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.

[Ralph Wessel]

Steve wrote:
I think it's great that there is a add-on available specifically made for timber framing. I wish I could afford it. I have no doubt that is works better and faster than ArchiCAD alone.

Steve,

You've hit the nail on the head with that statement. Framers want CAD in order to make the design/documentation process better and faster. Otherwise there would not be any point buying a CAD system because craftsmen have done this very well for centuries without one.

I sometimes hear the same argument against ArchiCAD itself - why spend so much when I can buy 'whatsit-CAD-Lite' for $99.99? If you invest in ArchiCAD, you choose it because you want to maximise quality and efficiency. And that's also why our customers have also bought FrameWright. The cost of FrameWright is insignificant when set against the cost of learning how to program in GDL, use property objects, wrestle with the 'Calculate' menu, and work around the everyday hassles that will be repeated with every design change and every new project.

FrameWright wasn't designed according to what we thought framers might like. It is 100% developed to their requirements - to make ArchiCAD do everything they wanted quickly, easily, and accurately. That's why Graphisoft features it as a success story http://www.graphisoft.com/community/success_stories/oakframe.html

Steve wrote:
The pictures you posted do not show me anything I can not already do with ArchiCAD. ... Making ArchiCAD drawings and list for Timber Frame projects is no more difficult than for conventional stick framing. If anything, it is easier. It has so few parts.

Let's look at this another way - what would you say if ArchiCAD had no 2D rotate tool? It is still possible to produce the rotated image, so in theory we don't really need it. Every object could have a 'rotation' parameter like text does, but see what happens when you use it (refer to 2D ROTATION in the example image). You start out with some text (fig 1) and you want to rotate the whole selection by 45 degrees. But see what happens if you use the 'Text Block Angle' setting (fig 2) as opposed to the rotation tool (fig 3).

The same is true in 3D, only worse - especially when the rotation has to combine 2 planes (see the opening query for this subject http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=5906&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=). Refer to '3D ROTATION' to see what happens to a timber selection (fig 1 & 2) when I try to rotate it by a parameter alone (fig 3) as opposed to using the FrameWright 3D rotation (fig 4). Note also that an example like this is very easy to edit from an orthogonal viewpoint, but extremely difficult in 3D (consider the placement of the curved braces or defining the cut plane for the scarf joints).

Then consider the assembly in context (FRAMING). If you look carefully you will note curved braces, cambered tie beams, tapered rafters, and more. This would be very challenging to model in ArchiCAD alone, but can be easily assembled with FrameWright by users who only know the basics of CAD. And this is what they want - they want to be framing experts, not computer experts. Grappling with GDL, property objects, databases, etc, etc. simply wastes time and energy.

I also produced an example in my previous post in which rectilinear piece of timber is repeatedly cut and rotated. That process took a matter of seconds, required no new or intermediate objects to produce (and no associated SEO objects), resulted in a single object which is still the basic rectilinear type and knows its precise pitch, swivel, and length/width/depth along its own axis, maintains the correct texture direction, and has snappable hotspots on every vertex. You cannot replicate this process in ArchiCAD alone. Why else would 3D rotation keep appearing in the wish list?

And if the user only needs the geometric tools, they can buy FrameWright at $300. The higher priced FrameWright Pro is for professional framers who need to price, order, cut, and assemble the timber into a building. It takes complex issues like the extra length for jointing into account when calculating cutting lists, automatically assigns and maintains timber numbering for cutting lists, and more. These are time-intensive to do manually and becomes crippling if there are design changes. The objects, tools, and processes we developed for FrameWright provide an essential, professional solution that has become a valued component of our users' business.