What is Camber and Why is It Important? Glenn Traylor 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... Read More July 2024 Issue #16300 Page 33
Design Connections: Estimating and the Cost of Quotes Geordie Secord 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... Read More July 2024 Issue #16300 Page 90
Am I Allowed to Move a Truss If There are Obstructions? MiTek Staff 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... Read More July 2024 Issue #16300 Page 106
Allowable Load Tables at Your Service — A Look at the Technical Engineering Bulletin (TEB) for Anchors Chris Johnson 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... Read More July 2024 Issue #16300 Page 114
Proper Loading for Solar Panels MiTek Staff 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... Read More June 2024 Issue #16299 Page 108
The Birth of a Professional Engineer: Forging a Career at Simpson Strong-Tie Dante Khachadourian 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... Read More June 2024 Issue #16299 Page 114
The Village at Madrone – Successful Collaboration Through Design-Make-Build Landon Boucher 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.... Read More May 2024 Issue #16298 Page 60
Design Connections: What Will Customers Want, Need, and Pay to Have Geordie Secord Over the last couple of articles, I’ve spent some time discussing improvements that would improve both the energy efficiency and the ability of the truss system to withstand extreme weather conditions. If you’ve read those articles, you will know that I think it is ridiculous that we... Read More May 2024 Issue #16298 Page 90
Optimizing Truss Design Alpine Team Establishing a truss design process that progresses seamlessly from start to finish serves as a critical backbone for efficiency and ensures essential quality control measures. While individual processes might vary from designer to designer, here is a sample step-by-step process. Resist the... Read More May 2024 Issue #16298 Page 96
Innovating from the Ground Up: Welcome to the Future! Caleb Knudson At Simpson Strong-Tie, Risk-Taking Innovation is central to our mission of helping people design and build safer, stronger structures. We’ve devoted a tremendous amount of effort and resources to thoughtfully cultivating a culture of innovation. And as Engineers, we’ve been armed... Read More May 2024 Issue #16298 Page 114