Because I’ve been receiving great feedback from readers (thanks for that), in my July article I also welcomed suggestions of topics. One reader stepped forward with an idea which, as I thought more about it, became the start of this month’s piece on how far we’ve come as an industry.
Some of us have been around this industry longer than others, so we can remember some of the history that has made our industry what it is today. Now, before you begin thinking I am going to expose Ancient Aliens as the ones who kick-started the truss industry, have no fear – I am only going back to the middle of the last century. (We can save the other for another time.)
When I look back, I am struck by some of the grand geniuses who put all of us on our current path – a path we now take for granted. I remember the days before the awesome software we have today. I know, I know, many of you have heard me rant about the dumbing down of the industry. Ironically, the terrific software available to the industry today has a negative side effect too. Users don’t have to work as hard to get answers, and many do not know as much about the engineering behind the output. Through my years in the industry, we have advanced from hand-drawn profiles and placement plans, to magnetic strip calculators for cutting, to software run on UNIX systems, to the first DOS software, and eventually to the industry where we are today. But someone had to write all that code that became the stepping stones to now…..stepping stones shaped like 5 ¼” floppy discs.
Key in this development were Frank and Paul Little. These guys developed code that ended up being widely used by several industry software providers. Truswal, Tee-LOK, Cleary, and CompuTrus were a few that used source code developed by the Little brothers. They all used a similar line input to describe the truss. It was fast, and, once it was learned, the user never wanted to switch to anything else. Those guys were awesome! They gave many of us our first experience in the daily use of computers to design trusses. The programs did so many things. If you could describe it with the character library, then it would analyze the truss. It didn’t always pass the design and it didn’t always plate the joints, but it would perform analysis as fast as anything on the market. Because of some of the shortcomings though, we all still had to learn more math. These days, how to plate by hand and how to evaluate shear and bending through calculation are things most designers don’t know and don’t need to know, but that wasn’t the case then. That software was the gateway to all we have now.
As a testament to their genius, the Little brothers are still a much sought after commodity. In fact, a lot of really smart programmers have worked hard trying to unravel what these guys did in such a seemingly effortless way. They have remained as relevant as always. These two men had a special way of approaching a problem and finding a solution. I spoke with a friend who has a copy of code that the Little brothers wrote for his company for a very specific product line. That bit of software helped his company become the leader in a market segment that needed someone to provide solid engineered solutions. There is no telling what the value of the software meant to his business, and to the industry, as other companies scrambled to match what the Little brothers had produced. They single-handedly put several plate suppliers on the map with the software solutions they invented. The software grew this industry to heights most didn’t think possible.
Another genius-laden company was OnLine Data. The Horowitz family (Dan and Camilla) created a piece of software that led the industry for more than a decade. It started as software running on a UNIX main frame. At first, it was simply a cutting program, but soon it evolved into an industry-leading component design package. Back in the day, you had to dial in and place your telephone handset in a cradle modem to use the software. It was awesome, but it could be slow depending upon how many users were logged in at any given time. So, some of us would call in at odd times (early in the morning….like 3 am) to get the fastest processing time.
At the time, computer hardware started making advances too. Soon we had Crememco UNIX systems sitting in our offices with terminals at every desk. This was leaps and bounds better. We were back to normal work schedules. The Horowitz family had great insight. They hired awesome people to support the product. Kathy, Norm, Cecilia, and Murleen come readily to mind. They taught me more than I ever wanted to know about computers (and thankfully I have forgotten most of it). But, OnLine saw the trend in desktop computing before many and created a way for their UNIX software to run in the new DOS environment. GENIUS! Now we had color monitors and local and networked desktops. It was Awesome. The speed of that first IBM 386 desktop seemed incredible! Then the 486 came out and we were once again amazed. Sure, my current smartphone has more computing power than those old computers, but for that time we were blazing a new path.
OnLine had the first 3D modeling layout software that I ever used. Now we could see interferences. We could solve plane issues. And, we could design all kinds of trusses that had never been attempted previously. Sometimes it was tedious because you had to place the analog nodes, pitch break joints, and members where you wanted them on a complicated truss, but we could do it and perform structural analysis. For trusses you designed a lot, you could create your own floor or roof truss patterns. By entering a simple code, it would auto-input the rest of the instructions for that truss, which was a big time saver. OnLine soon expanded by offering the first management software designed for truss manufacturers. Dan was a component manufacturer and basically wrote the spec for what he wanted and thought others would want as well. It was powerful and many of the functions in today’s management software offerings come from ideas spawned in the first piece of software.
These two groups developed software in decidedly different ways. They both solved problems and helped move the truss industry forward, and I hope everyone will acknowledge the work these companies did to bring us to where we are today. (And hopefully we’ll see more groundbreaking work appear in our industry that takes us to the next level.) So, next time you’re cleaning out an old box, see something unfamiliar, and then realize it’s a floppy disc – remember these software pioneers and give thanks to them, and be glad that cradle modems don’t exist anymore.