False Rafter Tails

False Rafter Tails

payingtoomuch
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Message 1 of 18

False Rafter Tails

payingtoomuch
Collaborator
Collaborator

Looking to model some false rafter tails. With a custom profile. See this profile as continually needing to be updated. Thinking sketch the profile in section then load that profile into a family..... or something along those lines.

Have looked at various tutorials but most seem to be cumbersome for my needs.... these are "architectural" elements.

 

That being said in the process I stumbled on "structural material" families and found dimensional lumber. Yes, I'm relatively new to revit.... so thinking this was a good find for me down the road for detailing and such.

 

Because the 2x families are readily available had the idea that I could manipulate those families somehow and create a separate rafter tail family.

 

So, short question is, is there a way to manipulate the end (profile) of these 2x families?

 

Short of that, anyone have suggestions as to the best way to approach this?

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Message 2 of 18

Mike.FORM
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Are you saying you want to create something similar to these? Are you wanting it to be applied or a part of the actual rafters or are they separate decorative elements?

 

MikeFORM_1-1752094562240.png

 

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Message 3 of 18

payingtoomuch
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Exactly. For now just need to just be "architectural"/ decorative. Down the road would be nice to have a way to be a part of the actual rafters..... but that's a plus.

Thanks for the response.

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Message 4 of 18

Mike.FORM
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Accepted solution

Here is a quick face based family that just has a void in it that cuts the host. All you have to do is click the end of the beam at the bottom center.

It is saved as a Generic Model but you can change the category if you want. You can also make it more parametric so you have some control over the shape.

MikeFORM_0-1752151493418.png

 

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Message 5 of 18

payingtoomuch
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Thanks Mike. Much appreciated. Planning on diving into this today. Great that I have a place to start from!

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Message 6 of 18

payingtoomuch
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Going to show my ignorance here.

So, why does this need to be drawn as a void. Relatively new to creating families and have not worked with voids period yet.

Guess I was thinking that if I was going to be drawing a face based family that it would "look" like the actual element and not "carved" out of something else.

I note that under the "other" category in the family "cuts with voids when loaded" is selected. Not sure what this means either and wondering if this has anythig to do with this.

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Message 7 of 18

Mike.FORM
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Accepted solution

I have attached a version which adds the rafter tail onto the end. The issue is that you will see the lines of the connection point and you are not able to joint the 2 pieces.

MikeFORM_0-1752178118829.png

 

Also, I did it as a void so that you actual beam families can be drawn full length and then have material be removed, instead of having to stop your beams/framing short and then adding the extender on.

 

"cut with voids when loaded" does not need to be checked in this situation. That is used for families that have voids in them that do not already cut the host in the family. 

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Message 8 of 18

payingtoomuch
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Thanks Mike. Will take a look at this version as well!

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Message 9 of 18

payingtoomuch
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Collaborator

Wondering if this means anything to anybody.

It's a quote from someone in 2008 for the AUGI forum.\

 

"Actually in 2008, you create your rafter tail on the end of structural beams if your so inclined. You can create an opening on the beam and just draw a cut out for the end."

 

I'm not seeing a way to do this but thought someone here might have some idea as to what's being described here.

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Message 10 of 18

payingtoomuch
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Mike- Just finished inserting and working with the last family. Works great and is the general idea as to what I was hoping for!

Out of curiousity, which family did you start with to create this? Assuming a Generic Model (GM in your naming convention.... thinking about robbing that lol. Might be helpful down the road with knowing which family the family was created with in the tree.... or another purpose perhaps).

I'm wrestling with coming to terms with the potentially appropriate various Generic models I can choose from for these (and other similar items down the road.

These would be my options (I think) from the templates (hilighted). Have no idea what an "adaptive component" is for.... even after reading a little on it so forget that one for the time being probably.

 

payingtoomuch_0-1752196171364.png

 

But the others seem pretty straight forward.... with line based the least straight forward. But after reading looks like this would allow me to array an item along a line which might be useful (or a hindrance) on some level for these rafter tails and or rafters etc (I would think). Probably some limitations here though.

So really, if want to keep things relatively simple then thinking the decision would be between Face Based, Wall Based and Vanilla "Generic Model".

 

Curious as to your/ other's thoughts about these choices and why choose one over the other.

 

 

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Message 11 of 18

payingtoomuch
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@Mike.FORM wrote:

I have attached a version which adds the rafter tail onto the end. The issue is that you will see the lines of the connection point and you are not able to joint the 2 pieces.

MikeFORM_0-1752178118829.png

 

Also, I did it as a void so that you actual beam families can be drawn full length and then have material be removed, instead of having to stop your beams/framing short and then adding the extender on. That sounds like a cool solution and appropriate for what I'm doing as well. So, help me out here. You can model a shape and have it act as both a void and a "part"? Meaning, as you state it can be a void (cut out of something it is positioned on top of) and still show up at the same time? And it doesn't have to be a void in and of itself? Can you elaborate on how you assign it this way so can act as both?

 

"cut with voids when loaded" does not need to be checked in this situation. "That is used for families that have voids in them that do not already cut the host in the family". This kind of has my brain swimming. I'm not familiar with voids in family's and truthfully, the whole concept of voids I guess. So, not really following here. I am however following your void example where the rafter tail voids out the rafter.... I think. So that's progress lol.


 

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Message 12 of 18

Mike.FORM
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Accepted solution

Yes the GM stands for Generic Model and I specifically used the face based version.

 

The void question I'm just saying that you can model your structural framing beam family the length and size you want it and then the void just cuts away the end shape you want.

That's how it would be made in real life when the beam itself is supporting something as opposed to tacking on more wood at the end to create the tail which would be the other family I shared.

That family could still be used as a strictly decorative piece as it is face based so it can be placed on a wall and aligned to the underside of an eave .

 

The "cut with voids when loaded" is a tricky parameter to understand, even I don't fully understand it.

With voids in families you have multiple options for how they work.

  1. the family is face based or wall hosted and the void in the family is cutting that element in the family to begin with (this option only lets you cut the host in project)
  2. the family is face based or wall hosted and the void in the family is not cutting the element in the family and you need to use the cut tool in the project environment (this lets you cut more then just the host in the project).
  3. Then you have the option of "cut with voids when loaded" which can impact both the previous options for some family types.

 

You just need to play around with it to try and figure it all out. In some situations using the join tool in the project also will cut stuff.

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Message 13 of 18

payingtoomuch
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Collaborator

Thanks Mike for the clarification on the "face based" model usage. And yes, that was my understanding regarding the the length of beam/ rafter and your tail hiding the end of the beam when placed. Again, I like that idea.... makes a lot of sense as to lay out the rafters then cope the ends later.... Working with the original full length.

 

I'm still chewing on the whole void thing but see how some of those examples would work with the ootb door/ window families.... so some lightbulbs went off with your descriptions. I'll dive into this some more and "play" around with your void(able) rafter tail and see if I can get some more clarity.

 

Thanks for your time with this!

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Message 14 of 18

payingtoomuch
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Collaborator

Getting somewhere with this!

Some questions.

- Is it possible to rotate the surface that the extrusion will attach to to vertical? Would be more intuitive for trying to draw extrusions that would typically be attached to a wall face. If not maybe I should just be using the generic wall model family. Any downside to that?

-While the extrusion I created does work when loaded into the model, I can't figure out a way to align it accurately to the bottom of the soffit. Can't tab>select the face of the family or lines or points or anything else to align to the face of the soffitt. What am I missing here? Suggestions?

-Also, I would like to be able to assign a length parameter to this but having issues. Basically saying I'm overconstrained. Have tried dimensioning from both the reference plane and the face of the "extrusion" that is a part of the template family (not the extrusion I created) and to the end of what is the rafter tail. Ended up being able to assign a length parameter when dimensioned from face of extrusion to tip of rafter tail (which is what I want for my model) but length doesn't change when flexed.... over constrained. Also have no idea why the length parameter is floating out in space in the 3D view.

 

payingtoomuch_0-1752274041151.png

payingtoomuch_1-1752275441188.png

 

 

 

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Message 15 of 18

payingtoomuch
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Collaborator

Thought I had this part fixed.

payingtoomuch_0-1752276045639.png

 

Can't get this in the correct orientation without rotating in the family. Reason I say thought I had it fixed is because it originally looked like this when loaded so I changed the family orientiation to as I sent earlier and when I reloaded into the model it rotated correctly. But..... was cleaning things up in my model so deleted the old version and reloaded the updated version again and now it's rotating weird again. Any way to fix this so it sticks in the vertical orientation?

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Message 16 of 18

payingtoomuch
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OK. Apologies for blowing up this thread but I've got a new and improved version I would like to share since I've gotten this to a place now.

Also wanted to share for others what I was kind of running up against and some help hopefully.

One issue was that I hadn't defined the origin. To do this need to tell two intersecting planes to "define origin" in the properties tool bar and make sure the planes are pinned.

Then (I think... at least worked in this case) if you want to have a face on the element selectable so that you can align it with another plane in the model you have to give it a plane..... basically create a plane on the face you want to be able to align with and in the properties palette assign a "strong reference" value to it.

Doing these things has gotten me pretty close to where I want to be with this both with the model and mentally haha.

 

One thing I realized is that even though you can't insert the family in section it is a whole lot easier to align everything in section. Pretty simple operation of roughly load the family in either 3D view or an elevation then position it using the align tool in section.

The thing I still don't understand is why I can't work with it in 3D. If I select the new family first then I can select all the faces by tabbing through. AND, then I can select the bottom of the soffit plane to align to. This is a problem because my roof is unlocked so it moves to the rafter tail. Deal breaker. BUT the other problem is, that if I select the soffit plane to align to first, then for whatever reason I can't select any of the individual planes on the family to align to it. Confusing at best and sure could use some insight.

 

As best I can tell there is no way to have the rafter tail load into the project in the correct orientation. Would be nice because it will always be in one orientation so if someone can work that out in the family and explain how it's done that would be appreciated. For now tabbing at insert to rotate is a work around.

 

Thanks Mike for staying with me through most of this and providing your example. I would still be wrestling with this in a big way for sure if you hadn't provided your insight.

Another learning curve part way through!

 

 

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Message 17 of 18

payingtoomuch
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Collaborator

Well... I found some bugs in this thing.

- Still need to rotate when insert.

- The depth parameter isn't working

-And the biggest issue is that for whatever reason aligning to the bottom of the soffit isn't working like I thought it was. No matter what I do when select the bottom of the soffit in section and a top line on the tail when i try and align them there is a gap between the 2 in the end result. It's as though this gap gets smaller and smaller each time I align but it doesn't appear to ever truly align. Would really like to get to the bottom of what this issue is. I checked the origin in the family and it appears to be correct if that matters.

 

payingtoomuch_0-1752287656678.png

payingtoomuch_1-1752287723943.png

 

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Message 18 of 18

payingtoomuch
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Collaborator

Got everything working but the gapped alignment immediately above. Note that I can grab a grip on that same plane I'm trying to align and it works correctly.

Length, width, and depth parameters are working correctly and it comes in rotated with the correct rotation.

Want to add a slope parameter to it and probably will reach out on that one sometime next week just to get to the bottom of this.

Attached if anyone wants to take a look and maybe give me some feedback as to how I can improve it.

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