Thursday, December 13, 2007

Re: New and hopefully useful web site

Chris,
Great Idea!


----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Slater" <chris@jdwylieengineering.com>
To: <seaint@seaint.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 12:03 PM
Subject: New and hopefully useful web site


> Hi All,
>
> 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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