Building Forward Together: The Infra Group Brings Vector Intelligence and Steel Innovation to Kansas City.
Building Forward Together: The Infra Group Brings Vector Intelligence and Steel Innovation to Kansas City
The structural steel industry is standing at an inflection point. Global infrastructure demand is accelerating, digital workflows are reshaping how projects move from bid to build, and the fabricators who will lead the next decade are the ones pairing decades of craftsmanship with modern, data-driven tools. That’s exactly the conversation The Infra Group is bringing to Kansas City this fall — and we would love for you to be part of it.
We’re proud to announce that The Infra Group will be exhibiting at Booth #2 at the ALLPLAN Build Forward Conference, taking place September 30 – October 1, 2026, at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown in Kansas City, Missouri.
Why Build Forward Matters for the Steel Industry
Build Forward — the evolution of the former SDS2 Summit — has established itself as the premier event for SDS2 and ALLPLAN users in design, fabrication, and construction. The conference convenes steel detailers, fabricators, precast concrete professionals, rebar detailers, and civil and structural engineers under one roof to trade insights, benchmark best practices, and shape the industry’s next chapter.
The 2026 agenda reflects the pace of change in AEC technology, from breakout sessions on workflow innovation to a keynote by Katherine Nelson Galke, Head of AI Innovation & Strategy at Trilon, on how AI is reshaping the industry. For steel professionals evaluating the SDS2 2027 roadmap and the broader ALLPLAN ecosystem, Build Forward is where the conversation is happening.
The Infra Group is exhibiting because our story sits squarely at that intersection — where physical steel supply, value-added processing, and next-generation software converge.
At Booth #2: Vector Intelligence, Our New Digital Utility for Steel Estimating
For decades, the industry has been held back by a stubborn bottleneck: manual takeoffs. Printed blueprints, highlighters, and hand-keyed spreadsheets create a ceiling on how many projects a fabricator can pursue and expose every bid to compounding human error.
Vector Intelligence is our answer. Recently acquired by the Reliance Carbon Structural Group — of which The Infra Group is a proud member — Vector is a proprietary automated-takeoff platform purpose-built for structural steel. Its algorithm reads vector PDF drawings generated in Revit or AutoCAD, identifies structural members, and returns a data-rich output package to your team, often within an hour of upload.
At Booth #2, our team will walk you through what Vector delivers:
- A 50%–80% reduction in bid time on every job, giving your estimators the capacity to pursue more work.
- Data-enriched outputs — annotated PDFs, CSV/XML files, and 3D models that plug directly into leading fabrication tools.
- A secure, AWS-hosted portal that adapts to your existing workflow rather than forcing you to rebuild it.
- An integrated pipeline from estimation through material procurement, because Vector is offered as part of doing business with The Infra Group.
The Full Weight of The Infra Group Behind Every Project
Software is only half the story. What makes Vector Intelligence uniquely powerful is the physical infrastructure standing behind it. The Infra Group unites Infra-Metals, Delta Steel, and Sugar Steel — three legacy names in structural steel service — across 21 strategically located facilities from New England to South Florida, through the Midwest, and across the Southwest.
At Booth #2, our specialists will also be available to discuss:
- A comprehensive product portfolio: wide flange beams, structural tubing, plate, angles, bars, channels, I-beams, pipe, sheet, and manufactured products.
- Value-added processing services including Hi-Def plasma plate burning, drilling, CNC saw cutting, forming, blast & prime, cambering, and T-splitting.
- Regional distribution tailored to your projects, backed by the scale of one of North America’s largest metals distribution networks.
Together, Vector Intelligence and our nationwide service-center network give fabricators a rare advantage: one partner that helps you bid faster, quote more accurately, and receive pre-processed steel that’s ready to move straight to fabrication.