West Point Bridge Designer5 works using WINE!

[Rhino]

WHOA!

How surprised was I after attempting to install the oldest 2 versions of the software unsuccessfully that the latest version works perfectly!

WPBD5 is an piece of engineering design software for educational use, but it is addictive as ever in attempting to design a bridge that works for as little money as possible. There is a contest associated with this and numerous lessons for high school and college level physics. I use this application (for Windows) with my students to design, build, and test bridges and it is very effective.

To get this to run, I am using WINE from the mega puppy usr_more.sfs.

Some screenies:

[Pizzasgood]

Awesome! We played with that two years ago at my high school. For those who don't know, you get to pick the diameter, material, and density of each length of metal, and place them wherever you want. Then, you have a truck drive over it and you can watch it bend out of shape. The chunks of the bridge change color for whether they have tension or compression.

Not only is it fun to try making a cheap effective bridge, it's also fun to make crazy bridges.