Home /Products /Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

General

What’s the difference between PGSuper and PGSuper Professional?

PGSuper is a precast-prestressed girder design, analysis, and load rating software published by the Washington State Department of Transportation. PGSuper is open source software, which means everyone is free to use, modify, and distribute the software.

PGSuper Professional is a proprietary product of BridgeSight Inc. consisting of four components:

  1. An enhanced version of PGSuper that includes BridgeSight’s proprietary extensions including: the Girder Design Dashboardtm, 3D Viewer, Enhanced Reporting, DXF Export, VBent Export, Land XML Data Exchange, the AASHTOWare Data Exporter and many more features.
  2. Pre-configured libraries for several DOT's, including: CalTrans, Colorado DOT, Florida DOT, Oregon DOT and more...
  3. Toll-free telephone and priority email support
  4. Software upgrades for the duration of your support contract

It is important to note that PGSuper Professional adds capabilities to PGSuper, but in no way whatsoever alters the engineering computations of PGSuper. In fact, PGSuper Professional uses the binary run-time files distributed by WSDOT.

Can project files that are created with PGSuper Professional be opened with PGSuper, and visa-versa?

PGSuper project files created with PGSuper or PGSuper Professional are compatible with either product except for projects created using PGSuper Professional - specific girder types.

WSDOT has released a new version of PGSuper, can I use it?

We strongly recommend that you only use versions of PGSuper Professional from BridgeSight. We work very closely with the developers at WSDOT, TxDOT and Kansas and will have an upgraded version available shortly after a WSDOT release of PGSuper.

Support

I downloaded a free version of PGSuper, what are my support options?

Free versions of PGSuper are available from WSDOT and TxDOT. BridgeSight hosts a free, peer-to-peer support forum at www.PGSuper.com for these versions. You are welcome to post your PGSuper related questions there. PGSuper users are quite good at responding within a day or so.

Toll-free telephone and priority email support is included with the purchase of a PGSuper Professional license. Users can also purchase high-priority, per-incident support from BridgeSight: We aim to get your questions answered in less than four hours. See our Per-Incident Support Page for more information and purchasing options.

Can you help me interpret the output from PGSuper Professional and apply it to my specific bridge design situation?

Support for PGSuper Professional is limited to operating the software, understanding how computations are performed by the software, and understanding the output. Interpretation of the output and its application to a specific situation are professional engineering services and require an engineering services contract.

Does the PGSuper Professional support contract include helping me understand the prestressed concrete requirements of the LRFD code?

Support for the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, AASHTO Manual for Bridge Evaluation, state-specific Bridge Design Manuals, and other regulatory documents is outside of the scope of the PGSuper Professional support contract. Similarly, support for understanding the fundamentals of engineering including the design of precast-prestressed concrete members is not covered by the support contact. If you need this type of support, contact BridgeSight to arrange for customized on-site training by our staff of professional engineers.

Licensing

Is PGSuper Professional open source? Can I get the source code?

PGSuper Professional is a fusion of the open source PGSuper program and BridgeSight’s proprietary extensions. The source code for PGSuper is available and we are happy to supply you with a copy as required by the Alternate Route Open Source License. The handling charge to provide the source code is $250 US. A cheaper and much easier way is to download the source code for free from WSDOT’s PGSuper web site.

The source code for BridgeSight’s proprietary extensions is not available.

Can I use PGSuper Professional features after my license ends?

PGSuper Professional features are available only on a subscription basis. Once your license has expired the basic version of PGSuper will continue to function normally, however the Professional features, free upgrades, priority email support, and toll-free telephone support will no longer be available. Be sure to renew your annual subscription to PGSuper Professional to ensure uninterrupted service.

PGSuper is open source software so can I give PGSuper Professional to my friend and make it available for download from my web site?

No. PGSuper Professional is a product of BridgeSight Software. Our license does not permit third party distribution of our proprietary software components. You are permitted to extract the open source components that make up PGSuper from PGSuper Professional, repackage, and distribute them (though it would be a lot easier to get the freely distributable installer from WSDOT). Distribution must be done under the terms of the Alternate Route Open Source Licenses. If you want to share PGSuper Professional with your friends, please direct them to our web site.