FAQ

1. General questions about the Bridge Designer

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What is your privacy policy?

The Bridge Designer is locally installed on the user’s computer and does not interact with the internet. The Bridge Designer does not collect or store user data.  Therefore, use of the software cannot compromise a user’s privacy in any way.

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Is there a Bridge Designer for iPads?

No, sorry.  We are a very low-budget operation, and we have zero resources to support new development work.

If you are a software developer and would like to create an iPad version of the Bridge Designer, thanks! You can find the complete source code at https://sourceforge.net/projects/wpbdc/.

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Is there a Bridge Designer for Chromebooks?

No, sorry.  We do recognize that many schools are using Chromebooks, and we would love to be able to support this platform.  Unfortunately, we are a very low-budget operation, and we have zero resources to support new development work.

If you are a software developer and would like to create a Chromebook version of the Bridge Designer, thanks! You can find the complete source code at https://sourceforge.net/projects/wpbdc/.

2. Downloading and installing the Bridge Designer

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Is there a silent install for the Bridge Designer?

Yes. setupbdv16j /S

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The Bridge Designer running in Windows 10 doesn’t display correctly on my high-resolution monitor (screens are cut off on the bottom or font is too small). What’s wrong?

Apparently there is an incompatibility between Windows 10 and Java (the computer language in which the Bridge Designer is written), which affects display scaling on newer ultra HD monitors. Unfortunately, because the bug is in Java, we have no way to fix this problem directly.

One work-around that has worked well for some users is as follows:

  • Right-click the Windows Desktop and select Display Settings.
  • Select Display from the main menu.
  • In the Scale and Layout section, choose 100% from the drop-down.

Please note that, as best we know, this bug only affects systems using newer ultra HD monitors. The Bridge Designer runs fine on Windows 10 systems using older lower-resolution monitors.

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I’m getting an “Error opening file” message while installing the software. What’s wrong?

You are running the installer while logged in as a user without enough privileges to install programs. Log in as a user with Administrator privileges and the installation should run successfully.

3. Using the Bridge Designer

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The Bridge Designer running in Windows 10 doesn’t display correctly on my high-resolution monitor (screens are cut off on the bottom or font is too small). What’s wrong?

Apparently there is an incompatibility between Windows 10 and Java (the computer language in which the Bridge Designer is written), which affects display scaling on newer ultra HD monitors. Unfortunately, because the bug is in Java, we have no way to fix this problem directly.

One work-around that has worked well for some users is as follows:

  • Right-click the Windows Desktop and select Display Settings.
  • Select Display from the main menu.
  • In the Scale and Layout section, choose 100% from the drop-down.

Please note that, as best we know, this bug only affects systems using newer ultra HD monitors. The Bridge Designer runs fine on Windows 10 systems using older lower-resolution monitors.

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When I reduce the size of a member, the cost increases. Is this a bug?

No, it’s not a bug.  To understand how reducing the size of a member can sometimes cause the overall cost of the bridge to increase (and how increasing a member size can sometimes cause an overall decrease in cost), you must first understand how the Bridge Designer calculates the cost of your bridge.   The cost of a given bridge design consists of three components–material cost, connection cost, and product cost. When you reduce the size of a member, you reduce its material cost; however, if the modified member is a unique new product (i.e., if its material, cross-section shape, and size are different from any other member in the structural model), then the product cost is increased by $1,000.  In this circumstance, if the cost saving due to the reduced member size is less than $1,000, the overall cost of the bridge will increase.

The product cost represents an important real-world aspect of structural engineering design–that standardization of member sizes can improve overall cost-efficiency.  If a structure is designed solely to minimize material cost, the design is likely to include many different member sizes; but this practice is actually somewhat inefficient, because there are added costs associated with ordering all of these different sizes, managing them on the jobsite, and connecting different-sized members together.  Thus there is some economic benefit in reducing the overall number of different member sizes–even if some members in the final design are somewhat heavier than required for structural load-carrying.  That’s why, in the Bridge Designer cost calculation, there is a $1,000 penalty for each unique member size added to the design.

To see exactly how the Bridge Designer calculates the cost of your bridge, click the Cost Calculations button on the main toolbar.