Design your own bridge [JW Competition]
 

Some of you might've heard of this. It's a piece of software for designing simple bridges and testing them in a simulator which measures stress on individual components of the structure. It is aimed at novices that have no engineering background and it a great way to learn about some the work civil/structural engineers do. There's also an annual competition organized by the Westpoint military Academy in the US if you really get into it. :)

It's quite fun to mess around with and make the bridge collapse when the truck passes :twisted:

My winning design :lol:

http://server3.uploadit.org/files/brotes-bridge.gif.jpg

Get Bridge Designer HERE[/b]

YES!!!

Die Mac - Die!!! ;)

Amen to that!!

Cool, I might have to play about with this. I did a B.Sc Engineering degree which is what you do if you're crap at hard maths and can't handle a B.Eng! :oops: This is about my level!! :lol:

This is actually quite nice! And addicting too. :D

My best so far:


http://img161.echo.cx/img161/492/imagem881uw.th.jpg

the best and most boring design :mrgreen:
that's why that kind of brigde (I don't remember the name of that arrangement) was used very often
now engineers and architects are looking for new and exciting bridges.
of course I don't think this program allows you to have a weird design

Had a similar program during my first year of engineering. The problem is we have to build it after we design it using pogo sticks, so a design like Blip's would be very "interesting" to build :wink:

Haha, true. But hey, it works! I think it's called arched bridge or something...

I'm gonna work on a different design now.

Back in school i made a suspension bridge with tooth picks, cardboard and rope and it supported the wieght of a few matchbox cars :D

I'll try an exotic design and wait to see if that bridge can be strong enough

in my first semester I had to build a bridge with spaghetti straws and white glue (used by carpenters) so the small bridge could withstand a laser printer

^^ That's pretty impressive, did u made it?

yes, it was a bitch. But one of the objectives was to have a light brigde.
if your brigde withstanded the printer, then the bridge was weighed. So the winner had the lightest and strongest bridge.

you could see brigdes that weighed 2 kilos :lol: and broke :lol:

lol....no replacement for ..umm....weight.....that's a new theory keke

can I paint carbonfibre sticks into spaghetti like sticks and make the bridge =P~ I am sure I will win

How about we have a small competition to see who can make the best bridge :twisted:

The aim is to make the CHEAPEST bridge, which still passes the load test. Who's in ?

Count me in. So far I'm only at 190K though...

Gotta work harder!

ok, I'm in, but when is the deadline?

Bridge Design Competition Rules

Aim:
To design the lowest costing bridge which passes the load test.

DeadLine:
After 1 week. (29th June)

Requirements:
Each entry must be accompanies with a custom shot :wink:
Slow down the animation speed during the load test, and take a printscreen after the truck has completely cleared the bridge. We must be able to see the total cost.

Prize:
Winner will have bragging rights for being the best bridge designer on JW :D

My 1st Entry.

Total Cost = 180,931.41

Custom Shot
http://img120.echo.cx/img120/4459/blip7mg.th.jpg

Neat, now I'll get back to work. :D


I'm at 182K so far, how about you guys?

2nd entry

Total Cost = 166,146.73

Custom shot
http://img249.echo.cx/img249/6696/blip23rf.th.jpg

The truck barely made it across. The whole bridge was shaking up and down :lol:

Hmm, it's gonna be hard to catch you...
____________

1st entry:

Total Cost= 178,006.14

http://img184.echo.cx/img184/128/uppppp0jp.th.jpg

damn... and I was aiming to 170,000

Anyone else willing to participate on the contest? :D

We're kinda short on participants, and if no one else is interested we'll have to cancel it... :bah:

I say that unless Nuno comes with a great design, Blip will be the winner :wink:

And I'll say you're correct, sir. :wink:


But haven't given up yet!




P.S.: We still need more people. :P

http://img214.echo.cx/img214/7599/bridge12il.th.jpg

$166,607.80

Close...

$164,316.92

http://img201.echo.cx/img201/143/clipboard014mm.th.jpg

Nice work 666

Thanks. Dont' forget to think of the height of the circles dealies. Too high and you just waste money having to use longer poles. Too low and you have to use thicker poles.

BTW, that bridge is entirely hollow tubes.

http://img62.echo.cx/img62/2258/bridge23fx.th.jpg

$162,915.39 ;)

RC we don't doubt your honesty but your custom shot is invalid.
The truck needs to have completely left the bridge. :wink: (because sometimes the bridge will collapse at the end)

No problem - Integrity intact, along with thr bridge... ;)

http://img282.echo.cx/img282/9905/bridge39tb.th.jpg

topic stickied while the competition is on :D

Ta very much indeedy. :)

2nd entry:

Total Cost= 165.658,41

http://img243.echo.cx/img243/9301/ug...igfy3qg.th.jpg

Current Rankings

$164 131,70
http://img100.echo.cx/img100/8286/bridge0qy.th.jpg

shhit i use to LOVE playing aorund with this shit in grade 9 LOOL. i gotta try this again.

A little better, $163 987,69
http://img198.echo.cx/img198/504/bridge5tf.th.jpg

I'll give it a go a little later on.

$164.250,74

http://img53.echo.cx/img53/5974/pppp...pppp7pk.th.jpg

guys try making a new design instead of all having a replica of each other.

The 2005 real contest winners got to around 150,000 :shock:
http://bridgecontest.usma.edu/2005results.htm

Kinda hard... The best I could do without using the current one was around 166K. :bah:

That seems to be the less expensive one, but there are lots of things to do to lower the price, like RC did :bah:

The devil is ALWAYS in the details ---

We are including the site cost :P

http://img169.echo.cx/img169/4577/hydro6ce.png

All this and only $ 608,372.52

Current Rankings

I vote for blinkmeat!!! His looks very grand

Tried something different, but didn't work... :bah:

http://img8.echo.cx/img8/5205/arched3hq.th.jpg

There's still room for improvement though.


So I went back to the previous design...

http://img8.echo.cx/img8/9807/iiiiii...iiii1eh.th.jpg

...And beat Darkel by 3 bucks. :mrgreen:

Current Rankings
It's getting down to penny shaving now... ;)