Richards SolidWorks Blog

CIA, Top Secret, Area-51,

Well finally things are realeased from the bondange of sworn secrecy.  The truth be told about Area-51.   Download Area-51 Comes to Las Vegas. 10_ 7_ 2009

Science in the Classrooms

Here is a school science project for the classroom that you can download in a Word File Format.  It demonstrates the use of pulleys giving a mechanical advantage of 7 with 8 pulleys hooked up in a Block and Fall mechanism.

Download A Science Project for Today's Classrooms. 8_18_09

ATI Graphics Card Testing.

Something that I do not do on a regular basis turns out to be fun and extremely interesting.  Testing programs and products like the ATI graphics card hardware proved to be a great chance to play around with a very nice optimized system sent to me for this test. Download ATI Graphics Card Testing 7_25_09

Solar Energy; Homemade Heliostat Really Cooking

Here is my own version of a homemade heliostat that I am actively making at this time and I just finished doing some prelimenary testing on it.  Using SolidWorks to conceputalize, then design it and next to run some simulations with it is extremely valuable to do and cuts down on so the numbers of prototyping configurations to be built.

 Download Solar One of Engineering com Starts Cooking 6_14_09

 

Gears and Informational Resouces for them

Robotics and Gears

By Richard Williams, 5/28/09

          It has been awhile since I last submitted something to this distinguished membership and web site, but needless to say there aren’t enough hours in each day.  I was recently sent some informational resources that I wanted to share with all of you doing those projects like robotics, or anything else that needs gears.   Try out these two web sites.  You might have to cut and paste these web sites into your browser. http://www.omnigearandmachine.com/technical_information.htm, also, http://www.sdp-si.com/D190/D190cat.htm.  Both have a wealth of gear information.  Some free information can be sent for or downloaded as well.  This might help you resolve some of those issues about finding what you need.   Two other additional resources are: http://www.stockgearsinc.com/  and  http://www.playfairtoys.com/category/Gear-Toys-for-Kids    Hope it can help you.  Richie.

The Rallying Industry

SolidWorks and Inspirtech

    You got to love it when a plan comes together.  There are those that know of your problems in this economic down turn and want you to know that they are willing to help you.  Acting and thinking positive like a horse with a carriage or a cup with a saucer, is something that just clicks and takes little or no thought.  How about SolidWorks and Inspirtech?  Have you heard of this combo yet?  They have teamed up to help get you trained on some tools to put inside your tool box.  So read on;

 

Bad Enough, but:

By Richard Williams, 4/6/09

        Wow, believe me when I say that I know what it is like to be laid off, with bills that never stop coming in.  Been there and done that, so I know.  But you do have options and they are as many as there are types of engineers.  What can be done and what do we suggest that you try? 

1.   Join social networking sites and make as many contacts as you can.

2.    A time to study something you have been meaning to or are interested in.

3.    Relocate or travel away temporarily or permanently.

4.    Work on those ideas that you have had.

5.    Ride out the storm if you can but do not wait too long.

6.    Add more tools to your tool chest.

 

       It is the last one here #6, that I would like to spend just a little time on. Making yourself more valuable to employers by getting familiar with other tools that your industry is using is very well worth your time and effort.  Yes this is training and education but you should consider it a tool to learn.  Especially when you can get them free and I am not kidding you.  The Inspirtech Company which produces some of the very best in video tutorials for the SolidWorks program is being offered to all those engineers that can qualify for the free 90 day SolidWorks program offer.  You can find out more about this offer from the web site down below.  Unfortunately it is only being offered to those in Canada and USA.  But that might change in the future.  So stay tuned here. 

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/esp_eula.htm 

 

      Well, there are some free training videos that you can obtain from this SolidWorks web site but I strongly recommend that you take advantage of the Inspirtech free beginning videos offer too.  You can hook up with that free offer from:

http://www.inspirtech.com/   or just go to:

 

Register and learn.

http://inspirtech.com/index.php?option=com_registration&task=register&Itemid=122   

 

     There is nothing you can lose here by taking advantage of the free offers that will help you tremendously and increase your prospects of nailing down that next job.  So there are people out there that are working to help you.  Have a great one.

A Tremendous Find to Share Videos & Pictures.

Just suppose you need to share a tutorial you made or presentation, how would you do it?  Do you have a an expensive program that will allow you to do this?  How about one that sits right on your Desktop and can be used to capture and post to a free web site, or that you can email to anyone, anywhere at anytime and that is absolutely FREE.  Would you be interested in that tool?  Think of how you can demonstrat things to students.  Wow, all the possibilities.  Capture anything you see on your computers screen, video with sound track too and up to 5 minutes long.  A newsletter came in tonight and after downloading this very small program and trying it out, I was convinced.  Bye for now. Richard

Download Hey There, Hi There, Ho There, 4_2_09

Pooch Boutique Station.

Pooch Boutique

By Richard Williams, 3/18/09

           Okay, I heard the term that says, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention” and I suppose you have heard it too.  What bothers me is the fact that I actually have to apply aphorisms like that to my own life at times.  So here I will state the problem and the solution to it.  First off, let us take a look at the problem down below here.

   

          Born December 5^th 2008; breed is “Yorkshire Terrible Terrier;” weighs in at 3.4 pounds (1.5422 Kilograms) and has terrorized our once peaceful house.  Furthermore, she is too fast to catch, hops like a rabbit, chews everything within her reach and has a face to love.  A little girl we call Ashley.  We got her on Ash Wednesday after my wife went out shopping around on her own to find what she wanted.  She didn’t want me along with her, because I would have a zoo if she didn’t stop me.  When she found what she wanted to replace our poodle that died last November from old age, she then told me what she had been up to.  Yes, I did shut down this computer and go with her to the puppy store.  I told her before we got there that it was already a done deal if I saw a puppy and I hoped she knew that.  She smiled and of course she already knew that.

   

          Maybe, terrorizing our household is too strong a term but I have had many dogs over the years that were spoiled rotten living with us, but this breed of Yorkshire Terrier, is the feistiest of any of them that we have ever had the pleasure to have bite our feet.  Ouch!  It is a good thing Ashley doesn’t climb because our parrot Lexie would be really stressed out.

         The other day I ran from the computer room to stop the angry barking I heard from both of them.  What a nonstop session they had going.  Yes, Lexie learned to bark from our other dog Nallie that died.  She taught Ashley how to bark because she didn’t do it until she heard Lexie do it.  Could it be?  She is very fast or I am very slow now and catching her is an ordeal.  This little girl we knick named “Terrier the Terrible” for now, until she learns the rules of the house or we learn hers.  J  Mischievous is the look down below here.

         Well anyway, back to the problem at hand.  Being such a spirited little girl she is hard to hold onto and when it is bath time, the combing and grooming is a torture for us.  Do you believe it takes two of us to work on a 3.4 pound pooch?  We have always given our pets regular groomings and a bath is something that the parrot Lexie really loves and even asks us for one.  I’m not kidding.  But blow drying is essential for parrots, so they do not get a chill or cold draft until they are completely dry.  Most of them will spread their wings to help the warm air circulate around their “drowned rat” body appearance after a bath.   No, I use a towel before you ask.  Ashley has not yet gotten used to this warm air blow drying experience and one of us has to hold her while the other one tries to comb her fine silky hair or trims her facial hair.  To wash and groom Terrier the Terrible, you need more hands than an octopus.  She might be just a baby but I’m not kidding when I tell you that the bare minimum is four hands and twenty fingers.

         Now before you think that this is going to be a pet article of some kind, I will let you know how I managed to cut down on the number of arms, hands and fingers needed to perform this wash and groom project we have to perform.  At least so I don’t have to be a part of it that is. J  I turned to my SolidWorks program for inspiration and conceptualization and I sort of reinvented the wheel a bit here.  I know they sell these devices but just where do you go to buy one and how fast can you get one?  Faster than Terrier the Terrible?

So in about two hours time after getting the idea and taking some measurements of Terrible and our hand blow dryer I came up with this configuration down below.  I had most everything already except one fitting which was the top end cap.  But my favorite store is close by to me.  Maybe you have heard of it, it is called Home Deposit.  J So here it is folks.

   

 

 

 

 

 

   

“Pictures are worth a thousand words” and I think I have given you enough of them for you to get the idea.  According to my wife it works fabulously, so I got one “atta boy” and now spend more of my time in the computer room again.  Lexie thinks it is a perch and it will take a little getting used to for her to stay under it rather than on top of it. J.

     This is all 2” PVC Schedule 40 plumbing pipe.  The only things glued in place are the top end cap on the vertical piece and the 2” Tees to the small horizontal nipple.  The threaded 2 inch base flange has a 2 inch male PVC threaded adapter in it that holds up the vertical piece.  I did not glue it just in case it might have to be rotated a little for her.  So, our little Terrier the Terrible caused me to lose some valuable time away from writing and my computer work but I think it was worth it.  She can fall asleep lying on top of you and looks like an angle when she is sleeping, which is the opposite of when she is awake.  J  That is a 2 x 10 wood base that is 24 inches long.  The horizontal 2” PVC nipple was made 12 inches.

        The 2” tee that mounts to the 2” vertical piece was made to slide easily up and down with a dowel used in the four 3/8” adjustment holes.   Immobilize the tee in a vise (only one this needs to be done on) and use a hole saw and arbor in a pistol drill with a half inch chuck.  The hole saw must fit tightly inside the tee inside diameter and measures 2 3/8 inch or 60 mm outside diameter of the cutter.  The real trick here is to keep the drill in reverse, as you push it into the opposing tee holes.  This must be stressed here because if you are in the clockwise direction the teeth will engage the plastic and jam which will pull the drill motor out of your hands and you could get hurt.  After doing both ends you can smooth  it out on the inside with a half round file to remove any burrs.  Well happy grooming to you all.

Pooch Boutique Station.

Pooch Boutique

By Richard Williams, 3/18/09

           Okay, I heard the term that says, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention” and I suppose you have heard it too.  What bothers me is the fact that I actually have to apply aphorisms like that to my own life at times.  So here I will state the problem and the solution to it.  First off, let us take a look at the problem down below here.

   

          Born December 5^th 2008; breed is “Yorkshire Terrible Terrier;” weighs in at 3.4 pounds (1.5422 Kilograms) and has terrorized our once peaceful house.  Furthermore, she is too fast to catch, hops like a rabbit, chews everything within her reach and has a face to love.  A little girl we call Ashley.  We got her on Ash Wednesday after my wife went out shopping around on her own to find what she wanted.  She didn’t want me along with her, because I would have a zoo if she didn’t stop me.  When she found what she wanted to replace our poodle that died last November from old age, she then told me what she had been up to.  Yes, I did shut down this computer and go with her to the puppy store.  I told her before we got there that it was already a done deal if I saw a puppy and I hoped she knew that.  She smiled and of course she already knew that.

   

          Maybe, terrorizing our household is too strong a term but I have had many dogs over the years that were spoiled rotten living with us, but this breed of Yorkshire Terrier, is the feistiest of any of them that we have ever had the pleasure to have bite our feet.  Ouch!  It is a good thing Ashley doesn’t climb because our parrot Lexie would be really stressed out.

         The other day I ran from the computer room to stop the angry barking I heard from both of them.  What a nonstop session they had going.  Yes, Lexie learned to bark from our other dog Nallie that died.  She taught Ashley how to bark because she didn’t do it until she heard Lexie do it.  Could it be?  She is very fast or I am very slow now and catching her is an ordeal.  This little girl we knick named “Terrier the Terrible” for now, until she learns the rules of the house or we learn hers.  J  Mischievous is the look down below here.

         Well anyway, back to the problem at hand.  Being such a spirited little girl she is hard to hold onto and when it is bath time, the combing and grooming is a torture for us.  Do you believe it takes two of us to work on a 3.4 pound pooch?  We have always given our pets regular groomings and a bath is something that the parrot Lexie really loves and even asks us for one.  I’m not kidding.  But blow drying is essential for parrots, so they do not get a chill or cold draft until they are completely dry.  Most of them will spread their wings to help the warm air circulate around their “drowned rat” body appearance after a bath.   No, I use a towel before you ask.  Ashley has not yet gotten used to this warm air blow drying experience and one of us has to hold her while the other one tries to comb her fine silky hair or trims her facial hair.  To wash and groom Terrier the Terrible, you need more hands than an octopus.  She might be just a baby but I’m not kidding when I tell you that the bare minimum is four hands and twenty fingers.

         Now before you think that this is going to be a pet article of some kind, I will let you know how I managed to cut down on the number of arms, hands and fingers needed to perform this wash and groom project we have to perform.  At least so I don’t have to be a part of it that is. J  I turned to my SolidWorks program for inspiration and conceptualization and I sort of reinvented the wheel a bit here.  I know they sell these devices but just where do you go to buy one and how fast can you get one?  Faster than Terrier the Terrible?

So in about two hours time after getting the idea and taking some measurements of Terrible and our hand blow dryer I came up with this configuration down below.  I had most everything already except one fitting which was the top end cap.  But my favorite store is close by to me.  Maybe you have heard of it, it is called Home Deposit.  J So here it is folks.

   

 

 

 

 

 

   

“Pictures are worth a thousand words” and I think I have given you enough of them for you to get the idea.  According to my wife it works fabulously, so I got one “atta boy” and now spend more of my time in the computer room again.  Lexie thinks it is a perch and it will take a little getting used to for her to stay under it rather than on top of it. J.

     This is all 2” PVC Schedule 40 plumbing pipe.  The only things glued in place are the top end cap on the vertical piece and the 2” Tees to the small horizontal nipple.  The threaded 2 inch base flange has a 2 inch male PVC threaded adapter in it that holds up the vertical piece.  I did not glue it just in case it might have to be rotated a little for her.  So, our little Terrier the Terrible caused me to lose some valuable time away from writing and my computer work but I think it was worth it.  She can fall asleep lying on top of you and looks like an angle when she is sleeping, which is the opposite of when she is awake.  J  That is a 2 x 10 wood base that is 24 inches long.  The horizontal 2” PVC nipple was made 12 inches.

        The 2” tee that mounts to the 2” vertical piece was made to slide easily up and down with a dowel used in the four 3/8” adjustment holes.   Immobilize the tee in a vise (only one this needs to be done on) and use a hole saw and arbor in a pistol drill with a half inch chuck.  The hole saw must fit tightly inside the tee inside diameter and measures 2 3/8 inch or 60 mm outside diameter of the cutter.  The real trick here is to keep the drill in reverse, as you push it into the opposing tee holes.  This must be stressed here because if you are in the clockwise direction the teeth will engage the plastic and jam which will pull the drill motor out of your hands and you could get hurt.  After doing both ends you can smooth  it out on the inside with a half round file to remove any burrs.  Well happy grooming to you all.

New Adventure

Involvement   

By Richard Williams, 2/23/2009

        Did you ever ask yourself how you got involved with a work project, a show, a contest, a speaking engagement, a club or organization, a youth guiding effort like mentoring, teaching a  religious education class, or for that matter anything else in life?  Actually, I have been involved in all of these things I just mentioned including another one I did not remember until just now and it was when I became an Emergency Medical Technician and worked on ambulances and first aid squads while on major construction jobs.   The two years of training helped me to save a life or two, which made it all worthwhile of course.  I do get INVOLVED in different things I will admit that.  But it can also be a good thing too, because it broadens our experiences and it can work to our advantage at times.  There are pros and cons like the time allocations given and when you are involved with many different things there are never enough hours in the day, any day. 

        So another opportunity befalls me now in my retirement life that I have never started yet.  This one is an opportunity I never ever expected to have come my way.  I didn’t even ask to be considered for this new experience and of course there is no money that is going to be exchanged for what I will be doing shortly.  I ask you if you would believe that I will become a high school specialized teacher in the near future?  I’ve done a lot of things in this life, including working as an entertainer but this one will be a first for me.  I will be teaching a high school SolidWorks class.  It will be a medium sized test class, to see if I can do it and also if the students can get anything out of it and accomplish a certain level of expertise.  I always thought that I would be able to assist or to teach the licensed teachers how to use the program, but never to be the one doing the actual teaching as a community specialist.  How could I ever say no to such a chance and challenge?  Heck, once upon a time back a million years ago, I was once a kid myself.  Here is the school if anyone cares to check it out.  http://schools.ccsd.net/desertrose/ I’ve done four motivational speaking engagements there at Desert Rose in the past.  I have been teaching young people over the last twenty years or so, but in other subjects not close to this one.  Yes, it will be a challenge.  Do I want to do it?  Yup, I certainly do. 

        Wow, now I will even have to watch my verbalization skills and of course my language too.  Well, it won’t be all that hard because most of the times that I have been teaching, it was with the very young people so I’m always careful in that regard.  Since I have sung on stage in front of hundreds of people, I know I will not have any butterflies about doing this.  So what might be the obstacles in front of me?  This will be something that I have to figure out.  Can I teach a basic course okay?  Yes, I can do that.  Could it be that I will live the experience of “fools rush in where angels fear to tread?”  I’m in unexplored territory here, but I have courage reinforced by the fact that the SolidWorks Corporation is SOLIDLY behind me.  They have sent me school student starter courseware and if I follow that religiously, I should not have any problems.  I will keep this great community of refined thinkers and enablers of the world apprised of my forward momentum into the territory where no man has gone before.  At least this man, that is.   A whole new chapter in my life is about to unfold and I will offer it to the world in my writing about it.  I’m really looking forward to teaching this digital language that will allow these youngsters to communicate their ideas and creations to the rest of the world in the MCAD designing industry.  I’ll post the work, good and bad so everyone out there can be part of this adventure.  Have a great day everyone and keep on doing the digital “thingy” like designs and as always I will welcome any and all comments on this article.  Bye for now.

A Much Deeper Appreciation Now

Engineering Profession; I Appreciate It Even More Now.

By Richard Williams, 01/03/2009

          There I was kind of bored while waiting for the show to start at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.  It was held last night on the second of January and we had tickets to see one of the truly great performers of all time hit the stage.  If any of you out there reading this have ever been to the MGM Grand, then you know how big of a place it is.  It is even more so when you have to walk with a cane and you are not into the gambling scene sitting at a machine or table.  Our friends did some of that as my adult son and I walked around to pass the time away until show time.  We looked at the Lions in the Plexiglas enclosure (sound asleep and looked stuffed) and then we looked at many of the stores you buy things at and leave your soul there as the purchase price.  Mr. Niel Diamond was the performer we came to see and I had never seen him do a live show.  We both came out of Brooklyn, New York and he is two years older than me at 67, so I kind of know him and his songs through the decades of his professional career.  No, we never met in person but I knew in advance that it was going to be a really great night and since we live here in Vegas and we know how the seating is arranged we did get some really nice seats.  But Murphy’s Law is always close at hand and plagues me from time to time with things that you would never think about in advance.  At least I would not have imagined these “Laws” happening here at the show but I am really appreciative that some people we call Engineers think of these things.  This is the reason for writing this article to tell all of you Engineers out there how much I appreciate all of your talents.

        The MGM Grand Garden Arena is huge and that is putting it mildly because it sits 16,800 people.   There is a lot of engineering here with air conditioning loads, lighting and the truss roofed ceiling and sound systems.  You can take a look at what I am talking about here by going to their web site at: http://www.mgmgrand.com/entertainment/grand-garden-arena.aspx   It is very impressive to look out at all the numbers of seats and you would be hard pressed to see any empty ones there as people kept on piling on in.   Well, it was scheduled to start at 8 pm but due to the fact that it was a one night only show and that people were still coming in and trying to find their seats it was delayed by a half an hour.  While you are waiting for things to start there are plenty of sales on beer, drinks, foods and of course brochures and DVD’s and tee shirts.  With the exception of the beer, drinks and food items, all proceeds from shirts, DVD’s and printed materials went to help the South Texas area that was very hard hit with the hurricane this last season.  Mr. Diamond announced this on stage and he got a very big applause for doing it.  Now the show was just about getting ready to start and people started to shout loudly and wildly.  Many of us looked at the stage thinking that he had come out from behind the curtain.  That wasn’t what the people were yelling and screaming about.  Ushers there escorted a Master Gunnery Sergeant, decked out in his dress blues uniform with all decorations and awards, but he was in a wheel chair.  Obviously, he was a war casualty but so welcomed by the crowd and MGM, that they moved him right down to the front left side with his guests, where the best seating was available for wheel chaired audience people.  This crowd was primed for tonight whether from the drinks or the expectations of a world class performance.  Roving Camera technicians had already taken up positions covering all four corners of the stage but I know there were others out in the audience too, from viewing the various shots on the two very large bus sized screens.

       The lights went out and an almost ear piercing blast out of the speaker array was punishing all eardrums from every possible angle.  Not mine however; I could turn off my hearing aids to lower the decibel levels.  Spot lights focused on someone way in the back of the stage who was holding his guitar.  Yes, finally everyone saw Mr. Niel Diamond as he sang and walked his way to the front of the stage where he would take up his spot for the next two solid hours of singing.  That was very possibly the first and last time I saw him that evening.  Why you would ask?  Well, his songs are very energizing and sound pretty darn good and when he does those songs he is so famous for, it drives 95% of all the women in the audience and at least 40% of the men to get up out of their seats to sing, shout, scream and DANCE as he performs.  Mr. Diamond tells them to enjoy themselves anyway they can and he tells the audience that he will come closer to wherever the noise is the greatest.  Now truly a lot of this was expected to happen by me and this isn’t the first show we have seen here in Vegas.  But this Garden Arena is designed to have “Bleacher Styled Seating” of that type that can be moved with enough man power for accommodating the many various shows held there.  As the women got up to rock and roll with this music so did the seats and bleachers.  I only paid for one show but I truly got two shows with the women that were gyrating and moving in unexplainable ways all around me.  Everything seemed to be moving with the music and it only stopped when the music did and when these women sat back down into their seats that they bought tickets for but rarely used during the performance.  With my bad leg I would not dare stand up on this vessel that was bouncing on the ocean waves.  Of course I knew every song he sang and so did all the young ladies that were sitting all around us.  It was almost laughable that this was happening like an expected earthquake and but for the fact that I was getting flash backs of the earlier day, with my studies of the SolidWorks Analysis Simulations and all these strange terms like Static, Fatigue, Frequency, Motion, Non Linear and Optimization testing, I might have enjoyed it more.  These thoughts were running through my mind as things were being tested now during this performance.  So my hat is off to all of you engineers out there that design and test these types of ideas before they are actually made and used.  Apparently, those that did design and test these seats out, must have gone to some of these shows where the ladies in the audience did not need the seats they designed.  Salute to the Engineers out there.  J

SolidWorks for Architecture?

Well once again one of my readers surprises me with some superb work he has done with SolidWorks to create both he and his wife's dream house on a piece of property that they have.  It is not easy to use a non-architectural program to build a dream house but his city college courses are teaching him things to help make this gentlemen determined to do it.  He told me that he is really not a great user of the program.  I would say he is already on his way to becoming one someday.  He will be teaching me very soon.

Download solidworks_an_mcad_program_used_for_architecture.doc

Some Assembly Required

Take a little time and come along with me into something I came up with some years ago and just recently resurrected it because it might be of some help to some of you out there for that "honey do list" that keeps growing.         Download some_assembly_required.doc

Futuristic Education is Here Now

Allow me to discuss with you what the Clark County School District here in Las Vegas, Nevada, is doing to bring Education into the third Millennium.  A mold is being created now that will be used to form many other similar types of educational facilities.  This might interest you.  Richard Williams,

Download futuristic_education_is_here_now.doc

Being Absolutely Too Sure of Things.

Well I thought I could be absolutely sure of certain things in life and it was an absolute.  As it turns out that is not always the case and can get you into trouble unless you consider how it might apply to what you do with designs and other creations.  This article can be an eye openor for many of us.  It sure was for me.  This article is short and full of pictures.  Download amazing_puzzle_ponders_12_2_08.doc