When a construction company actually has to build a structure like this, the project will incur a lot of additional cost. It will be impractical because it will consist of many different member sizes. If you optimize a structural design by making every member as small as it can possibly be, you’ll end up with a very light but very impractical structure. A “product” is defined as any unique combination of material, cross-section, and size. However, for each new “product” you add to your design, you are charged an additional $1,000. When you reduce the size of a member, you reduce its material cost. You’ll see that the total cost is composed of three components–material cost, connection cost, and product cost. The Bridge Designer will display a table showing exactly how the current cost of the truss has been calculated. Now click the Report Cost Calculations button, located on the Status toolbar. Run the Bridge Designer and load any of the sample bridge designs. To understand the answer to this question, you need to understand how the Bridge Designer calculates the cost of your truss.
