Don't know of any good book for that. Experience is the best teacher, plus a few conversations with a good framing contractor.
I like to stack the drawings, roof to foundation as the building is built, trying to stack the bearing and shear walls as well as possible, trying to avoid transfer beams and complicated connections. Not always possible, but it is a start.
A good common sense Architect is a good start too, but sometimes... Well, that's another subject for another day.
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask
Agree with Mike that there is no book which will do this. Maybe there should be. Most young engineers learn concept design only by experience under the tutelage of their mentor.
Structural engineering is an art. There are many ways to frame a building, and which is probably why there is no book on it. A lot of it will come from experience. Try to look at the architectural and structural drawings of completed buildings. You will get a sense of what was done.
The most important first step is to choose the structural system. Steel/Concrete/Masonry/Tit-up etc. Like Mike says, you should think of the big picture (the whole building). Try to keep things simple and easy to construct. Your first gut instinct of framing may not be the simplest/cheapest. Use an onion skin to trace out many different schemes, trying to come up with an economical system.
Also use the world as your laboratory. Each building you go in or walk by, try to determine the system AND why. Was it the space, constructability, economics, aesthetics..... why did they choose the system they did? What makes it work (or not work)? What might you have done differently?
Anytime you see a building going up, take note and try to guess the system and what is going in next and what each part of the building does. Then watch to see if you were right.....
In case you can get access to it, the first couple of chapters of the UK publication 'structural engineers pocket book' has some useful lists of options.
Another book that may be useful but also UK based is 'Structural Scheme Design manual' by the concrete institute.
Neither of these will give you the full picture. You basically need to develop a recipe book of alternate solutions and understand the pros and cons of each alternate construction method. That said, the simplest option that works is usually the cheapest overall (but not always).
This is a complex high level skill and is the main subject of the notorious istructe exam that still foils almost two thirds of those who sit for it.
