Timber Frame Shop Drawings

[Anonymous]

I am working on a timber frame in AC9 and am having some trouble with generating shop drawings/cut sheets, for the valleys and jacks, for my shop to cut the frame. Modelling the frame is not the problem it is taking the model and using that information into cut sheets. I do have trouble with editing the valleys. I do not see a way to stretch the downhill end of the valley and then make the shape I want.

I am fully aware of FrameWright and have toyed with it. It seems to be a great Add-on, just not something I want/can tackle right now. I would like to be able to do what I am looking to do in AC9, alone.

I am looking for someone with some ideas or experience with this. This would include possibly hiring someone to help me, whether with drawings or consultation.

[Anonymous]

The world's best users are on this site.
People who will post a reply to the smallest ArchiCAD question.
And there is no reply to this question?

I am surprised.
I am even offering to pay someone for their help.

[Anonymous]

And there is no reply to this question?

I personally am not sure what you are asking and I would guess the lack of response is due to the same. Be very clear and concise on what you can't do and you might have better luck. Use a single example and include images to help clarify your problem.

[Rakela Raul]

http://www.mii.com/canada/

[Anonymous]

My original post seemed quite clear.

To cut a timber frame one needs absolutely accurate drawings, shop drawings. These shop drawings are 2d drawings. Drawings that I hand to very good carpenters who know nothing about ArchiCAD. To take a 3d model of a timber frame that has valleys and jacks, to name the difficult parts only, and everything is in a housing, meaning it extends into the Operator, to use an AC term, and convert that into line drawings is quite difficult.

I have not employed Solid Operations until the past several days and that is certainly, as many of you know, the trick. But it has got to be easier than what I have learned from the very poor description in the manual and then several days of experimentation. I have found that when their are more than one solid operations that touch, they conflict. But when you are looking at taking a timber with a shaped end that then goes into a housing... well, it's difficult.

I simply am asking if there is anyone who has experience in modeling a timber frame and then generating shop drawings from the model. I am willing to pay someone for their time. If someone has done this task, I am pretty sure they know exactly what I am talking about, even from my first post.

Once again, Framewright is available to do just what I am talking about. I am sure Framewright is a great add-on and I hope to emply it in the future. I do not have time to learn it. I have already paid dearly for AC. Quite frankly, AC should have the capacity, built-in out of the box, to do what Framewright does. AC should take a very serious look at, not only Framewright, but SketchUp. Not only for functionality, but for training.

[Anonymous]

My original post seemed quite clear.

It may seem clear to you, but it was not to me and I used to do a fair bit of work with log frames and produced shop drawings for custom homes throughout the west. Many readers of this forum may be quite proficient at using archicad, but very few are involved with timber frame construction. Realize that I only suggested why you got very little response to your initial post. Show what you have in your model (3d view) and an image of the finished shop drawing for a given element. Some techniques that are useful for this is looking at 3d views (using the internal engine), using the 2d marque, and copying 2d lines out of the 3d window.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Thanks, Mike. Not clear to me either.

Frankly, Baukunst, I would imagine you would pay more than the $300 cost of Framewright to come up with another solution. If FW does what you need, just buy it! If you cannot afford it, then you probably cannot afford to hire someone to help you... ($300 doesn't go very far for the questions you're asking.)

Some free help might be forthcoming here by recognizing what Mike is saying ... and realizing that you aren't talking with timber framers. If you post enough images for us to see what you need to model and what the shop drawing need to look like, then maybe we can help. To generate dimensioned shop drawings (rotate timbers into plan view) requires that the GDL objects be more sophisticated than those that AC has in its library ... so I really think you'll find yourself right back at Framewright...

The editable hotspots/etc in FW would save you all the time you're spending stretching and doing solid element operations...

Karl

[Steve Jepson]

baukunst wrote:
I simply am asking if there is anyone who has experience in modeling a timber frame and then generating shop drawings from the model.

How would your plans need to be different from shop drawings for typical stick framing? Any special joints would be referenced and shown in details right? Are there some specific questions you have about the process? Is it a question about how to tweak a specific object to look a certain way in 2D? Labeling? Special information you want to include in an interactive list(angle of the sidecuts, radius of curves, etc...)? You mentioned that you are having trouble adjusting valley jacks or something. What do you need to know? What would you like to do? What ever it is, ArchiCAD CAN do it.

With ArchiCAD you can even include a picture of the end treatments of your framing members next to the item in your material list. It could be a detail, hanger information, what ever you want. Anything is possible with ArchiCAD. I know it will do what every you want it to do.

To give us a quicky screen shot, you can click PrntScrn on you keyboard then Paste into almost any program. Even ArchiCAD.

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone for the replies.

I fully understand not everyone here is a timber framer. I was wanting to find out if there is someone out there that is a timber framer using AC. Or someone who is interested in helping me.

Framewright Pro version is actually $3,000.00. That almost doubles the cost of AC.

It is quite similar to stick framing details. Except, it is all visible, no gaps. Everything is in a housing. It is not face nailed to the adjoining member.

Steve or Karl, are available to have me send you my pln and talk on the phone about how to do this? I am more than glad to pay anyone for their time. This is what my original post intended, is there anyone who has experience in timber framing in AC? And would that person want to be hired to consult or help with the drawings.

[Rakela Raul]

Framewright Pro version is actually $3,000.00. That almost doubles the cost of AC

can the framewright pro developers provide this gentleman with a fully working copy of the software for a limited time??
im sure if he gets the job done he is a future positive buyer