Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Talk To Webmaster US military sniper rifles

Thankfully Lee invented diesel with his chemestry set.

You can fill it back in once the Lee coal to diesel plant goes in.

Maybe he makes diesel in his kettle bells?

RWE, I don't use AutoCAD for anything. I used it from version 1 through 14, and wrote a surveying application for it in 1985, as well as other external programs to generate drawings from external data.

There are lots of sources of topographical data and maps, but I happen to have a need which LIDAR, USGS, UCDS, ESRI, etc do not address, so I am writing that enhancement for the same 3D modeling tool I use for machine design. That way, I don't have to jump around to 3 or 4 different CAD systems for different types of engineering.

Most of the mechanicals I know in the auto industry use Unigraphics.

Lee how are ya on FEA? I may have bridge project comming up and I have never used it.

You are using the same application on a 200 acre design project that is complex enough that no GIS/data resource has adequate contour data as you use in machine design?

Maybe you should hire a licensed land surveyor?

Curiosity has me intrigued at what makes your project so different that it cannot be accomplished with available information, but the additional information you need can be obtained with standard GPS.

But its the same curiosity I had when my cousin and I looked into a non-grounded electrical outlet, with butter knives in each hand.

I let him go first.

I lost interest really quick.

I have designed sewer systems off of USGS Quad maps because my client was too cheap to pay for a topographical survey.

The contractor then complained that I was .3 off in spots. I didn't figure it was too bad using that information.

Use of a particular CAD tool by an industry has a lot of history behind it, and investment, more than just what is the best current tool for a particular job.

Ford Motor Company put a lot of money into Unigraphics back in the early days. Ford and BMW also used very advanced 3D systems running on Prime computers in the early 1980s. (These same computers were used to do the Disney movie, "TRON".)

The aerospace industry uses CATIA, which was developed by Dessault Aerospace, as the 3D FEA add-on to CADAM, the 2D CAD developed by Lockheed on the IBM in the 1970s. CATIA developed Solidworks, which a lot of smaller shops use for machine design and plastics parts and mold design. CALMA is used for a lot of plastic molding, because it was developed by GE to engineer and sell their plastic resins.

Bridges and steel buildings are old hat. NASTRAN and STRUDL programs developed in the late 1970s have all the input parameters. Just plug in the beams, loadings and connection nodes, and it will give you all the modes of vibration, wind deflections, etc. We used to have to write that stuff from scratch in FORTRAN 30 years ago.

The surviving CAD programs are not necessarily the best ones. A lot of superior products failed due to marketing, herd mentality staying with an inferior product, business cycles, etc.

0.3 feet or meters? Either way, I'm happy to have it!

What's a 12" donut between friends?

0.3'

I was happy with with the results using the Quad map. Although Saginaw, MI has very little Elevation change.

Lee- The FHWA has changed lots of things on bridge design over the last few years. LFRD is the design method required for any new bridges. I have just completed a scour analysis of all the bridges in my county. Do you have any comments on spread footings?

Perhaps the stubbornness of sticking to an archaic tool, as well as the depreciation of the investment should both be considered paid in full.

Not that I won't survey with a transit and chain if given a chance, I also know that my interest there is purely recreational and not a means of generating revenue, or an adequate product.

Business is business.

Figure any officer of a consulting firm should know that...

I still survey with a OLD Theodolite (1950's) here at the county. We hire most of our survey work and CAD work done by local companies. About all I survey anymore is stream cross-sections.

They have whole programs dedicated to this stuff??





Who knew?


I invented Strudel...only I spell it with an "e".....


Ingwe

RWE, when it comes time to do a project, local surveyors and civil engineers will be hired to do precise topological surveys, grading plans, etc. When I an designing a project at a high level, I will do it precisely enough to be within 1/2% on my estimates to the companies which will be paying the bills. Then I hire and work with the architects and engineers to develop the detailed engineering plans.

I don't do detailed roadway and bridge design. Same for railways. I just lay them out where they need to go on my projects, connect them up to existing streets, roads, and interstates, in order to develop a master plan, estimates and schedules. I will do other detailed designs. But who knows - I may have to do a detailed design of a short highway bridge again someday.

Since everyone is going to lasers and built-in GPS for surveying, I am picking up old Zeiss and K&E equipment for nothing. One advantage of using GPS shots on a large hilly and wooded site is that the developers, bankers, etc can go into the field, find a spot, and look at the rendering of the project on a laptop from that view point. People who cannot visualize things well need that.

The sound you hear is my head banging the keyboard.

So, you are doing a 200 acre design project that needs contours that cannot be obtained by LIDAR, but can be obtained using GPS.

In addition this phase of the project will be done with something not considered to be a precise topo (otherwise why get the surveyors later), but it is complex enough for you to program contour generation from point data into a drafting program originally used for machine control?

I'm using synapses I had originally designated for debauchery, just to figure this out.

Ummmmmm GPS does not work in a wooded setting. I priced out a modern Theodolite and it was $10,000. No way was my board going to buy into that.

A synapse is a terrible thing to waste...

Especially those ones....

Especially on Lee...



Ingwe

Last year, I bought a Zeiss with tripod for $600.00.

I don't expect surveyors to understand my engineering process which created a job for them, any more than I expect some factory workers to understand the engineering processes which created the projects they are assembling.

....an awestruck hush fell on the crowd,....

I know at least one of us is in awe...


Ingwe

A Zeiss total station with a tripod for $600. I have never seen one that cheap. My laser level was over $5000. They did throw in a tripod for that.


There are very few firms using GPS around here. It is highly wooded so you have trouble getting signal. We do have a Leica GPS transponder that MDOT installed in front of our office. The drivers call it the space needle.