OTB just passed 63,000 unique views on Youtube!  And more significantly, we have gone from 11,000 to 63,000 in less than 2 months.  Thank you, everyone, for your continued interest and involvement with OTB.

Just a quick update about our recent goings on.  We have been very busy with a slew of new and interesting projects.  In what may be a trend for the future, almost everything we have been working on recently is covered under non-disclosure agreements.  It is great to be so busy and excited for the future, but it sure makes it hard to keep our social media cloud updated with recent work.  Suffice to say that we are working on projects in 4 different states and are deeply immersed in designing timber frame assemblies, creating architectural visualization products, and designing extensive remodels.

As well, we are currently working very hard to create a innovative and paradigm changing business plan that we will be using to pursue investors for taking OTB to the next level of inovation with the design and visualization services we provide.   Can’t go into too much detail, but developing hardware, software, and training aids all feature heavily in our ever evolving plan for the future.

This is the VBE™ for a complicated timber frame assembly that was designed to integrate with an existing steel moment frame.  To add to the complexity, the structure was in Colorado and the frame was cut in both Montana and Ohio.  After shipping across the country, everything clicked together like legos.  This would have not been the case if we hadn’t discovered, while creating the VBE™, that the moment frame had been designed so that the entire great room truss system would have been uninstallable.  Having caught this in the virtual build, we were able to redesign and fix the frame before the wood arrived on site and everything was smooth after that.

It with much anticipation and satisfaction the we can announce that the Hollander frame is complete and standing on her foundation in New York!  After taking the frame down in Montana, loading it onto 3 semis and shipping it across the country, loading 2 large job boxes with tools and hardware and shipping them, too, and then the four of us flying to New York and putting it back together, it is almost with surprise that everything went together flawlessly.

The weather was, other than two cold and rainy days, amazingly perfect; the on site guys were wonderfully helpful and capable; and with no missing pieces or hardware, the house really did just click together.  Well, there may have been a few moments using 20 ton jacks and 2 ton come-alongs, but, after the frame had stood outside for over a year in Montana, been disassembled, shipped, and reassembled, it is a testament to what precision joinery and fabrication allow for that the frame was such a joy to put back together.

It may take some time to compile all of the pictures and video, but we do have a time lapse of the entire 12 days for you to enjoy right now.

After a colossal week of taking down the frame, labeling, fine-tuning, organizing and stacking, the first semi is on the way to NY!  2 more to go, and then we are off to NY.  Very exciting and looking forward to a smooth raising, with no weather issues.

Whew!  After 3 massive days, we have disassembled all of the Hollander frame, except for the floor system, in preparation for shipping next week.   Definitely a little emotional watching our baby come down for the last time, but also very excited to hand her off to KIm and Steve for the rest of their lives.  It has been an honor and a privilege to work on such an amazing project and we appreciate the artistic and technical freedom the Hollanders afforded us.

This VBE™ concept portrays box beams and intricate patterned flooring designs for a custom residential project.  Created over the course of 2 months,  this project is located 2500 miles from OTB Designworks,  was fabricated  1000 miles from the site and installed by the on site contractors, this project is a perfect example of the power of the VBE™.  Please call us at 406.250.7022 for more information.

A promotional video that we created for the joint marketing efforts of us and Old West Woods, in Ohio.  We have been working extensively together for years and the products we are capable of producing, while off site, are truly remarkable.

This video shows the progression from the VBE™ creation, to the generation of shop drawings and animations demonstrating the concept to actual fabrication to installation.  This project, involving solid timbers fabricated in Montana, and box beams fabricated in Ohio, all perfectly integrated into a residential remodel in Colorado, was a complete success and a true demonstration of the power of the VBE™.

Working closely with Old West Woods, a company OTB has had the pleasure of collaborating with for years, we designed, OTB created the VBE™, and OWW fabricated a beautiful remodel for a wine room.  With tiled barrel vaults, custom made doors, and an intricate box beam setup, this room was transformed from a standard basement space into a small shangri la.  And to add to the intricacy, the onsite contractor installed everything, using shop drawing specs generated from the VBE™

Today is the second time that Flathead Valley Community College is offering our Intro to SketchUp class and we have filled all 12 seats.  We are also offering a 4 session Intermediate SketchUp class starting Oct 24 that already has 8 seats filled.  We are very excited that there is such an interest in 3D modeling in the Flathead valley and we are pleased that we can assist in their education.