Joshua4engineering's Blog

November 6th

joshua4engineering — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:15:47 +0000

We are doing good on our Master Project. I really haven’t learned anything this week. But I am applying my skills of Inventor. Me and Luis, another student in our group, are making a full 3D model of everything in our project. Right now I am working on, I think it is a thermal sensor.

It is actually quite tricky. It is a very small piece and I am having to create designs as small as 1/128th of an inch. Hopefully it will pay off and we will get a series of impressive parts. I have already created the tub which will hold the clean water, but we cut some holes in it, so I am going to have to incorporate those in.

Next week I will be working on the other pieces. I know there is another tub, which will hold the “unclean” water. That one is a little buit trickier because it has alot of curves. After I create all of the pieces I will put them all in the same assembly file. This will give us a three D model of the whole project.

Hallow’s Eve

joshua4engineering — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:32:56 +0000

Well it is the day before Halloween and thankfully a Friday. I finished up Inventor and managed to get everyone done on time. I do not know my grade on the test, but I am very confident it did exceptionally well. Compared to what I hard to do during the module, the test was challenging, but not difficult.

Now we are starting our Master Project. We luckily persuaded our teacher to allow us to choose our groups. The group I am in is very good. We have six people who each have a wide rang of skills. I have worked with almost all of them before and they are all good students. We choose the desalination project, in which we will set up a system to remove salt from water. It seems challenging, but I know we can get it done. We have five weeks to do it.

10/15/08

joshua4engineering — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:19:43 +0000

So we are finishing up Inventor. I am very glad that we worked so hard these last weeks because we are barely going to make the deadline. Unlike the other groups, my partner and I are going to attempt the last chapter, chapter 12. In that we will have to create four separate parts and put them together using the assembly program, which is very new. Hopefully it will go off without a hitch.

So far we have learned every command. I know how to creat a part multiple ways. From making a sketch that I then extrude, to making a sketch and revolving it. I know how to create a sketch in any plane, be it the common three (XY, XZ, YZ) or any plain in between. After base part has been created, I have the knowledge to finish it off many different ways. The amount of commands are too numerous to list in detail, but I feel comfortable that I can efficiently create any object with the given domensions and at an efficient rate.

10/02/09

joshua4engineering — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:48:21 +0000

Today I finished up chapter eight of twelve, which is good because the end of this week marks the halfway point of our time on the module. Chapter eight consisted of teaching me how to take a part that I made using normal Inventor methods, and making it into a very detailed drawing. When a person makes a drawing of his object, he purposely chooses only as many faces is as necessary to get all the information. A face consists of a side of a part. The defaults are usually front, top, and either side or a tilted angel that shows the part in three dimensions.

Now I am utterly astonished at how user friendly this program is. I took all three AutoCAD programs offered in my school. When I would want to make a face of a part, I would have to go line by line and properly dimension it. This would take quite some time. But in Inventor, if I have already created the part, I can simply choose the file, and paste a view of the part on the sheet. I can even continue to create a top, side, or tilted view with only a single click per, depending on where my mouse is in reference to the base. This process can reduce the time it takes to create a part from ten minutes to ten seconds. Again, this is amazing.

10/1/09

joshua4engineering — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:06:25 +0000

I am on the eight chapter of Inventor. So far I have learned how to use all the sketching tools and how to best utilize them to create a part. I can make my sketches into a 3D part with minimal effort and perfectly accurate. I learned how to put contracts on the drawings so that I can more easily manipulate them. I can create sketches on any plane, allowing me to more easily design the part. I have full knowledge of the parent child tree.

I am now working on turning a full 3D part into a drawing with multiple views. I am not too good at it yet. The user interface does look very intimidating. I discovered how to use most of the them and what their default setting are. I can use a piece I have already created to make an accurate drawing. Hopefully it won’t take long to master this.

9/25/09

joshua4engineering — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:53:07 +0000

Inventor is going very good. I am already on the sixth of the twelve chapters, and that’s only after a few days. I will most likely finish the whole module next Friday. So far, I have learned how to create 2D sketches and make them 3D. I can create additional cuts and sketches on the 3D planes. I can also modify the dimensions of the sketch and lock them into place to create very accurate drawings.

Right now I am working on opening the document settings and modifying the contents. There I can change the units and settings. Another useful feature is the Parameters tab. Here it brings up a table with all the dimensioned lines. Instead of having only numerical values, here I can make them into functions. Say I have a simple rectangle with a circle in the middle. The rectangle is ten by five, with the circle positioned in the middle (center at 5, 2.5). If I change the sides, like doubling, the circle will no longer be in the middle. But in the Parameters section I can choose the circles dimensions, and say that instead of 2.5 for x, it is now d1 /2 meaning that the circle will always have half the value of the bottom line (represented with the d, and the “1″ which is just assigned based on creation order.) Now whatever I make the line’s value, the circle will always be in the middle. The same would be done for the y-value and any others needed.

9/24/09

joshua4engineering — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:23:11 +0000

We started our new modules this week. To my delight, I got Autodesk Inventor. This is a program that allows the user to create amazingly detailed three-dimensional objects with almost no limitations. I did use this module before when we were working on our Master Project last year, but I didn’t get credit for it. So now, I am taking it legitimately. I really like Inventor because it allows me to create what I can visualize in my mind in ways which would I would be limited from on paper.

The company that creates these products has announced that any engineering student, like myself, can have access to their servers and their software for the next thirteen months. This means that I can work on my projects at home if I need to, and that in my free time, I can create endless designs and truly test the limits of the software. The newest version of Inventor is 2010, which along with new commands, allow physical characteristics to be applied to the objects, and simulations to be run. So if I build a motor, I can actually test and see if it would correctly run. I can also analyze the object’s stress, efficiency, safety, and many other things. I just hope my computer can handle it.

9/18/09

joshua4engineering — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:48:46 +0000

We finished up the safety quizzes this week. I did not pass all of them. I only passed about three of them. The three I did pass all had to do with a saw of some sort. For some odd reason I guess I just know how to be safe around a saw. Ironicly, more students seemed to do bad on the ones I succeeded on than the ones I did not. This means that when it becomes time to use those tools during a Master Project, I can do the job. Even though there will most likely be someone else who is more skilled cutting. Just because I can do the job safely doesn’t mean the finished product will come out well. I will most likely make the design for the product and tell them what to cut.

Mr. Kastenburg, our teacher, is allowing us to take the quizzes we failed next week. We will be given more chances and we will be getting feedback on where we did messed up. With this change, I predict almost everyone passing everything. The biggest trouble so far is that when we get our quizzes back, we don’t know where are mistakes were, and have to blindly go in changing them. With that out of the way, we will most likely all pass. To end the week on a less serious note, Mr. Kastenburg showed us how to properly lift, carry, and set down ply-wood. This relates to a personal story he told us earlier in the year when he didn’t do it properly and it caused him some trouble. Not a skill I see ever having to use in my near future, but something to know nonetheless.

9/16/09

joshua4engineering — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:03:56 +0000

I took my module test and got a passing grade. The reason I say passing and not give the actual grade is because I don’t know my grade. The test was done on the SkillPro computer software program. The questions for the test were made from the quizzes we took. Well one of the quizzes had mistakes in it, and those mistake were on the test. The teacher was unable to change my score for the test, so he going to have to dome something manually. I know I passed though..

Yesterday we had to take safety quizzes in order to use the tools in the shop. We had to get a perfect 100% in order “pass”. I did not get a perfect 100%; instead I got a 95% like twice in a row. I know how to safely operate around machinery, I’ve done allot of work with CNC, but I am not the kind of person in our groups to use tools. Instead I am usually the programmer, doing Auto-CAD, or leading the group. So my not being able to use the tools shouldn’t affect my ability to work.

9/11/09

joshua4engineering — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:24:53 +0000

I did not take the test today. We had some software problems and so the tests are not able to go online. I finished my paper and I am going to turn it in on line so it can be checked for plagiarism. All our essays in this class will require that.

The plan for next week is to take the tests Monday, then Tuesday we choose our new modules. I am going to take Inventor. It is a computer design program that I can use to create full three dimensional objects. This can be anything from machine parts to figurines. Even though, creating the curves and needed designs for organic objects is incredibly hard. I did use the program last year for our master project. This year though I can take the whole lap and get credit for it.