What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

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Fought with Creo again (overly obtuse CAD system. extremely powerful, but their user interface leaves a lot to be desired..)

Creo 3.0
later releases succumb to subscriptions..
I've been an AutoCAD/Inventor user for 20+ years, Solidworks for 5, Catia for a miserable 10 years, but only with a specific customer. I tried Pro/E on a student license when in school and I think that is what CREO is now, but I could be wrong. There were some cool features in Pro/E, but also a lot of bad implementation from a usability standpoint, IMO, but current versions might be better.

I just bought Alibre 'Expert' and my initial impression is that it is a 2005 version of parametric CAD vs. the other major players. Having said that, I refuse to 'rent' software, so Autodesk is out and Catia is miserable and crazy expensive, so it is out as well. I waffled a ton on getting a basic version of Solidworks, but given the association with Dassault, I assume Solidworks will migrate to the rental version in the next few years.

It seems that Alibre is pseudo-good, but somewhat shareware/free-ware-ish as far as development in places. My gut feeling is that I can work with that knowing I own the software outright and will be able to work with 10 year old files if that is a concern.

CAD is both fun and it is lame at the same time, IMO.

Sandy
 
I've been an AutoCAD/Inventor user for 20+ years, Solidworks for 5, Catia for a miserable 10 years, but only with a specific customer. I tried Pro/E on a student license when in school and I think that is what CREO is now, but I could be wrong. There were some cool features in Pro/E, but also a lot of bad implementation from a usability standpoint, IMO, but current versions might be better.

I just bought Alibre 'Expert' and my initial impression is that it is a 2005 version of parametric CAD vs. the other major players. Having said that, I refuse to 'rent' software, so Autodesk is out and Catia is miserable and crazy expensive, so it is out as well. I waffled a ton on getting a basic version of Solidworks, but given the association with Dassault, I assume Solidworks will migrate to the rental version in the next few years.

It seems that Alibre is pseudo-good, but somewhat shareware/free-ware-ish as far as development in places. My gut feeling is that I can work with that knowing I own the software outright and will be able to work with 10 year old files if that is a concern.

CAD is both fun and it is lame at the same time, IMO.

Sandy
Yes, Pro/E, then Wildfire, now Creo. Same (aged) Unix based code, just new names..

teh joke is that it was written by programmers & reviewed by programmers. Design engineers never had a say in how it should be coded..
 
Yes, Pro/E, then Wildfire, now Creo. Same (aged) Unix based code, just new names..

teh joke is that it was written by programmers & reviewed by programmers. Design engineers never had a say in how it should be coded..
If it had 3 names but is the same software, design engineers might not be involved, but managers absolutely were!
 
Ahhhh now I know someone who does CAD 👍
And another. Engineers are slow drafters but I do some for the last couple of comments on a drawing or when all of the drafters are busy. 25+ years for me, too, mostly in AutoCAD with a little dabble of Rhino.
 
And another. Engineers are slow drafters but I do some for the last couple of comments on a drawing or when all of the drafters are busy. 25+ years for me, too, mostly in AutoCAD with a little dabble of Rhino.

And another.... Not a PE, but I have been using various AutoCAD and other products for better than a quarter century. I started with a pencil, too.....

I STILL start with a pencil. Never got fast enough to birth ideas directly into the software.
I MUST draw it in 3 views first on paper and then put it in the software. If I don't, something always seems to get missed.
 
And another.... Not a PE, but I have been using various AutoCAD and other products for better than a quarter century. I started with a pencil, too.....

I STILL start with a pencil. Never got fast enough to birth ideas directly into the software.
I MUST draw it in 3 views first on paper and then put it in the software. If I don't, something always seems to get missed.
And another. Started doing PCBs with tapes back in the early 80's, switched to cad about '83 I think. Did Autocad for 2D drawings from about '92 for when I worked on our train network. Switched to 3D CAD about 2015 (Solidworks) and now Siemens NX, but I am not really very skilled in the 3D tools. Get good results but I don't know much about putting assemblies together on it yet. No need currently.
 
I probably jumped on this fad a day late and a dollar shy....

nine-up.jpg

Trivia: the woman on the middle left is the mother of the girl on the middle right...
 
Sat with younger daughter all day. Same as yesterday. :(

She's had a congenital defect with gallbladder and pancreas duct. We didn't know about it until Thursday. She had a stent in the bile duct removed, gallstones removed, and a new stent installed.

Good news will be that she has this procedure next month. Bad news would be pancreatic cancer. We are waiting.

Drove up 120 miles yesterday w/elder daughter, to visit. Drove back home, dropped off elder daughter, drove back up here. If she's feeling well enough I'll head home, otherwise I'm staying here for the next few days. Or a week or so.
 
Unfortunately, had to help pull a young student pilot out of a crumpled up airplane today...she was pretty banged up but able to walk away. Probably more mad than hurt. This happened at an uncontrolled airfield with no services so the after actions were pretty interesting. Once the paramedics showed up they checked out the pilot and released her.

The plane tho... gear was collapsed, the wings bent down and aft. The aft fuselage was bent up 10 deg aft of the cockpit. The cabin was intact but the doors were jammed shut because of the wings. We had to pull the door open on the co-pilot side and get her out that way.

I was just relieved she is going to be ok. Plane...not so much.
 
Went out. The family together had three errands, one of which pertained to me. All I wanted to do today was stay home and putter, but I went for the one thing and ended up out all day. 😟
 
And another. Started doing PCBs with tapes back in the early 80's, switched to cad about '83 I think. Did Autocad for 2D drawings from about '92 for when I worked on our train network. Switched to 3D CAD about 2015 (Solidworks) and now Siemens NX, but I am not really very skilled in the 3D tools. Get good results but I don't know much about putting assemblies together on it yet. No need currently.
At times, I feel more like a CAD jockey than a real engineer, but that is mostly due to the current state of work at the company, not entirely me. I think I do more real engineering at home than at work now-a-days.

I am a huge fan of parametric 3D, but am much more of a solids guy vs. a surfaces guy - I don't really know how to do the artistic/sculpting that people would do for car bodies or airplane surfaces, but I'm pretty good/quick at more simple geometries. Assemblies are a real huge advantage for machine design oriented work, so if you ever need to do things like that, it is worth watching a tutorial or two for sure. I very rarely just do a single part for anything, usually there are at least 5-10 parts for an assembly of whatever is going through my head at the time. The unconstrained options (i.e. not 100% fixed constraints so you can drag stuff and it moves) can be really cool for animations/presentation as well. 2D and hand sketches absolutely still have their place and I don't necessarily default to 3D depending on the job.

Sandy.
 
Unfortunately, had to help pull a young student pilot out of a crumpled up airplane today...she was pretty banged up but able to walk away. Probably more mad than hurt. This happened at an uncontrolled airfield with no services so the after actions were pretty interesting. Once the paramedics showed up they checked out the pilot and released her.

The plane tho... gear was collapsed, the wings bent down and aft. The aft fuselage was bent up 10 deg aft of the cockpit. The cabin was intact but the doors were jammed shut because of the wings. We had to pull the door open on the co-pilot side and get her out that way.

I was just relieved she is going to be ok. Plane...not so much.

Wow, it's good that she was able to walk away. Those accidents don't normally end up like that.
 
Unfortunately, had to help pull a young student pilot out of a crumpled up airplane today...she was pretty banged up but able to walk away. Probably more mad than hurt. This happened at an uncontrolled airfield with no services so the after actions were pretty interesting. Once the paramedics showed up they checked out the pilot and released her.

The plane tho... gear was collapsed, the wings bent down and aft. The aft fuselage was bent up 10 deg aft of the cockpit. The cabin was intact but the doors were jammed shut because of the wings. We had to pull the door open on the co-pilot side and get her out that way.

I was just relieved she is going to be ok. Plane...not so much.
Glad to hear the pilot is going to be OK. If insurance is up to snuff, hopefully the loss of the aircraft isn't too big of a deal, but even if it is, much better for the pilot to be ok and the airplane to be a total loss. They can be rebuilt, the pilot, not so much.

Glad you could be one of the people helping and if I were in the same situation, I'd be glad again as well. Thanks for being a good human being!

Sandy.
 
More tree lopping and mulching. My mulcher stopped working due to an intermittent switch, but I also found a loose fan in the process. Need to make an adapter on the lathe to fix it.

I currently have a car-sized pile of tree foliage to mulch.

Also completed gassing of the aircon at my father inlaws. Vacuum was holding good so I let the gas into the system and it is working.
 
I straightened the garage up a little. Drew a plan for the cat try I'm finally going to start. Yesterday I took the recycling in and got a haircut. Real exciting stuff. And played with the kittens. Which are now as big as our two female adult cats. I found out where all the balls the cats had went too. I was looking for a ball from a cat toy and looked under our desk. There was about 10 balls under there. I fished them out and gave them 3 and brought the other out to the garage. I'll give them some more when they hide the ones they have.
 
Installed a DIY turntable shelf to isolate the turntable from the shaky floor.
h6tEoLw.gif
 
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