I just did it so I’d know where to cut a 14 inch hole for a 2nd AC. My aluminum rafters are 16 inches on center so I needed to be accurate. I used an ordinary stud finder on the roof and it was spot on perfect. To translate it into the interior I measured from a known fixed reference point. In my case I used the center of a roof vent. I was accurate to about 1/8 inch. I used the same stud finder technique when I was installing my solar panel. I wanted to drill for my mounts into a rafter and I gat all six screws into rafters. Fear not.
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