Looking over the site statistics I had noticed that some greedy individuals have been downloading all the files in the Repository. These same people had neither contributed nor left any comments in the forum. I have set a download limit of 5 per day. I would be interested in your comments.

I am sure you have done this for the right reasons.

From a personal perspective, I have not contributed, although have posted elsewhere. As much as I would like to contribute, I have nothing at the moment that is suitable.

As mentioned on one of my other posts, I have tried to develop a plates in shear calc, but am currently stumped. If I could get past this, you would have the calc.

Keep up the good work with the site, its certainly interesting, and more importantly, useful.

Gary

I haven't personally downloaded many calcs but I think it is worthwhile discussing why downloading all of them is a problem. The calcs are there to be downloaded after all and if people find them useful all well and good.
You may feel that there are moralistic issues here i.e. why let someone download all the calcs in one go if they are not contributing. But in reality people who go to this extreme are hoarders and will probably not make use of the majority of them anyway...sort of analogous to the child at a buffet who piles his plate high but can't eat half of the food he takes (only in this case he is not depriving others of their share).
I suppose it is less desirable to have the calcs passed en mass to others who then don't have to visit or contribute either. So from that perspective a limit on downloads may be reasonable

We don´t get greedy, we get excited and happy by good software, and thank everybody for it!
It´s like having books. You don´t read them all, but it just feels good to have them around.
So I think this limitation is BAD news.
As a matter of fact, after downloading only one file today, the site responded that I exceeded my limit.

Hi,

I was curious about the limitation and for the first time I downloaded something from the site (5 times of course....are you checking the IP?, this can be avoided if somebody really want...anyway, nice work for all those spreadsheet and if somebody really want a spreadsheet can come back in other day, so this shouldn't be a problem.)

I have a question: how can I use the Greek shortcuts? It seems for me it doesn't work.

Regards
Fernando

John,
I know that I have yet to download, but my "excuse" is that I live in California and this is one state that is finally making the change from the 97 Uniform Building Code to the 2007 International Building Code. Most of my work has been in creating a resource to train engineers as a volunteer and in the creation of the worlds largest structural engineering Listservice (SEAINT or Structural Engineers Association International) at http://www.seaint.org.
The change to a new code is the first code change we have had in ten years and will require a lot of learning to do between now and January since California and a few high seismic areas have skipped three or four code cycles to use what we know best. Finally, I have authored a public domain spreadsheet for the 97 UBC called MultiLat(tm) that you and I have discussed.

I'm not actually out for a pat on the back, but I have taken steps to rewrite MultiLat(tm) and to do it correctly this time in Excel 2007 which I will post on your website for download sometime in February of 2008. I have already mentioned to many of the people enterested in my public domain spreadsheet that it will be available on ExcelCalcs Website as the primary approved download site.

The purpose that I see your site servicing (besides opening the eyes of other engineers to your software downloads) is that I need an international source that will help me control the accuracy of the public domain software posted. This will help me prevent others from modifying the software and sending it through me first for overall integration and then to your site for an update that is controled.

Another purpose will add to the hope that other users will use the "Evolutionary" software idea that I had for many years. If you find a good tool, improve upon it and donate it back to the profession for others to gain from. In time, I hope others will learn from what we have done to not just create useful spreadsheet tools but to share then with their peers.

I've tried to market spreadsheet software in the past and I think the cost to sell software is overstated when you consider the amount of time you spend in tech support or explaining to users how to work with the basic spreadsheet program.

I suppose we are a bit unusual for those how have no desire to earn a living doing what we enjoy, but I look at the cost of tools out there and it seems that the majority of the small offices can no longer compete in the cost of doing business. If we help each other, we can stay in the game while taking on projects that allows us to be profitable while protecting the small practice out there who may not be able to get the larger projects but find that there is plenty of smaller projects that become our bread and butter.

Finally, when I do post the spreadsheet, it is my hope that someone in Metric regions will be able to translate my output into Metric format while I continue to focus on Imperial units used here in the States.

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the "statistics" as most people will not upload or share their software and still want to obtain it free from those willing to give it away. My point is that we provide what we post because we are volunteering our time and know we have the ability to create useful tools on our own. The few who send spreadsheets in my opinion are the ones who make what I do worthwhile and satisfying.

We all have personal goals, but in my case it is not motivated by the tools I receive, but the knowledge I learn about what the code writers had in mind when they write a formula that appears somewhat ambiguous to me. Not only do I learn to understand the performance of the structure, but I often find the flaws in the code writer's philosophy that all materials should follow the "one code for all structures" policy that appears in the code since the 97 UBC. While this may not be true, enough of us have argued the issues to see a change in the 2007 ICC codes for residential light-framing design. It just took the code writers over ten years to come around to reality

Hang in there!

LQEngineer
Dennis