Here’s another post inspired by an office discussion. We were discussing our favourite engineering based websites and realised the results would make a great blog post. So after a rummage through our bookmarks and a little further debate we’ve come up with our top ten sites. We tried to keep the list balanced so you’ll find a few resource sites, a little bit of fun and one or two sites that aren’t purely engineering sites, but contain valuable knowledge for engineers. Do you have a favourite site that we haven’t included? Why not add a comment below and give your favourites a plug.
1. Engineering.com
A wealth of engineering related news, videos, resources and jobs.
Visit… Engineering.com
2. Engineering Formulas
A website packed full of formula for Fluid Mechanics, Failure Criteria, Finance and loads of things that don’t begin with F too. A great site for lovers of Greek letters and other squiggles. Other parts of the site have information on materials, units, design and maths.
Visit… eFunda: Engineering Formulas
3. The Engineering Toolbox
A great site, well structured into various engineering categories that lets you drill down to find the information you need. The flow of the site is a little spoiled by too many Google Ads links, but that is just a minor irritation.
Visit… The Engineering Toolbox
4. LinkedIn
Not strictly an engineering resource, but LinkedIn is a great place to network with fellow engineers (it’s a bit like Facebook for grown-ups) and has some really useful special interest groups for sharing knowledge, meeting like-minded professionals and exchanging job opportunities.
Visit… LinkedIn
5. GlobalSpec
Calling itself “The Engineering Search Engine”, GlobalSpec is packed full of engineering products and suppliers. Has some great email newsletters and product alert emails. You can even find Prosig on GlobalSpec.
Visit… GlobalSpec
6. How Stuff Works
Whenever we need bit of extra background information for an office discussion this website is one of our first ports of call. Packed full of straightforward explanations
Visit… How Stuff Works
7. Eng-Tips Forums
A fine collection of discussion forums, blogs, whitepapers and more. Covers a wide range of engineering fields.
Visit… Eng-Tips Forum
8. Wikipedia
Again, not strictly an engineering site, but Wikipedia can’t be ignored when seeking information. Much has been made of the possible innaccuracies of Wikipedia’s articles, but genarally the scientific and engineering pages are well maintained.
Visit… Wikipedia
9. Discover Engineering
A fantastic site for students or anyone new to engineering. Or just about anyone who enjoys quirky science projects and engineering themed games and activities. We all need a little light relief, right?
Visit… Discover Engineering
10. Fun-Engineering
Another bit of fun to finish with. Fun-Engineering (maintained by Prof. Jim McGovern of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Dublin Institute of Technology) is a great little site, full of engineering gems. To my mind it is sites like this that make the WWW what it is.
Visit… Engineering-Fun
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Chris, these are indeed good sites but I would also like to draw your attention to our Science & Engineering Encyclopedia site at http://www.diracdelta.co.uk which has over 5000 pages of information covering many subjects. With free online calculations and conversions, and hundreds of NVH topics some of which have live plotting capabilities we feel it deserves a look from yourselves.
Regards, Charlie.
Hi Charlie,
Thanks for the link. Indeed, a very nice site and well worthy of inclusion in our list. Maybe, if we get some more suggestions or take another look at our shortlist, we will do a Mark II post and include diracdelta.
Many Thanks, Chris
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Chris-
Here’s #11
Inventables http://www.inventables.com, it’s a website engineers use to find new materials. Since your company works on vibration and noise you might be particularly interested in
https://www.inventables.com/technologies/vibration-proof-self-locking-bolt
https://www.inventables.com/technologies/shock-absorbent-gel
Hi Zach
Thanks for the links. A really great site and nice design too!! I have already started a list so I don’t think it should be too long before we publish “10 More Sites That Every Engineer Should Know About”.
Have a look EngNet http://www.engnetglobal.com which is a powerful engineering directory and search engine
Thanks Michael. I’ve added that to our growing list of sites for the followup post.
Hey Chris,
Thanks for noting ENGINEERING.com on your list. We’re working hard to make it a great destination, and I can’t tell you how nice it is to be recognized for that effort.
No problem, John. Engineering.com is a great site. Of course, feel free to add as many links as you like to the Noise & Vibration Measurement Blog. 🙂
I’m surprised that Wolfram Alpha didn’t make the list. This is something I have seen every (almost) Science & Engineering student use. Especially considering how Apple recently integrated Siri with Wolfram Alpha on their Iphone 4S.
Hi Rahul. You are quite correct, Wolfram Alpha has certainly gone from strength to strength. I think it will be a definite candidate when we update the list. There are so many great sites, perhaps next time we should do a Top 20!
I know this is an old thread – I use http://www.engineersedge.com for most of the reference information I need.
Thanks for the suggestion, Keith. We do still intend to write a follow-up post one day with some of the great suggestions we’ve received here. Engineers Edge certainly seems like a very useful site.
thanks for advice
Thanks for sharing nice info!!
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Hai Mr. Chris Mason, good information a true engineer will love to keep this as his bible.
Hi Chris,
This is a great list, there are lots of useful sites here. One other that you may be interested to check out is MechaniCalc (https://mechanicalc.com/). This site has calculators and reference material for mechanical engineers, and it is much more clean and intuitive than many of the other similar sites such as Engineer’s Edge.
For structural engineers, http://www.structx.com has a lot of useful information. Definitely worth a look
Engineers Edge (www.engineersedge.com) is the most comprehensive website out there. They are claiming more than 150,000 webpages – most is for mechanical engineering and designers. Use the search function to find stuff.
Check out Optimal Beam (https://optimalbeam.com/), it is a structural beam calculator (free option)
You can specify unlimited support types and loading conditions on your beam model. It gives you support reactions, shear force, bending moment, deflection, and stress diagrams. Its the only site that analyzes indeterminate beams in the free version. Useful for civil and mechanical engineers and students.
A useful site for civil and mechanical engineers / students is Optimal Beam (https://optimalbeam.com), it is a structural beam calculator (free option).
You can specify unlimited support types and loading conditions on your beam model. It gives you support reactions, shear force, bending moment, deflection, and stress diagrams. Its the only site that analyzes indeterminate beams in the free version.
Good list however for design and engineering reference information I always use Engineers Edge (www.engineersedge.com) then engineering Toolbox.
Thanks for great list.
I will add also these two that I am using;
interestingengineering.com > using as a news following website
bookofengineering.com > using as a reference website. Also using its calculators sometimes.
Have a nice day.