Is there an easier / faster way of creating complex roof constructions? (Example included)

[Prvoime]

Do I need to do it like this?
Yes, if I want exact material quantities, which I want, otherwise what's the point of doing it in Revit.

First, the roof layers. Some layers have to go all the way over the entire roof (tiles, membrane, boards), while others go only up to the walls (insulation, second layer of boards).
So I create two roofs, "exterior" and "interior" one. And place them one above the other accordingly.

Then the construction. Here's an overview:
1. Put in Purlins.
2. "Copy" roof boundaries (with linework) as detail lines and hide the roof itself (since I use Sloped Glazing later). These lines are used for trimming and extending rafters, but they also stay there, that is how we plot our roof framing plans.
3. As far as I can tell in situations like these where precise placement is important, beam system is useless. I use it just to create the first "dummy" rafter and then copy that one around that plane, another for another plane, third for the third one... Copy, paste, array, align, trim, extend, extend, trim, align... Since location lines either don't reach all the way to where they're supposed, or they overshoot (even though trim/extend is used and changing location line of beam to top of geometry doesn't help), you have to use helper lines and reference planes, and align rafters to them.

So many clicks, sooo slooow, so many clicks. Oh AutoCAD, I'm sorry for everything I said, I love you.
4. Lastly, battens and couterbattens, which I create with Sloped Glazing (finally something fast and easy), and bury them inside.

Short overview with many more intermediate steps. Is this it? This is how it's done?

Specific questions:
1. When placing beams (purlins) I can't snap to wall core center line, only wall centerline. I solved it by placing reference planes by picking lines (they can snap to wall core centerline), then just tab select them all for purlin placement. It's a fast workaround, I just want to know if I'm doing something wrong which is why beams don't snap.

2. My air layer isn't transparent. This results in counterbattens placed in that layer to be invisible on sections, which makes battens look like they're not laying on anything. Any fix?

Thanks in advance!

[abposlovni]

Your read on beam systems matches ours — the moment spacing has exceptions or you need doubled rafters in places, it stops being usable and you're back to copying a dummy member around.

We actually built a plugin for exactly this: One Click Roof Structure generates the timber structure from the roof as real, editable framing elements, so quantities stay correct and one-off exceptions are still possible afterwards.

It's deliberately simple — it doesn't try to cover every framing scenario, but for standard roofs it takes minutes instead of an afternoon.

I'm the developer — you can try it for free at archplug.com.