A
Th e
Component Manufacturing dverti$er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$er
October 2018 #10231 Page #8
Celebrating 50 Years of Truss Design Part III: In-House Computing (Almost) Joe Kannapell - Senior VP MiTek Industries, Inc. www.mii.com
n 1971, for the first time, both On-Line Data and Gang-Nail, Inc. put computer software at the fingertips of truss designers. By 1973, our company responded, and so did most of our major competitors. This innovation was wrought out of near desperation on the part of CMs struggling to grab a significant share of the hottest housing market in U.S. history. This was also a time when inflation was nearing 10%, the economy was growing at a 6% rate, and unemployment was below 5%. The arrival of computer access rapidly transformed truss plant operations, both in the office and in the shop.
I
On-Line Data was the first to automate the generation of truss cutting lists. This leap forward was the result of the work of company founders, Dan and Camilla Hurwitz, that began in their St. Louis truss plant, Woodtech, Inc. As they started their business, the primary tool to generate cutting lists had been a thick manual, “Building Component Cutting Specifications,” by the Clary Corporation (copyrighted in 1961), which was supplied with the Clary Component Cutter. This manual contained a wealth of data, but only for common trusses, and required manual adjustments for overhangs or chord sizes. When truss configurations were not in the Clary manual, calculations were necessary. Believe it or not, the only available calculators were mechanical behemoths, like the one shown here. But no such calculator could resolve geometric functions required to calculate angles. So every truss plant supplemented the calculator with a copy of “Smoley’s New Combined Tables.” Undoubtedly Camilla, who had earned her PhD in college, realized she could overcome that tedium by writing a program to resolve the geometry for specific truss conditions. Clary Corporation, recognizing the advances made by the Hurwitzes, bought their truss plant and programs, hired them, and moved them to Texas. When the (inevitable) demise of Clary’s mechanical calculator division threatened their existence, Dan and Camilla were able to buy back their programs, and form On-Line Data.
Continued next page
PHONE: 800-289-5627
Read/Subscribe online at www.componentadvertiser.com
FAX: 800-524-4982