DaveD
Well-Known Member
I've thought this on several previous occasions but the current discussion on gusset design in other threads has spurred me into action.
There's few more useful tools than having a worked example to look at when you are trying to design something. We certainly have the expertise within the membership of this site to produce some example design calculations for common problems. The aforementioned gusset thread is screaming out for this, and when I have access to a scanner again on Monday I plan to produce one and post it (unless the responses to this thread talk me out of it!). To be fair, the longer the gusset thread drags on, the closer several other posters have got to doing the same thing, or at least stepping through the required process. So what's preventing this from happening? Here's my thoughts:
So fellow HBA members, have I taken leave of my senses or is this a good idea?
There's few more useful tools than having a worked example to look at when you are trying to design something. We certainly have the expertise within the membership of this site to produce some example design calculations for common problems. The aforementioned gusset thread is screaming out for this, and when I have access to a scanner again on Monday I plan to produce one and post it (unless the responses to this thread talk me out of it!). To be fair, the longer the gusset thread drags on, the closer several other posters have got to doing the same thing, or at least stepping through the required process. So what's preventing this from happening? Here's my thoughts:
- Professional engineers are reluctant to give their expertise for free - I don't think this is a lack of willingness to offer their time. There's plenty of posts here that must have taken considerable time and thought to write, more likely it's 2.
- It saddens me to think that liability may scaring people off. But certainly my 'PI’ insurance doesn't cover me for unpaid work, and especially for those in the USA as soon as anything goes wrong there seems to be court cases flying around (I'll restrain myself from drifting off into a rant about personal responsibility!) I'd be less concerned as I'm not in the US and so somewhat less exposed, but I'd hate Jake (as the website owner) to get sued for something I posted on his website, that someone else then misused or misinterpreted and ended up maiming themselves.
- A wariness about 'spoon feeding’ rather than 'educating’. I'd certainly worry about someone blindly copying without understanding and inadvertently invalidating the assumptions and coming up with a wrong or potentially dangerous answer. This is certainly why I am reluctant to post spreadsheets as it's too easy for someone to plug in unrealistic inputs and come out with garbage that they assume is correct.
- Potential embarrassment. This is an interesting one. If you do post something that turns out to be wrong or contains a silly mistake you risk both looking like a fool and damaging your online reputation. Maybe some people aren't willing to take that risk, it's a lot easier to be an ‘armchair expert’ than actually prove you know what you are talking about
- Lack of checking - This is a big one for me. In my professional life I wouldn't dream of releasing a design that hadn't been independently checked/verified by another engineer. In this case posting a calculation that I'd only checked myself has a higher risk of publishing something with errors in it. Now I'm sure one of the other knowledgeable folks on this forum would spot it and highlight the problem (there's never a shortage of people willing to point out you are wrong on the internet!). I guess this also leads back to point 4 above.
- This is an internet forum not a textbook - I guess some people wouldn't agree with posting this kind of info, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing, and if people want worked examples they should buy a textbook of go do an engineering degree so they fully understand the implications. Personally I think one of the great benefits would be that you could ask the author why they did something, sadly you can never get that from a book. There was more than one occasion whilst I was studying where I would have gladly had Bruhn, or Peery to hand to answer questions about their occasionally infuriating books!
So fellow HBA members, have I taken leave of my senses or is this a good idea?
