August 2011

Building Design Software – Mike Connell, Pryda

Pryda manufactures timber trusses and the various components thereof.. Mike demonstrated the software they give away to their clients. This was the most impressive software demonstration I’ve ever seen. It designs the roof and floor trusses for multi floor buildings, showing a complete 3D view and everything down from there, including hardware requirements and material cutting requirements. It was fast, elegant, robust and apparently complete. Mike is an engineer who has presided over the evolution of this software over 30 years, starting with some basic calculations. Much of the work is still done by Fortran routines, with current GUI requirements done using Visual Studio. Database is Access, with Firebird due to replace it.