Lumber Joe Joe Campagna After 40 years in project management and product ownership for the financial service industry, dealing with everything from futures to equities to basis trading, I thought my brain couldn’t possibly manage another acronym. But, in a world that constantly changes, I too had to evolve... Read More July 2020 Issue #12252 Page 104
Better Tools for Refining Your Wall Panel Designs Tracy Roe As we continue our series on better tools for wall panel design, it’s time to explore our Edit Framing feature. In today’s industry, there are no easy jobs. Project complexity has increased steadily over the past several years. The need to be able to quickly review panels and edit on... Read More June 2020 Issue #12251 Page 56
Better Component Bidding and Delivery with STITCHER Alpine Team It’s official—Alpine’s new STITCHER software has the industry buzzing—and even a brief examination reveals why Preparing construction component projects for bidding and ultimately for scheduling and production can be difficult, time-consuming, and subject to input... Read More June 2020 Issue #12251 Page 60
Better Tools for Intuitive Wall Panel Design Tracy Roe This month, we’re continuing our series on better tools for wall panel design and exploring our Break/Review process. Walls are just walls until they are broken into PANELS. Similar to the way trusses are just profiles until they are designed, the same is true for walls. Beginning with... Read More May 2020 Issue #12250 Page 60
Better Tools for Wall Panel Design in Parametric 3D Tracy Roe Continuing our articles series on better tools for wall panel design, it’s time to start talking about parametric 3D. So, what is parametric 3D and what does it mean for you? According to Wikipedia, “Parametric design is a process based on algorithmic thinking that enables the... Read More April 2020 Issue #12249 Page 64
Prep Time for Truss Job Bids Cut in Half…or Even More! Alpine Team Alpine’s STITCHER software delivers significant savings for APEX Technology’s bidding and design tasks The Product STITCHER is a unique software tool developed by Alpine to free component estimators and designers from repetitive tasks and to speed both bidding and production... Read More April 2020 Issue #12249 Page 68
The Last Word: Not My Last Word Joe Kannapell From four stories up, I realized how far wood components have come. I was atop 170,000 sq. ft. of trusses, viewing the Minneapolis Basilica, and couldn’t help thinking back 47 years to my first jobsite visit. [See PDF or View in Full Issue for photos.] Back then, floor trusses were brand... Read More April 2020 Issue #12249 Page 145
How Important are Construction Tolerances? Glenn Traylor Back in the days before Autoset C®, Matchpoint®, and Wizard®, truss set-ups and the truss profile were dependent on the truss builder’s ability to accurately jig the truss being built using cross reference information and data. For example, a heel to peak measurement was taken... Read More March 2020 Issue #12248 Page 41
Too Many LBM-Owned CMs are Operating at a Mediocre Rate Todd Drummond An anonymous former lumberyard CEO of 17 lumberyard locations (LBM) explained to me that his two component manufacturing (CM) plants made up only 10% of his sales yet contributed 30% of his net profits. He wished he had given the CM division far more focus and resources. As a guru for process... Read More March 2020 Issue #12248 Page 51
Multi Family Tools for Wall Panel Design Tracy Roe Last month’s article launched our series on the most advanced panel design software in decades: Truebuild® Layout with panel design functionality. Written from the ground up by industry veterans and developed by the best in-house team in the industry, we listened to what you needed,... Read More March 2020 Issue #12248 Page 62