Forum Bridge Building Competition?

[ddrueding]

I downloaded the West Point Bridge Designer 2004 software earlier and have found it more entertaining than my video games!

Once I get a "worthy" design, I'll post it here. It would be interesting to see what the minds of SF could come up with.

 

[ddrueding]

*Frustration Warning*

1. This is kinda hard for those of us without any engineering background.
2. The app tends to crash after about 20 unsaved iterations - save often.

 

[ddrueding]

After spending about 5 hours on the program, The best I've been able to do using an interesting design is under $179k. I could go cheaper using one of their pre-designed truss structures, but that wouldn't be original. I'll post it in a minute.

 

[ddrueding]

 

[ddrueding]

Oh, the dissapointing part is the High School champion had one for just over $130k

 

[JSF]

• 1. Where do the costs come from? Are they standardized for all participants in the design?
  
  2. Does the designer have to account for deflection in computing stress and strain?
  
  3. What takes precedence, originality or functionality? You can significantly reduce costs by eliminating the pyramidal structure abote the deck.

Joe

 

[ddrueding]

All the costs are within the program. It gives you many options, including 3 types of steel and tubular vs. bar supports. It also calculates the cost of different levels of "Site Cost" (excavation, abutments, etc.).

It will take any structure that can hold the weight driving from one side to the other (rolling across the length of the bridge), but I was looking for something that fit that requirement and looked kinda cool at the same time.