I was wondering if someone out there had more information on the French Roof Framing workshop that was held at the eastern conference in Quebec. I was going through the articles about the workshop and became quite curious about the project. I thought it looked very interesting and was wanting to try it for the challenge of the angle development and joinery. I found some good pictures in the "past conference" section. I was wondering if anyone had any more pics or video or drawings that I might be able to get my hands on.
Sincerely,
Jeff Wharton

Jeff:
I took the workshop at the conference. We were there from 8:30 am to after 5 pm, with breaks for coffee and lunch.
We watched the drawing being made and the model being cut.
Expecting someone to be able to transfer all this information over this forum to you would be quite difficult to say the least.
If you're interested in learning such a method you could ask the guild if they intend to hold this workshop again, at the western conference and take the workshop there and then.
Good luck,
Jim

i was at the conference and have the plan the drawings and model were based on
if you send an email i could try and copy the plan and forward it
it was a very good workshop.......
i started confused and finished learning a lot
take care,
-Mark in Canada.

thanks Mark and Jim. Yes there is probably a ton of info to try to summarize the workshop. I was hoping to be able to get my hands on the drawings. I wanted to try the development of the angles and joinery from there. So if you have the drawings and any other info that would be helpful and I would appreciate you sending them. I was noticing the drawings in the brochure that the individual used in the trade olympics and was hoping to see those also....
thanks, Jeff

as i seem to have a bit of time and the weather is nasty outside i thought i would try to summarize the steps the french carpenters took at the workshop

first a floor plan was drawn on two sheets of plywood (the sheets were painted white and screwed to the hotel's carpeted floor)
the plan was of the corner of a hip roof building

second thing was drawing the elevations of both sides of the roof as they would be if they simply fell over to the floor

third was to draw the elevation of the hip as if it had tipped onto the floor-but the drawing of the hip was placed "to the side" of the main drawing for clarity

fourth was to draw the "normal" view of the two roof planes -again by letting the roof sections hinge down onto the floor

then it gets difficult to describe, essentially the places where rafters joined the hip where tranferred from the floor plan to the needed elevations then the pieces of actual wood where placed directly onto the drawings in the different perspectives to find the layout of the joinery...to say that i worked well would be an understatement

and the next day it was driven home with a much more difficult example that floor drawing works

there's my stab at explaining
-Mark in Canada.