By 1980, many component manufacturers were anxious to computerize their wall panel work, but they weren’t getting much help. Gang-Nail’s AutoPan was the only available solution, but it had such a steep learning curve that Gang-Nail no longer promoted it. Plus, they were singularly focused, like the other truss software suppliers, on converting their mainframe-based programs to personal computers (PCs). So, the job fell to a few lone entrepreneurs who realized that the advent of these new PCs gave them the ability to fill this need. And, the best of these machines gave them the power to reimagine the way software worked, replacing line input with interactive prompts, and stick figures with realistic graphics. Among the first to exploit these capabilities was Ted Dasher, who had experienced the frustration of doing panel drawings by hand.
Laying out and framing walls without computerization was tedious, but it was rule-based and didn’t yet involve engineering. Often a blueprint of the floor plan was annotated with critical dimensions and sent to the shop. Workers at the framing table followed well-practiced methods to frame around doors and windows, and to construct panel junctions. On repetitive units, templates were often made for each individual panel, usually on strips of wood called lath that had been used on plastered walls. The narrow strips of lath were cut to match the length of the panel, and they were marked similarly to what is known as “the bottom plate view” in today’s terminology. The panel shop of homebuilder K. Hovnanian, for example, had racks of these templates on the wall, labeled with unit type, level number, and whether they were for exterior or interior panels. The lath strips would be stacked in the reverse order that the panels were to be stacked. This methodology worked well in South New Jersey throughout the 1980s, where entire town house communities may have had only four unit types. Soon, however, increased complexity rendered these approaches impractical.
Into the fray entered Ted Dasher, who had been one of the pioneering programmers for Carol Sanford in the 1960s. Ted had left the plate business in 1970 to work in truss fabrication, and later he worked in construction. He learned wall panel technology while working for an apartment builder that prefabbed walls onsite. Though he had worked exclusively on truss design for Sanford, he had learned coding and how to interact with computer hardware. He decided to tackle wall panel design because he realized that the plate companies had largely monopolized truss design. And, with newly affordable hardware, he could do it by himself. But, Ted needed the right computer.
Essential to doing design work was a machine that enabled visualization of the object being designed. Of the machines that came on the market in 1977, there was only one that had the graphical capability necessary, Hewlett-Packard’s HP 9845. At the time, the dominant machines were the Apple II and the Radio Shack TRS-80, but even though the HP 9845 cost 10 times as much as the other two, it was 10 times as efficient. And, it could be updated expeditiously via a high-speed tape drive. As a result, two former Sanford programmers chose the HP 9845: Bob Brooker, who created truss software marketed under the Forest Products Inc. (FPI) name, and Ted Dasher, who created wall panel software aptly named The Plan.
When Ted introduced The Plan at the BCMC Show in 1983, he quickly found a receptive audience. [For photo, See PDF or View in Full Issue.] After the Show, Ted visited prospective users across the country. And, in the unlikely locale of Marks, Mississippi, with a population of 1,735, he encountered an inquisitive young man named Tommy Wood, whom Ted later hired. In the mid-to-late 1980s, Ted had Tommy making the rounds across the country installing The Plan, which acquainted both with the many nuances of panelization. As a result, Ted began to compile an unending wish list of software enhancements, just as was the case with truss software. Addressing most of these would be a monumental task, but continuing to chip away at them would increase his customer base and loyalty.
Ted had gained about 100 users during the decade of the 1980s, despite the two-thirds reduction in housing starts that occurred during this period. But, most importantly, Ted demonstrated the potential of graphically oriented software and raised the expectations of CMs. Truss designers waited for the day that they would be able to import walls and construct truss layouts on top of them. Fortunately, they wouldn’t have to wait too long.
Next Month:
Wall Panel Software Evolves
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