Although EstiFrame Technologies is mostly known for our EasyFrame Automated Marking System, we have provided estimating and framing design services since we were founded in 2017. We can handle anything from commercial buildings to multi-family housing and have done thousands of single-family...

At Eagle Metal, our TrueBuild® software gives you an advantage in efficiency. Our software gives our customers the flexibility they need to build more. We offer fabricators the options they need to make operating their facility as simple or as complex as they want it to be. From design to...

What I experienced at the truss industry’s first trade show was the bare bones beginning of fifty years of industry progress. But, at first glance in 1971, it didn’t seem so, as I found only a handful of 8x10 booths, tucked in the corner of the Louisville Fairgrounds. Yet plenty of...

It’s a simple fact—successful projects depend on good communication. What’s not so simple—there’s a tremendous volume of information that must be shared between multiple stakeholders in any construction project. Last month’s article, The 3D Model Everyone Can...

How do you get a new component manufacturing business up and running at a competitive speed as efficiently and quickly as possible, on the eve of a global pandemic, when you’re short on start-up capital? The two-part answer is simple: Alpine® and STITCHER®. United Southwest...

Information is the key to almost everything. In our lives and in our jobs, we rely on obtaining pertinent and accurate details so that we can make informed decisions. In our industry, we are heavily reliant on information and details from each customer, whether they are a homeowner, a building...

Before the Cyber Saw was introduced, I saw its PLC “brain” control the machines on a GM assembly line. From the conference room at General Electric’s PLC factory, I was able to watch a live display of the automation systems it powered. While most were “Greek” to me,...

As the lumber commodity remains exponentially higher than the previous 5 years, we all question the sanity behind the market. We also ask ourselves: how can we remain competitive within our own markets? Lumber optimization begins at the forestry level, managing the plantations for 40 years or...

Optimization is a crucial part of success and profitability in our industry. It is something that every component manufacturer works at daily in some form or another. At the same time, however, the word has so very many different interpretations that few have exactly the same approach. In this...

In the Design, Make, Build (DMB) approach to construction, we’ve focused on the importance of collaboration. By bringing together the component manufacturers (CMs) and trades with the designers and architects early in the Design phase, they can provide feedback on what is possible around...