In an industry long defined by hard work and incremental improvement, a new chapter is being written. But not everyone seems to realize it. Some are still telling companies to squeeze more productivity out of crews by reorganizing work paths, tracking stopwatch data, and optimizing jobsite...

A large part of what MiTek’s Design Engagement team does involves meeting with Structural Engineers, Architects, and Real Estate Developers to advance the use of components. We guide them on best practices early in design so that when construction documents arrive at the truss...

Let’s face it—finding the right people in the offsite construction industry isn’t getting easier. Whether you’re searching for a seasoned truss designer, a sharp estimator, or a dependable production manager, the usual massive job boards don’t cut it. That’s...

When you’re job hunting or looking to hire, you’ve got choices. Lots of them. You can go with the big-name job boards that everyone knows about, or you can try something different—something more personal. The experience you get depends entirely on which path you choose, and the...

Chapter 7 of ASCE 7-22 (Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures) introduces significant changes that affect the magnitude of snow loads and, consequently, truss design. While some of these changes reduce snow load values, others increase them. One of the...

Often, software users will not realize the full extent of features available to them in a program. Our CS Director™ and CS Truss Studio™ both offer extensive options, including the ones discussed here. You can create stack lists in both CS Director™ and CS Truss...

Over the past two decades, the truss industry has quietly engineered a crisis of its own making. In the pursuit of flexibility and cost efficiency, companies have embraced remote designers and offshore design firms. Although these shifts solve immediate staffing needs, they’re slowly...

Last month’s article, “What You Learn on the Floor,” talks about the benefits of having design staff spend some time in the shop. There’s a lot to learn there—and gaining a real appreciation for what the production team does can be eye-opening for designers, whether...

The International Code Council (ICC) recently completed the first of two Group B Code Action Hearings (CAH) in Orlando, Florida, from April 27 to May 6 for development of the 2027 I-Codes. The second CAH will be held in October in Cleveland, Ohio. This marks a significant milestone in the new...

Alpine continues to innovate with the latest version of the IntelliVIEW Suite, now offering IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) export to improve collaboration, visualization, and accuracy in Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflows. IFC export enables seamless data exchange across...