West Point Bridge Builders and the Bridge Designer: software versions and history, 2011 to 2016
The West Point Bridge Designer came out in a new edition every year from 2011 to 2016, and the program is sometimes called West Point Bridge Builders. This page lists the versions, how large each installer was and what each one needed to run.
West Point Bridge Builders: the program behind the name
Every edition worked the same way: pick a site, draw a truss out of steel members, run a loaded truck over it and read the cost. The program is the West Point Bridge Designer, and the “builders” form of the name is a common variant for it. What changed from year to year was mostly the plumbing, and the plumbing is what this page records.
Whatever the name searched, each year had its own edition, so the West Point Bridge Designer versions read as a calendar: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.
Software versions, edition by edition, 2011 to 2016
The table lists the size of each installer file, in megabytes.
| Edition | Windows | Mac | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 6.1 MB | 10.2 MB | Smallest installers of the series |
| 2012 | 9.3 MB | 10.0 MB | Still small |
| 2013 | 35.6 MB standard, 9.8 MB minimum | 65.6 MB standard, 11.1 MB minimum | Standard setup includes the Java runtime |
| 2014 | 35.6 MB | 65.6 MB, plus a 12.8 MB build for Macs with Apple Java | Separate Mac build for Apple’s Java |
| 2015 | 39.8 MB | 73.5 MB | One installer per platform |
| 2016 | Final edition | Final edition | The last year of the national contest |
Between 2012 and 2013 the Windows installer grew from 9.3 MB to 35.6 MB, a factor of almost four, and the Java runtime accounts for the difference. In 2015 the Mac disk image was 33.7 MB heavier than the Windows setup, 73.5 against 39.8. A program of about 9 MB had become one of 35.6 MB.
The installers were once published on the project’s SourceForge page, http://sourceforge.net/projects/wpbdc/, and none of them is distributed today. The table is a record of the software, and the current browser program is described on the West Point Bridge Designer status page.
Why the installers grew: the Java runtime
The jump in 2013 has a single cause. The recommended standard setup carried the entire Java runtime inside the installer, where the 2013 minimum setup relied on a system-wide Java 6 or 7. The minimum stayed at 9.8 MB for Windows and 11.1 MB for the Mac, so the runtime itself accounts for about 25.8 MB of the Windows standard setup and 54.5 MB of the Mac one. Anyone sorting West Point Bridge Designer versions by how they installed can use that split: 2013 onward means a bundled runtime, earlier means the computer’s own Java.
On a Mac the runtime mattered more. In 2012 Apple dropped support for Java, and Oracle’s Java became the only choice on newer systems. That version could not drive the advanced graphics behind the load-test fly-through on some Macs, so the program offered an old-style graphics mode instead. Hence 65.6 MB for the Mac standard setup against 35.6 MB for Windows. A West Point Bridge Builders install from those years on a newer Mac therefore depended on which Java it found.
West Point Bridge Designer 2015 and 2014 in detail
West Point Bridge Designer 2015 asked for Windows XP or newer and Mac OS X 10.7.3 (Lion) or later. The difference between West Point Bridge Designer 2014 and 2015 is mostly size, 35.6 against 39.8 MB on Windows, and the 2014 edition shipped in the same two flavours plus a third: a 12.8 MB Mac disk image for computers that already had Apple Java installed.
A 2015 edition behaves like West Point Bridge Designer 2014 here, and a blank or frozen load test was a known problem on both. The animation draws a three-dimensional truck on a three-dimensional bridge and leans on the graphics card, so an old graphics driver could stop the test before it began. The 2nd-edition builds carried a launcher “for older computers” for exactly those machines.
Software history: what the browser edition kept and dropped
The classic Java program has a successor, ASCE Bridge Designer, Cloud Edition, an open source program that runs the same kind of cost-scored truss assignment in a browser tab with nothing to install. What it gave up is compatibility: it cannot open a file saved by any edition above.
The tools that teach the mechanics sit elsewhere now. The truss bridge designer on this site gives the force in every member and loads a design until one fails, and the timeline of the contest and the software places the 2011 to 2016 editions in a longer history that began in 1998.
Questions5
What is West Point Bridge Builders?
West Point Bridge Builders is another name for the West Point Bridge Designer, a free educational program for designing a steel truss bridge. The software status page says what exists today.
Which was the last edition of the West Point Bridge Designer?
The 2016 edition. The 2014 edition was the last to ship a separate Mac build for machines with Apple's Java already installed.
Why was the Mac installer so much bigger than the Windows one?
The Mac standard setup carried the whole Java runtime. The 2015 Mac disk image was 73.5 MB against 39.8 MB for Windows.
Why did the load test show a blank window on some computers?
The load test animation uses the graphics card heavily, like a game, so outdated graphics drivers were the usual cause. A launcher for older computers existed in the 2nd-edition builds for that case.
Can a design from an old edition be opened in the browser version?
No. The browser edition cannot open files from earlier versions, so an old design has to be redrawn.
Next sheets4
- West Point Bridge Designer software status where the program stands today
- Truss bridge designer draw and load a truss without any install
- Contest and software timeline the bigger picture, 1998 to now
- Tension and compression what the member colours meant