My hope was someone has made a hip & valley frame and I could see it and use it as a basis for my needs. While I do have an engineering background and parts of it should help, it is mainly non-structural so I do not wish to recreate the wheel with limited skills. Before I give up and use a traditional bent frame with no hip and valley, I thought I would share a sketch showing the problem I have which is a very complex joint at the ends of the ridge beam.
The other part about using equal pitches sounds appealing, but does not fit easily. Either it changes the geometry of the roof or it probably needs a much beefier post arrangement. Don't worry about the red tank, it's just a place marker to have appropriate clearance for a passive solar water heater.
