You can use one wall and a few beams, located in a separate layer. If you set correctly intersection priorities, you will get immediately holes where beams intersect the wall.
+ FOR
. Compared to SEO, no management needed
. When the beams layer is hidden you can watch the result.
. If you group walls and beams they all move together even if one of the layers is hidden
. When the beams layer is shown, in elevation you can move the beams and organize and/or align them
- AGAINST
. Like SEO, there is no real plan view display. Any way a workaround can help : leave a row of beams on a visible layer, it will show holes contour, and stay linked to the real model