Work Lines

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to import work lines into your project. These lines will serve as a reference that you can trace over while creating your bearing walls.

After you have started a new project, the first task in creating the 3D layout is adding your bearings.

To make the bearing input process more efficient, click the menu icon next to Work Lines.  Then we'll use the Import Lines from DXF feature. This allows you to import a DXF file containing the layout lines you’ll use as a reference.

Navigate to the sample dxf file you downloaded from the Training site. Select the “Training Plan 3, (Download) Layout.dxf file.

Click open.  

Once the file is imported, the full layout will appear in the scene.

If you are not seeing the full layout, you can click the reset view. Or simply zoom in or out and pan to center and fit the layout in your workspace.

Let's review the imported structure. This layout includes elements like a front porch, rear porch, interior non-structural walls, and areas with varying bearing heights.

Importing work lines can significantly streamline the process of placing your bearings. By using this method, you’ll save time working in your layout.

See you in the next one.

 Welcome! In this video we will demonstrate two methods for removing all work lines from your project.

In this example, we used imported work lines to trace our bearings. Now that the bearings are present let's go ahead and remove the work lines from the layout.

There are two different methods for deleting work lines.

The first method in removing the work lines is to hold down the control key while you're in the layout scene.

Then from the multi-select filter options, select work lines. And then, while holding down the control button, click and drag your mouse, creating selection window around the items you want to select and remove. We can see in the scene all of the work lines have been selected. To remove the items from the project, press the delete button. There you go, they're all deleted.

To demonstrate the second method, press undo or control z to bring the work lines back. The second method for deleting all work lines, is to access the work lines collection, Click the Work Lines menu and select the delete all work lines option.

And there you have it, two different methods to quickly delete all work lines.

We hope this video helped you understand how to remove the work lines from your project.

See you in the next one.

 In this video, we’ll demonstrate how to streamline truss input using boundary-defining work lines. You’ll learn how to precisely create work lines to guide truss layout, as well as how other structural elements—such as girders and existing trusses—can be used as reference boundaries during truss envelope creation.

If you prefer to not have the dimensions on in your layout, turn those off from the options menu using the dimension truss runs and the dimension bearing envelope buttons.

 Let's get started.

Right click and select work line. For the options on all of our Work Lines, we will select and use the point to point method, as well as making each work line a segment and making them all bounding. One final note, make sure to click insert, so to place the work line after you have placed it in your layout.

We're going to put our first work line in across the front porch so, let's pan over and zoom in so to focus on this area. To assist with the placement of work lines we can un-check everything except for Truss and Bearing Envelopes, in the Snap Against options. Here we will click to place the right end where the outside edge of the porch intersects the wall on the house, then move over to the other side, and click to place the left end where the outside edge intersects with the wall of the house as well. Click Insert.

Make sure Work Lines are visible. You can also verify the lines being added from the collections panel along the right side, under Work Lines.

Next we are going to add another Work Line across the garage. Pan over to focus on this area. Right click and select Work Line, we will again use the point to point method, make it bounding and add as a segment. Click to snap to the right side where the outside edge of the garage wall intersects the house, and move across to place the left end where the outside edge meets the house and click. Then click Insert.

Next, pan over to the back of the house.

We will add a work line across the back of the house where the exterior wall intersects with the porch. Right click, select Work Line, then select point to point method, add the bounding, and segment options, as well. Zoom in and click to place the right side and then move over and click to place the left side. Click Insert.

That should do it for adding our Work Lines.

Let's create some trusses!

The first run of trusses we're going to put in is at the fireplace. Pan over to this area and we will start with the simplest one first. Click to Select the gable, then right click and select Start Run. Slide your cursor down to add the trusses and click to place them. You can see that this left end indicator is on the wrong side, but we'll take care of that later.

Pan to the rear of the house where we will focus on adding the trusses for the rear porch. We will start our truss run from the right side corner Jack. You can also hover over the truss or in this case the corner jack, and then right click to select Start Run, without having to select it first. So, right click over the corner jack, then select start run. We will change the spacing here to four feet just to get that first one in and click.

Hover over the new truss we just added, right click and select Start, run again. Drag down and click to add the truss.

The next run of trusses, we'll put in is for the main part of the roof. Let's hover over the truss along the right side of the house, right click and select start, run. Notice how the trusses do not extend into the porch areas because of the bounding work lines along the front and rear porch.

However, if we look at the left side of the front porch, we see one of the trusses is extending into the front porch area. We need to adjust the overhang to match the adjacent trusses. Press escape to make sure no other truss is selected. Then click the truss we want to modify. And from the properties panel, find the left overhang setting, and change the distance to be 1 foot. This will now match the rest of the trusses that have a 1 foot overhang.

Next we will hover over the front porch, Right click, select start run, and then drag up and click to add the trusses. Because of the vaulted porch ceiling, we want to add one more truss.

We'll add the new truss by duplicating and moving the last truss in the run. First let's press escape to make sure we have no other trusses selected. Next select the truss. Then will right click, and select Duplicate Truss Envelope. If you need to add a snap option do so in the options for snaps to place the truss, I added the Truss Envelopes to my snap against options. We will define the origin as the upper right end of the truss. Then we will pick the destination to be where the porch beam intersects the front wall. This option speeds up the process when adding a single truss to your layout. There you have it. The new truss is placed.

Now let's pan over to the left side of the house. Here we Noticed the right end of the gable has a 1 foot overhang, we want to remove this before adding this truss run. Click in the properties and set the overhang to 0.

Then we will right click on the gable truss, then select Start Run. Next drag your mouse over to the right and click to place the trusses, so to not have any overlapping.

 Next we will pan down to the garage area and we will add our last set of trusses. For the first one we will put in just as we did along the rear porch. We will use the left side corner jack to start our process, so to have the left side of the trusses all start from the same side.

Right click on the corner jack, then select Start, Run, here we will set our spacing to 4 feet and click to add this first truss.

Next, we will right click on the new truss we just added. Then select Start, Run. Then slide your mouse up and click to place these trusses.

Let’s take a final look at our trusses in 3D.

As you can see here, the trusses for the front porch, garage, fireplace, and other areas have all been successfully added.

We hope this video has helped you better understand how to use bounding Work Lines and other tools to input and modify trusses in your layouts.

Thanks for watching!