In the truss industry, camber refers to the gradual curvature of a chord member either naturally occurring or created to alleviate the natural deflection of a truss structure. That sounds simple enough, but there are key elements about camber that should be considered. Camber in Action All...

I love history, particularly the history of wood framing in the U.S. One segment of this category that has some confusion surrounding it is the history of metal connectors used to join two or more wood members to make a structural connection. There are many types of structural connectors,...

One constant thorn in the side of truss fabricators is the cost of preparing quotes, often multiple times for the same job through the life of a project. I find that this is especially true for custom homes, as they often go through numerous revisions for aesthetic, budget, zoning, and other...

Typically, trusses are spaced evenly. The spacing shown on MiTek engineering drawings is a tributary area carried by the trusses. Each truss is designed to support one-half of the roof/floor load on each side. The spacing between the trusses may be of any combination if the tributary area does...

One interesting part of being a field engineer for Simpson Strong-Tie is having the opportunity to see how different structural engineers may take different approaches to similar designs. We at Simpson Strong-Tie have come to appreciate these different approaches and embrace this phenomenon by...

As a manufacturing manager, you understand the importance of having a skilled and efficient design team. If you’ve encountered our Truss Design Skills Evaluation, you know its thoroughness in assessing truss designers. This evaluation measures skills and experience across nine key areas...

Imagine a looming deadline, a complicated 2D, multi-family floor plan. It will take days to get accurate measurements, manually. STITCHER® streamlines the process by capturing walls, openings, and intricate details with precision, transforming a 2D architectural drawing into a 3D model in a...

As the “Green” movement progresses and energy prices go increasingly higher, more and more homeowners and commercial developers are looking to utilize photovoltaic panels (solar panels) to help get them “off the grid.” It may seem that designing for solar panels is as...

My engineering journey began back in the early 2000s in the living room of our house, playing with wooden blocks and building towers as high as I could reach without letting them fall over onto little brothers (the authorities having jurisdiction [aka my parents] had a set a restriction in our...

Developed by Jemcor Properties, The Village at Madrone is a 249-unit, 320,000 sf affordable housing development located in Morgan Hill, CA consisting of 14 building types with 3 floors of framing and a community clubhouse. Structural Engineering was led by NIC Structural Engineering Consultants....