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Automatic derivation of the simulation model with Allplan Bridge. (Picture courtesy of ALLPLAN Infrastructure.)
Seeing a bridge from a far, one can admire its beauty and elegance. Crossing it is to be in awe of its scale and to appreciate its detail. Is there any better testament to engineering on Earth? Bridges have spanned impossible distances and crossed ridiculous depths. Time after time, after ordinary folk insisted it couldn’t be done, engineers responded with “Done!”
Bridges crisscross the waterways of the San Francisco Bay and tie together shore communities, including the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. The smug grin when we go over these bridges? We’re thinking “Yeah, engineers did this.”
Yes, we are totally taking credit for the bridge engineer. The kid who drew bridges with crayons, who grew up to calculate catenaries, study concrete creep and on to work on impossible projects. The one who stamped the plans, ensured the spans met as they reached for each other, did the math over and over — and sweated every detail.
A concrete bridge takes shape. Allplan Bridge’s simulation is time sensitive (4D) and takes the construction process into consideration. (Picture courtesy of ALLPLAN GmbH, Munich, Germany | iStockphoto.com/levkr.)
After hundreds of bridges admired and crossed, we jumped at the chance to interview a real bridge engineer—it’s like being invited into the kitchen of your favorite…