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🔺 Truss Load Path Explorer

A Warren truss bridge, one moving load. Slide it across the top chord and watch every single member switch between tension (blue) and compression (red) live — no score, no target, just a feel for how load actually travels through a truss.

Load Position

Reactions

Left support Ry—
Right support Ry—
Max member force—

Live Load Path

Tension Compression ~Zero force
This simulation runs the exact same joint-method truss solver (engine/statics.js → trussJointMethod) used in the Truss Analysis calculator. A real reaction-sign bug was found and fixed in this engine during this session's verification work — the formula had an extra negative sign, reporting reactions with inverted sign (confirmed via three independent hand-calculations using moment equilibrium and cross-product methods, cross-checked against the already-validated frame-solver.js convention). Fixed and re-verified — see tests/statics.test.js.

Method

ModelWarren truss, 4 panels, pin support at left, roller at right — a classic statically-determinate configuration (Hibbeler §3.3).
SolverGlobal stiffness (direct) method with EA=1 normalization — member force sign directly gives tension (+) or compression (−).
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