Winbeam

If only i had this program two years ago! It would have made my life A LOT easier than doing pages and pages of calculations. Wow...



Larger Image:
http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/4781/winbeam.png

For those of you who have no idea what this is... It is a program in which you can design beams/trusses. In this case, I am designing a gerber girder (cantilever beam) that's going to be put into a multi-purpose 3-floor building structure. I need to pick the dimensions and size of a beam that will satisfy specific requirements in accordance to the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC). For example, I need to pick a beam that can take applied forces (forces that are acting downward on a beam for example) and only deflect (bend) a certain amount that is less than what is stated in the NBCC. If the maximum deflection from the applied forces for the selected beam is less than the allowable deflection in accordance to the NBCC then the beam I picked is acceptable. There's a couple more things the beam must satisfy also.

It's much more complicated than this as I have to design for over 40 different things for the structure I am designing, but this is basically one part of it (part of the roof level).

This is a nice application for engineers. I have studied Dynamics this semester also Mechanics of Materials, so all these calculations were involved.

Wow, that's pretty neat. I've used Auto CAD once and never after, but I understand how helpful these programs are for engineers. Oh, and like hummerwar said, nice wallpaper/background. I want to see the whole thing.