My SolidWorks Buddy

Using SolidWorks for Fun

                                                                                                                      By Richard Williams, 4/28/08

         I cannot remember who said it but I believe it to be true that when you want to expand your knowledge with the use of SolidWorks, do something different and creative that you enjoy doing outside of work.  That is a very true statement.  When you “play” with different ideas and use the application to help you visualize things you want to experiment with, it can be a very enjoyable time that you spend with your buddy, SolidWorks.  I don’t know if anyone has ever described SolidWorks as being a “buddy” but when I want to get away from it all and spend time developing my ideas from my creative side that is what I do.  No, I am not a recluse, introvert or hermit if you are thinking that. Since there are so many activities that I do during the week that bring me to family and friend gatherings, meetings, speaking engagements at schools and this wonderful land of entertainment in Las Vegas, I do need some time alone with my buddy.  Being creative means jumping out of that box or confinement to standards that you use in your working life.  Time alone without any restrictive rules keeping you bottled up and safely inside of a set procedure or format, to try things that might work, could work, will work, if only you can come up with that right combo.  Who knows what you might be able to create if you just had no restrictions placed upon your work as you play. 

          I work mainly in the orthogonal world and use very little curves and surfacing in my projects.  That is something that needs to be corrected by me because working like that is limiting, restrictive and does not conform to the true world we live in.  Look around from where you are sitting and see the world around you with curves and shapes that are not just up and down and from side to side.  I have cultivated a wonderful relationship with my buddy.  I sketch things and extrude them into 3 dimensional figures and my buddy forgives me those stupid mistakes I make and warns me about where I did the wrong thing.  It talks to me in nice pleasant tones as long as I leave the sound off.  Okay Andy Rooney, eat your heart out.  I cannot count the number of times I was jolted out of a quiet and somber playful and creative mode with a harsh discordant sound, so now I don’t get heart attacks from my buddy warning me about something I did wrong.

        So what makes this special relationship between my buddy and I work so well?  The simple answer here is that I don’t know.  I enjoy it if that is an answer you might believe.  There is very little pressure in my life at this time as I am retired now and get to play more, plus there are no schedules and work commitments that I must meet.  (In actuality there are even more of those now then when I was working.)  When working on heavy electrical construction jobs, when you got home after physically working hard in all different kinds of elements and weather conditions too, you more or less wanted to get cleaned up, eat and settle down for the night.  The things that I have experienced during this long career are enough to fill a very large book.  After all we made things work that were designed by you designers and engineers and architects.  A great career but now I mostly sit behind a desk when I am not out running around doing all the things that I volunteer to do.  That gives me time to think and play with ideas that might help others.  I experiment with solar energy but mostly I enjoy designing school science projects that can be used by teachers from all over the world.  Do you know about those very popular bridge building science classes in which our youngsters design and build their own structures and then test them out with weights?  Well, lots of times kids do those projects in schools with monies that teachers lay out from their own pockets for rather expensive Balsa woods.  So I took it upon myself to find an alternative material.  I experimented with paper and cardboard and did have lots of success with it.  However, it wasn’t exotic enough for me.  I wanted to use a material that was not only cheaper than Balsa wood (used in model airplanes and boats) but more easily obtainable.  I’m building the actual structure right now of the digital model screen shot I am placing down below here and this one is made from Fettuccini Pasta.  Yup, you read that right.  You have to be certifiable to come up with ideas like this but believe me I am not the very first to use this material.  Some Elmer’s Wood Glue, steady hands, a good design, patience of a saint, some simple tools, nice music and a certification in being crazy all works together to bring you the “Bridge Fettuccini.”

It should be obvious to anyone looking at my design that I am not an engineer, designer or architect.  But could I do any worse than the bridge down below here?  Amazing isn’t it?

I sit on a curriculum committee here in my school district and it is our job to choose courses and course materials like software applications for our students that are handpicked to attend our six Academies of the Sciences.  This is a very gratifying job and one that I take very seriously in helping to bridge their education to what they need to know in life and as a career choice.   (Pun Intended)  As far as I am concerned there is no more important job that I could do.  Yes, I do get laughs when I mention to the adult  school officials and others what my bridge is made of.  But where else can you create something that if it doesn’t turn out right, you can eat it?  Here’s hoping that someone, somewhere, at sometime, in some way might be amused, informed, inspired or even given a good laugh by reading this.

Bye for now.