I know that this topic has been discussed before, but I'm still confused....

I guess the best way to frame my current question (haha...) would be a comparison of timber frame texts at the local library versus timber frame magazines at the newstand. The typical textbook contains a chapter on frame design and they almost always use photos and drawings of an example house with a perfectly symetrical frame; 4 bents, each 12ft apart with 3 bays each 8ft across, for a 36ft by 24ft frame. Then they magically fit a floor plan into that frame that has every interior wall on a main grid line.

I haven't figured out how to have functionally useful rooms with all room dimensions only multioples of 8ft or 12ft. And picking up a copy of the only commonly available magazine for ideas doesn't help. A typical issue of Timber Frame Living contains plans for several houses and everyone seems to completely ignore the buildings basic frame when laying out the floor plan. Just for fun, I've tried to determine the frame layout from the floor plans in the magazine's examples and it was pretty much impossible. (the exact opposite of the text book examples).

I realize that floor plan design should not be 'forced' by frame grid, but isn't the basic idea that the main beams and columns should 'frame' the individual rooms? (another unintended pun...) You want interior columns to come down in the corner, not the middle of a room, and you would want interior partition walls to fall under main beams; you don't want beams sitting a foot away from a parallel partition, or crashing through perpendicular partitions. The magazine homes must have either very strange frames, or incredibly minimalist frames (that would allow interior partitions almost anywhwere.)

Or have I just not learned some timber frame home design secret?