow, but.... if you send your designs out of house for truss design/engineering/manufacturing, why not let the truss designer do that job and you just require that you get a dxf or dwg for yourself to reference into your planset. Like I said it depends on you workflow and requirements, but food for thought. We do our own truss design/manufacturing and we have software to do this that is much better than Revit for creating layouts (which will save a dwg/dxf) and I plan to link in our truss layout designs for inclusion in plans.

[peakprecisiondesign]

I use dgcad's multi-ply framing member to represent most of my trusses. Since I create the truss layout (the truss company changes it if necessary but after 10 years of designing roofs they rarely get changed) I sometimes model a truss or two for design purposes. In the past I've modified one of the ones that you can download to do this but it seems easier to just section the area, and create a quick in-place family for the truss (a lot easier to show how a vault is going to work). I really REALLY hope that future versions of RA will have the truss wizard that structure has.
In my opinion, residential home designers should know how to design a roof. I've listened to framers and truss companies complain about other people's house plans (with virtually impossible roofs) being thrown on their desks for them to solve. I believe this helps with the negative opinion these people have towards designers and architects in general. my 2 cents.

Cole