The Virtual Steel Sculpture

A steel sculpture is a physical model that shows, in great

detail, forty-eight types of connections that are commonly
used in steel construction practices. Unfortunately, many
civil engineering students in the United States and abroad do
not have access to the sculpture.

To provide a 24-7 access to the steel sculpture, we have

created an interactive 3-D solid model of the steel sculpture
at Minnesota State University. This interactive steel
sculpture affords an effective tool for visualizing and
learning about different connection types.

This is the result of a collaborative project — mainly among

Minnesota State University (Saeed Moaveni) and
Northwestern University (Karen Chou) — that was funded
by the National Science Foundation under grant numbers DUE-1140468 and DUE-1252371 and
Program Director Dr. Susan Finger. The student research assistants were: Lee Taylor, Thomas
Gunderson, and James Sapp. JavaScript programming assistance was provided by Professor
Guarionex Salivia of Computer Information Science Department at Minnesota State University.
For more information please visit: http://faculty.mnsu.edu/saeedmoaveni/

How to Install and Use the Virtual Sculpture

Due to 3-D JavaScript Progrmming limitations, the Virtual Steel Sculpture will run only if it is
installed on the C-Drive in the following manner. Please follow these instructions carefully.

1. Copy the "Steel Sculpture" Folder directly to the C-Drive. This folder contains the
subfolder "All Connections" which contains 48 additional subfolders with the 2-D
interactive files that show the blue prints, close-up views, field examples, sample
calculations, and the finite element models.

2. Copy "The Virtual Steel Sculpture" PDF file directly to the C-Drive. This 3D pdf file
has the solid model of the steel sculpture that looks exactly like the physical sculpture. It
also has the JavaScript embedded within it that allows a user to go to the 2-D interactive
files, when the Ctrl key is held down and the left Click mouse button is pressed.

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 3. Create a shortcut for "The Virtual Steel Sculpture" PDF file on the desktop or a
location of your choice. You can then run the Virtual Steel Sculpture from that location.

4. The "Quizzes" folder may be copied to any location. This folder contains twelve
Quizzes in pdf forms and the subfolder "Connection Views (Singles)" which contains the
close-up interactive views of all connections including those in the quizzes.

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