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• A basic truss with no unpleasant lifting or bending.
  • The basic 2D drawing contains all the shapes.
    • Box
    • Planes
    • Parallelograms

• Set color to black.
• Start with a Wall drawn with Box command 24*12 wide and 8*12 high. (We are drawing in inches).
• Set color to orange.
• At the top corner of the Wall draw 2 boxes 4x12 to setup a 12 inch soffit and 12 inch rafter overhang, along with a 4-12 pitch for the rafter.
• Set color to dark blue.
• Draw a line thru the boxes corner to corner as shown.
• Select the line.

• Use Extend command and option: 'selection only' and extend the line past the center of the wall.

• With the line selected, place a handle (CTRL+H) at the corner of the wall.
• Mirror a copy to the other corner of the wall.

• Use Trim 2 Lines to trim the top intersection of the roof.
• If the lines are not combined into one, do so now.
  • Select both and hit 'B'
• Move an orange box from the left corner of the wall to the right corner with a Gravity Snap.
• Using the boxes to snap to, draw a line across the top of the wall connecting the rafter lines.
• Go to Layers and choose Separate
• Turn off layers 1 and 2.

• Use Parallel by Distance with a value of 5.5 to draw a copy of the upper line.

• Set color to red.
• Use Parallelogram to draw a rafter as shown.

• Mirror the rafter to the right.

• Make a parallel to the lower line with a value of 5.5

• Choose Plane command and double-click on Intersect Snap.
• Snap to the 4 points shown in rotation.
• Delete the red parallel line.

• Draw a line, with ortho on, from the point at the top to a Line Snap at the bottom.

• Now bring up the Double-Line toolbox.
• Enter a width of 5.5
  • (This truss will use all 2x6 members for better definition of detail).
  • Select option: center.
• With the line selected, use Line->Convert to Double Line to make it a Double Line as shown.
• Now use Convert->Double-Line to Plane.

• Select Points Mode.
• Gravity Snap to each point shown and use Intersect Snap to place the point where shown by arrow.
  • The original line remains creating the intersection until the point is set in a new position.

• The cursor will have a ' +' sign when you place it near a selected line.
• Click in the middle of the top line to create a new node.
• Select the node and Gravity Snap it to the lower peak of the rafters.

• Draw a line at 45 degrees from a Gravity Snap to the lower right corner of the center web.
  • Use the 45 degree button on the lower scroll bar after setting the first point.
• Line Snap it to the Rafter.

• Convert  the line to a Double Line.
• Convert the Double Line to a Plane

• Use the same points move method as before to trim the intersection.

• You should have this.

• The top is a little different.

• You will need to use the 2 different Intersect Snaps as shown to move the points.

• Select the center web by the top center with a Gravity Snap and duplicate it with 'N'.
• Place it at arrow with Gravity Snap.

• Use Resizing Handles to move bottom of web up to top of joist.
  • Gravity Snap to bottom center handle and then Line Snap to top of joist.

• Move the upper points using Intersect Snaps.

• Now select the angled web by the corner of the joint with Gravity Snap.
• Hold down SHIFT and select the vertical web.
• Mirror a copy to the left side and Snap it into the corner.
• Go to Layers and turn off layer 3.

• You can go to 3D mode now and extrude everything 1.5 units in the Z direction.
  • Colors are changed to show detail.

• Now try some alternative styles!
  • You can find some in the 2D symbols->arch folder.