About

Welcome to how to engineer. You will find many different explanations, ideas, guides, references  spreadsheets and reviews all pertaining to different fields of engineering. We will start out mostly geared toward entry level structural engineers. It has been my own experience that even though you learn a lot in school it is hard to make the jump to practicing what you learned. We cannot design your project for you but we hope to point you in the right direction.

Be sure to leave feedback and ask questions!

Currently the main focus of this site is to aid entry level engineers, provide insight on how to tackle atypical details and also try to answer as many questions as we can. We are not engineering anything for you!!! This is your job. However what we want to become is a library of engineering including interesting engineering methods and one off details. A place where you can ask questions about details that you have seen but don’t understand how it is justified. This site can also be of use to those considering engineering as a field of study. We will try to focus on topics that are not generally covered in undergrad but are routine for the practicing structural engineer. We will also try to address situations of ‘gray area’ where building codes or design manuals do not seem to provide enough direction or leave it to the engineer to use their judgement.  We will let you know when something is our opinion and try to provide code references whenever possible. Our experiences is mostly in the US, so most references will pertain to US codes and standards. However we hope to be able to explain what is behind the code so that you really understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

We will try to also cover the basics. We find their are many great texts that cover strength of materials however they are written by very smart people who sometimes don’t understand what the student or even practicing engineer is struggling with. Therefore we will try to emphasize some critical points that don’t seem to be fully understood.

Some History:

My background is in physics and structural engineering. When I graduated I started at a small structural engineering firm where I was immediately given design and calculation responsibilities. The boss told me there are two ways to learn things – “one I can tell you how to do it or two you can figure it out.” Looking back I can say that I’m glad he chose the second. You really learn things when you have to teach yourself. I found some good references along the way which I will share whenever possible.

Disclaimer:

The material covered on this website  is intended for use by engineers familiar with the design of the respective topic and structural engineering principles, and who accept total responsibility for the application of the procedures herein. Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the material, the author disclaims any and all liability and responsibility for the accuracy and application of the material to the full extent permitted by the law. While we thoroughly check the information presented, we accept no responsibility for the correctness and/or misuse of our information  design or analysis methods and concepts presented. Check your work, as you must remember – A doctor’s mistake can only kill one person at a time but an engineer’s may kill many.