I've been in the engineering field for a few years now, having spent
the six years prior working in the IT industry. While I enjoy
structural engineering much more, I have often been frustrated by the
lack of good examples available online. If I want to solve a computer
problem, or learn how to do something new, there are many, many
resources available online. If I want to learn how a structural
calculation is done, I have to spend a fair bit of money for either a
book, or a seminar.
I had the idea a while back to try something out. I wanted to create
a web site where engineers could share examples with one another. At
our company, we have a folder on our server that is full of PDF scans
we've made of calculations that we think others might find
instructive. What I'm hoping to do is to create a web site that
allows the engineering community to do the same.
So I found a structure to build on, and put a site together -
www.examplecalcs.com.
The way it works is that examples can be
submitted, along with a short description and "tags" that help
identify it in a search. These tags might be things like "Seismic",
"2001 IBC", "Wood Braced Frame", or what have you. You can specify as
many as you see fit. You can submit a link to either a calculation
that you have done, or one on another site that you think others might
find useful.
Once a calculation is submitted, the other users on the site are able
to review it and "vote" it up or down, based on it's usefulness and
accuracy. There's also the ability to post comments, in case
clarification is needed.
Finally, I knew that some folks don't have a place to upload and share
an example from, so I put together an e-mail handler. If you send an
e-mail to "incoming@examplecalcs.com" with the subject of "Example"
and a PDF attached, the PDF will be saved to the site (at
www.examplecalcs.com/hosted/). You'll reply a reply e-mail with a
link to your PDF that you can then submit from the regular site.
The site is free. I'm not making any money from it, but I do hope to
learn a lot. Please try it out and send any feedback my way. Also,
if you think it's a useful site, please pass it on to others.
Chris Slater, PE
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