The Bridge Designer program is part of the Bridge Design Contest for civil engineers. The program enables students to design bridges, test the design, and analyse the test results. Both construction and costs are important factors. The design is part of a contest among students, but can also be used without participation in the contest. After the design a simulation of a truck crossing the designed bridge can be viewed.
The software Bridge Designer (2015) can be downloaded for free and is different for every new yearly contest.
The design requires a set of choices that influence the overall construction, the architecture, the costs. Thereafter the details have to be designed choosing from multiple options in terms of number of joints and supports, type of material etc.
Apart from use at university level among (civil)engineering students, the program could also be used as a tool to prepare a design of a bridge at secondary school level. Hereby, the tool could be used as an introduction. The program visualizes the different types of construction used in building bridges and their names.
Despite the high level of data and complexity of the designs, Bridge Designer is a highly interactive and intuitive program.
| Purchase | Free |
| Hardware | PC, Mac |
| Requirements | Java |
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