Library

My December article, “What Does Scope Creep Look Like in Truss Design?,” talks about extra trusses quietly added, parapets suddenly included, and engineering tasks drifting onto your desk because someone else didn’t handle them. None of these start out as big asks. They usually...

Every spring, a few dozen of the most MSR-savvy minds in the industry gather for something refreshingly different from the typical industry conference. No sprawling trade show floor. No overwhelming schedule. No wandering through crowds of people you might never see again. Instead, the annual...

When given a truss design project, the Truss Designer needs all of the loading parameters before starting work on it. This article will specifically discuss the Thermal Factor (Ct), which is part of the snow load calculations. As with any load parameter, using the wrong value will result in a...

Chapter 3 of ANSI/TPI 1-2022, the National Design Standard for Metal Plate Connected Wood Trusses, provides the component manufacturer with the Quality Criteria they must follow to ensure the metal plate connected wood trusses (MPCWT) they build meet the design assumptions. Section 3.4.2 Lumber...

CS Producer, Simpson Strong-Tie’s component manufacturing management solution, provides real-time truss plant feedback and production scheduling functionality, in a modern, user-friendly interface. Since its introduction in 2025, CS Producer continues to add new features and...

For decades, Automated Builder was more than a trade magazine. It was “The Source” for industrialized, off-site, and systems-built housing, linking manufacturers, suppliers, and innovators across the country. Longtime readers will remember that the publication began under the earlier...

The Building Component Safety Information (BCSI) Guide stands as the structural building component industry’s comprehensive resource for best practices in handling, installing, restraining, and bracing structural building components. From safety messaging to critical installation details,...

Few, if any, pieces of wood will pass the scrutiny of an 8’ level, and the superintendent of Bill Milburn’s homes in Texas wielded his level like a weapon. When I walked those houses, I needed a level, plumb line, string line, and more. Today, I have some of the same capabilities in...

In late January, news reports sounded the alarm for a massive winter storm across a large section of the US. Naturally, it brought panic buying of food, snow shovels, and ice melt, and many places confronted treacherous conditions. In the aftermath though, we can gain perspective on how our...

You could say that Carol Sanford flipped the script on machinery, like he had in so many circumstances throughout his career. In the 1950s, when he couldn’t sell his modular homes in Ohio, he shipped them to Florida. When he couldn’t sell them there, he turned to selling site-built...