Truss Me! Reviews

Excellent

Jtrom345

I love how this app lets me play around with structural elements and then immediately see which members are in tension and compression. After awhile I start to get an intuitive feel for how to build an optimized structure. If I were teaching statics I would make this a required exercise. A few suggestions: Please add a multiple undo/redo feature. I find myself growing tired of repeating actions after a failed experiment. Allow me to save and recall structure diagrams. I many cases I spent quite awhile figuring out a solution and it would be nice to show someone what I came up with. It would also be useful when comparing different solutions. Make it easier to switch between deleting and adding elements. Maybe a different gesture to remove an item rather than selecting a different tool

I can smell mechanics in my iphone!

YoungMechanician

I feel that I do a have a structural Lab in my phone! It is awesome, in the sense that you can create ANY arbitrary configuration of truss structures, add weights, and see how the structure deforms! Investigate stabilities, failures. It is simply fantastic! I wish I had it when I was learning the statics!

Kind of crappy

Meched

Adding members doesn't work. I'm sure there is a way to do that, but it isn't obvious. Cool concept, but not ready for prime time.

Misses the mark

JanoszD

I generally see promise in any app related to technology and engineering, and I saw it here too in a concept to bring a structural design app to the iPad. But, this one misses the mark. This app seems to try to make a truss structure game too much like Angry Birds in how it scores at the expense of basic understanding of how some of the elements work. I realize there are general explanations in the Help section, but the help should be more prominent and there once you are in the interface. It also lacks certain seemingly obvious user interface elements such as an “undo” button and a tap to take you to the next challenge once you’ve completed the current one. Finally, especially for a younger inexperienced audience, it would be helpful for each challenge level to actually state what exactly the challenge is. It took me, an experienced iPad user, and someone that has used software like this to some amateur extent, way too long to figure out how to manipulate things in the build area. For now, stick to the desktop/laptop and web versions of this type of software.

First-rate engineering educational tool

ckovalchick

Very well done! Contrary to the previous reviewer's thoughts, a thorough help menu makes coming up to speed on use extremely easy. The level of detail in the failure mechanisms being modeled makes this a fine educational engineering experience.

Liked it a lot - but needs more levels

cpragman

Mechanics is pretty realistic. Columns buckle unless they are stiffened. Beams under tension can take a lot of load, but eventually will stretch if overloaded. The problems to solve are a bit limited. I wish the developer would add more levels, and provide the ability to zoom in/out, so that bigger & more elaborate constructions could be made.

Trust me

NinJo_of_the_Shire

I love this app. The engineering in the belly of the machine is extraordinary, and the challenges are a lot of fun and addictive. Helps build great intuition and creativity. I'm an engineer with several years of experience and this app, in addition to being very enjoyable, is getting me to think about structures in new ways. On the downside... my girlfriend who is a humanities major, has gotten into this app and is outdoing me on the challenges! I don't how she thinks of and comes up her structures, but it's wonderful to see this that the app is also fun for someone with no technical background, and that creativity even in technical matters is not restricted to technical folks.

Entertaining and educational

Pelipapusa

This is a great app: educational, entertaining and very realistic! I feel I learn a lot about structures while playing. To@Meched: I noticed the same and then I realized you need to have nodes first if you want to add elements! Then everything works smoothly. It would be great to have this explained in the help section. Other than that, good job!!! Pedro MDP

Keeps improving!

chundo&chunda

I loved the first version, and this one adds some very nice features to make the game even more challenging and complete. Recommended!!! Update: now it's even available for the iPhone!!! It's definitely on the list of my must have apps!!! Great, great job!! Update: undo and redo buttons are a killer features! Well done!

Not realistic

Kmanszita

Picture a square structure, only 2 major gridlines in dimension, with 2 cross-bracing members. Now picture both cross-bracing members and both vertical members buckling... This might happen with a very flexible and heavy metal (not Metallica) but not with any type of material containing the properties necessary for structural integrity. Please don't make the same mistake I did and pay for this app.

Truss Me! Reviews – Page 2