OK, who among us is actually impressed by "prepared" video demos?

Jul 23, 2008 10 Replies

I doubt there is anyone more skeptical than myself. Anyone who has been called to engineering to see the one-gazillionth demo jockey run his act has to be seriously nuts to believe these scams. Like Steve said elsewhere, for a demo guy to impress me I will watch him solve some parts that I know to be "difficult". If they can do a scratch model and pull it off, ok, I will give them that much. If anybody has seen the typical demo jockey, very very few can take a scratch model, draw it, build it and machine it correctly.



fwiw, the demo jockey solves nothing, he launches a fool proof movie/routine, especially designed to skip hairy details, and nothing more.



What kills me about all these new "wonder boy" stretch and pull model editing softwares, is that NOTHING is being built to any specs at all. these guys grab a part and drag it. ooooooh! If they want to make a part that doesn't have to hold a dimension, cool. But we also know that that is not real world modeling nor machining. Some customers will continuously change, switch dims, add then add/remove features, add/reduce material stock in several spots, naturally no changes will be uniform. Remove increments of material stock, all to minute specs, etc.



Where does the dragging of changes ever happen?



Do your customers EVER call and say, hey drag my part to be longer and wider?



fwiw, these companies spend countless hours building these pretty demos to impress exactly who?



Only someone who is easily impressed by fancy video, or someone who has not a clue to how modeling and machining are actually done would believe these "wonder boy" videos as an end all cure all solution.



Just watch these videos enough and this becomes almost laughable. I watched some Spaceclaim demos tonight, what a riot! Moving bosses etc by dragging the boss some distance and dropping it. What about draft angle that vary? What if the shape of the boss gets some non-uniform changes vs just moving it some other place?? What about fillet radii that are variable. Would dragging and dropping a variable radius that is already to specs just screw up the works? How do you drag a feature that has a vrb fillet radius and not move the vrb fillet out of specs?



Guys, there is just so much NOT ADDRESSED in these videos.



Of course if you have never built 3D models then the drag and drop might just be the way for you.



Excuse me while I build my parts to dimensional specs, I suppose I am not a drag and drop guy. Michael


I'm up there with you.. bout ready to get the demo jocks to come out and show me some cam software.. I'll give them parts that I drew, no way I'll let them use their own..

only thing I can see that being useful for is if your just designing.. It's all user preference on software, jon can boast his software of the day all he wants, in the end, if it works for you great..

I agree.. drag and drop is nice, but in the end, how many times has a customer sent you a released drawing and called up and said, oh wait, the hole on the side needs to be moved over 1" and the profile needs to stay the same distance away..

and even so, if you know how to use the software your using (I use SW) to change a part you drew shouldn't take but a few min..

Pardon me but is it wise to accept a phoned in engineering change?

Wes

When the owner of the company calls with a change, gives you a change tracking number, and time is critical, I think so. Michael

It really depends on the company you're doing work for, your relationship with them, what they want / expect from you.

We take them all the time and we also frequently suggest them.

There are no hard and fast rules even if liars / blow hards like Tom Brewer, Joe 788, etc. pretend there are. I happen to work for a very large and very successful company that is the leader in its field by a very wide margin. Lying idiots like Tom Brewer and Joe788 will never in their lifetime achieve the scale of success that the company I work for has achieved.

Jon Banquer San Diego, CA

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What lies Jon? You keep calling me a liar, but refuse to provide proof.

Please post where I said any such thing.

Tom

We require, at the LEAST an email or FAX explaining the change. We then end up sending back what we've changed in the form of 3D model, or prints for the customer to approve. We wont blindly follow just a verbal message. It's too easy for a customer to say, "That's not what I told you to do.". It's happened far too many times in the past.

Exactly.. If your doing work for NASA or one of the many companies out there like it, then you wait for a new REV drawing.. If your doing work for the fab shop down the road that you've worked with for the last 20 years, then a phone call is sufficient enough.

Absolutely, one of my better long time customers hand sketches boat hull components in a perspective view. His 3D sketches are very detailed and better than most cad drawings you get. The guy is an electrical engineer who retired from Cadillac, now runs his own company, and is an amazing 3D sketch guy. If he calls and asks for a change, he gets it. This may be the most intelligent engineer I have run across in a long time. He can visually "see" anything in 3D, can sketch and fax it to me and his work rarely fails or even has to be adjusted. he is better and more perceptive than some customers who have an army of cad guys. In the real world, be thankful when you find guys like this one. He is one of the very few who can discuss 3D machining changes over the phone and be right there with you every thousandth of the way.

Not always. Things have changed in this regard.

ftp.machiningsolution.com/IMG_0025.JPG

Credibility counts more than ever.....

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