Dept of Sneaky Tricks

[sherpa_jones]

I am never happy with how chief frames the gable lookouts. The blocking members are 24" o.c. in plan view, which is wrong. They should be 24" o.c. along the sloping rafter or truss top chord. Well, here is how to do them manually, and get it pretty darn accurate.

1 - Frame your rafters/trusses and all your fascia boards.

2 - Draw a roof blocking member between your gable fascia and your first rafter/truss, crossing over your gable wall/truss.

3 - Create a backclipped cross section of your gable wall/truss and change to your 3D Framing layer set. Make sure the layer "Cross Section Lines" is on and locked. You should see the roof blocking member as a framing box.

4 - Send the view to cad detail. Select the lines that are generated from the top edge of the gable wall framing or the gable truss. Copy them, and paste-hold-position into your cross section. These lines will help you to make accurate snap placements.

5 - Select the roof blocking member. You will notice the selection handles are not exactly in place on the framing box, which is 'normal.' Using point to point move, select the corner of the framing box that you want to snap to the truss heel, and snap it there. You will need to hit F12 every time you move a roof blocking member in section view to regenerate the cross section lines.

6 - using the rectangular poline tool, begin drawing a rectangle from the midpoint snap on the ridge side of the blocking member's framing box. Drag it just past the ridge, and set the finish point on the angle snap that follows the perpendicular snap guides.

7 - use the multiple copy tool and copy the blocking at equal spacing, snapping the last copy on the top corner of the cad block that is used as the guide. Use point to point move to place the last block back at the peak.

Now repeat for the other side of the gable.

I know it is a bit labor intensive, but if you ever need to get that detail just right, well, here is one way.