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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
February 2023 #15283 Page #84
Design Connections
Geordie Secord, Senior Recruiter TheJobLine.com – Canada
Building Information Modeling for the Component Business?
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f I compare the truss layout and design software used in the early 1980s to what is available today, it’s mind boggling. Actually, comparing layout software wouldn’t be possible since the first layout software at our company didn’t show up until around 1989! Up to that point, layouts were done with a pencil and paper, usually on ¼” grid graph paper to make life a little easier. Of course, every truss dimension – heel height, pitch, span, bearing location – was calculated by hand. In my case, I had my trusty Hewlett Packard HP15 scientific calculator always at the ready. I touched on this same subject in my September column, Design: Software Power or Brain Power?, but now rather than continuing to look back, I’d like to look forward. The promise of BIM (building information modeling) for the truss and wall panel world would suggest that the plans we receive – or more accurately the 3D models – would include not only complete information with which to do our work but also fully accurate information.
Hewlett Packard HP15
Imagine these dreams as realities. No more interior walls dimensioned as 4” thick when they’re actually built from 2x4 with ½” sheetrock each side totaling 4½” in the real world. No more guessing about cladding dimensions when trying to determine the offset from bearing wall to finished cladding. And, perhaps best of all, no more looking at a cross section on a plan and wishing that the architect had taken the section just a couple of feet over so that it actually gave some idea of what the ceiling profile is supposed to be. (As a side note, I have jokingly told many architects that I secretly believe they take a course in how to provide cross sections with as little useful information as possible. I know that in many cases it is because the tools they are using aren’t necessarily up to the task either.)
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