Bridge Designer, Cloud Edition
About Bridge Designer
Bridge Designer, Cloud Edition is a free web application for learning about engineering design. The user solves
the problem of designing and testing a highway bridge across a river. The test involves driving a standard truck
load over the bridge to ensure it's strong enough. But that's not all! The most successful bridge is the
one with lowest cost. The Bridge Designer continuously shows the cost of the current design based on the amount of
preparation required at the bridge site, the design's complexity, and the kind and amount of materials used.
Iterate to see how low you can get the cost of your bridge! Compete to see whose is best!
Caveats
There's a small warning that goes with this site. This is a pre-release. There's a small risk of remaining bugs.
Major ones are unlikely. Hundreds of teachers and kids have already reported success and no major problems.
Features won't change further.
Another tiny risk is that too many users will exceed Github's bandwidth limits. If it happens, we'll need to shut
down this site until completion of a sponsorship deal, which will include unlimited bandwidth support. We expect
to give fair warning if that should happen.
We thank Github for their incredibly gracious support!
Contributing
To furnish Bridge Designer at no cost to you, we are a small team with limited resources. In a few areas, you can
be a huge help.
Bug reports! If you're using Bridge Designer and it does something unexpected or
annoying, please
report an issue. The
bug label tells us the report is a problem.
Feature requests! If you have an idea that you think many users of Bridge Designer would
find useful, please
report an issue. The
enhancement label tells us the report is a request.
Questions. If you have a question about Bridge Designer, please
report an issue. The
question label tells us the report is a question.
Back end resources. We could furnish a service for contests that anyone can set up, with
scoreboards provided and updated automatically. But we don't have resources to run the back end. If you can
contribute, we want to hear from you. Please
report an issue. The
back end resource offer label tells us the report is an offer.
Links
FAQ
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General stuff...
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Is the Cloud Edition related to earlier apps Bridge Designer, Engineering Encounters Bridge Designer,
and West Point Bridge Designer?
Yes! All the older versions were desktop applications for Windows and Mac. Many users have asked for a
version to run on Chromebook and other platforms with only a web browser. We answered with the Cloud
Edition. It's engineered to seem as similar as possible to the old versions. Existing teacher experience
and lesson plans are still good to go!
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Is anything new? Yes! Fly-through test visualization, 3d printing support, and
more. For details, see "What's new?" in the Help of Bridge Designer.
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What's the catch? None! Use Bridge Designer, Cloud Edition freely as much as you
like for educational purposes only. The source is also freely available under the GNU public license, v3.
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Using the Bridge Designer...
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Can Cloud Edition and earlier version bridge files be used interchangeably?
No. For many reasons, Cloud Edition can't load previous version files and vice versa. This is nothing new.
Older versions did not support file exchange either.
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Cloud Edition starts where I left off last time! What's up with that?
Unlike most apps, Cloud Edition periodically stashes all your work in a place called "browser local
storage". This means you can reload or close the tab and re-open later without fear. But a few
things...
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Save your work to files! Local storage is cool, but has limits as explained
below. Saving your work to files is still the safest way to go.
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It only works within the same device and browser! Local storage is local.
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Cloud Edition updates may hurt. After we fix bugs or make improvements,
your next use might start fresh rather than where you left off. This is rare, but it can happen.
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Local storage is a bit fragile. There are unlikely but possible ways that
local storage can fail or be deleted.
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You can turn it off! If you don't want your work saved in local storage,
just uncheck Edit | Remember my work. If you share a user ID with another
person on the same computer and want to keep your design secret, this is a way to do it.
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You can force a reset! If Cloud Edition ever fails to start up, it may be
that your local storage was somehow corrupted. Make a fresh start by adding
?reset to the end of the Cloud Edition URL.
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How do local contest codes work? Conduct your own contest locally for any set of
site conditions you choose. For this, you'll need to select a local contest code and furnish it to all
contestants. They enter it on page 2 of the new bridge setup wizard and start designing!
Codes are always exactly 6 characters. The first 3 are any digits you choose. Bridge Designer doesn't
care. For the last 3, use the new bridge setup wizard (with no local contest code) to choose your contest
site conditions. Before pressing Finish, look at the wizard's lower right
corner. You'll see something like Site conditions: 12A. The three final
characters (12A in this example) are the last three of your local contest code. Have fun!
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Why does Cloud Edition ask for save file names often? Browsers have security
features to prevent bad guys from modifying files on your computer via the Internet. One such feature is
asking for a file name to verify you know exactly what's being written. This is a good thing, even if it's
a bit more trouble.
