Alternative Battery LR44

(...)

Ouch.

--Winston

Winston Inscribed thus:

Draftsight runs on Linux and Winblows, and its free for personal use !

I stared out using Draftsight, but found the learning curve far too difficult. There isn't enough Draftsight documentation for a new user to figure it out, so I started reading the AutoCAD documentation, as Draftsight speaks perfect AutoCAD. It's *very* complex, with curliques accumulated over the years.

So I talked to the MEs (mechanical engineers) at work. They said that AutoCAD dominates the Architecture field, where it started, but had a very long learning curve, and is 2D (with later 3D additions). Pro-E was used for large-scale projects (with millions of pieces), is 3D, but was impossible to use unless you used it for a living.

What the MEs used and recommended for home use was Alibre, which is 3D from the start, and is a fairly clean new design. So I bought a personal-use copy for $200 or so, and made more progress in two weeks than I had made with DraftSight in many months. So, I abandoned Draftsight, and stopped reading the thick AutoCAD books.

Joe Gwinn

I've gone to making plastic covers for all my IR remote controls (from freezer bag sections).

Most of the time my remotes would stay clean, except for dust and small debris from laying on the floor or table. A very long time ago, I mastered the use of a napkin, and when I'm eating while watching a movie I'm not constantly transferring food residue from fingers to remote. Some folks I've known, haven't adapted to that behaviorial modification, and their remotes essentially die from filth.

One condition which causes button presses to require more 'n more pressure, even when they're kept clean, is that the face of the carbon pads become shiney. I used to scuff the pads just lightly enough to remove the shine, and they generally work fine (one of those pen-type fiberglas strands/bristles brushes, or a small strip of 400-600 grit abrasive paper).

My remotes have essentially been maintenance-free since I've been making covers for them (ounce of prevention sorta thing).

Remotes of years ago would often get slimey from the inside.. apparently it was the formula of the rubbery vinyl used for the buttons causing some compound to ooze out of the material. I haven't seen that type of contamination for a number of years.

For many tasks, my go-to solvents are denatured alcohol or lacquer thinner/acetone when the material can tolerate it.

For fun just now, I visited their site and downloaded their 'getting started' flyer.

It was like a HF lathe. Most the parts appeared to be there, but it was useless as shipped. :)

--Winston

A 'napkin' you say? I shall have to Google that. Sounds useful.

(...)

My friends at LG used to ship prototypes with feet made of recycled tires and sewage. They would mark any surface they were placed upon.

Nasty.

If you can get it, naphtha is a miracle worker. It dissolves most petrochemicals and organics very quickly, without damage to plastics and without water or other residue.

'Only thing it cannot remove efficiently is dried food spatter. For that, this stuff is excellent:

--Winston

(...)

Ouch. I found Autocad to have a vertical learning curve.

(...)

I feel your pain.

After attempting Autocad and n+1 no-cost 'cad' programs, I stumbled across Generic CADD (Later Visual CADD). Suddenly, I could draw and print!

That experience flattened the learning curve with Rhino3D. I've heard good things about Alibre, but never tried it.

--Winston

I had a free copy of TurboCAD3D moons ago. Then a free copy SmartDraw and Alibre, and I think one other. Now I have a free copy of DoubleCAD XT Pro 3. I haven't really had an urgend or specific use for them so I haven't put in the time to really learn any of them.

I've found Corel Draw quicker for my uses, and will move to Sketchup once I've read the missing manual.

BUT, if I can get a free-ish copy with my entry into CNC, I'll do it. $555 (+$15.32 s/h) for three 640 oz/in steppers, a Gecko G540, 3 DB9 connectors and shells, latching red estop switch, 3 homing switches, 3 current-set resistors, a licensed copy of Mach3 and a licensed copy of BobCAD v21 isn't a bad price. I'll be halfway there to my own CNC router. But I want a copy of Vectric Aspire, too. Only $2k.

-- Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplacable spark.

In the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all, do not let the hero in your soul perish and leave only frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach.

The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours. -- Ayn Rand

El Capitan should be so lucky. (For the unwashed, that's a sheer 3k' vertical cliff in Yosemite. )

Cool.

That leaves just one other vertical cliff: the cost.

-- Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplacable spark.

In the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all, do not let the hero in your soul perish and leave only frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach.

The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours. -- Ayn Rand

Joseph Gwinn wrote in news:joegwinn- snipped-for-privacy@news.giganews.com:

I have Alibre, and use it occasionally for 3D stuff, but it's a bit buggy. If you don't apply constraints just right when aligning parts, it will disassemble things at weird angles. "Undo" works, so it's not fatal, but annoying.

For 2D, I use AutoSketch. When AutoDesk was getting their butts kicked in the 2D market by a program called Drafix, they bought them out, flushed their product & re-labled Drafix as AutoSketch. I've used it for everything for about 23 years, from laying out 44 GHz power amps to mapping the electrical wiring in my attic. The drawings are in Windows metafile format under the hood, so they import into Word & PowerPoint fairly seamlessly. The downside is that they layed off the development team years ago, and it hasn't entirely kept up with changes Microsoft has made in the metafile world. It's still my tool of choice for almost everything, in large part because I can do stuff in it very quickly. 23 years ago, I had never used a CAD tool before, and I don't recall having much trouble getting started. On the otherhand, I am still finding shortcuts for some operations.

Version 9 is plenty good enough for most things, and being one release out of date, is available for short money (< $25 if you shop around).

Doug White

That looks like what I remember reading about.

RWL

Some countries call it a nappy, check nappy first.

CNC is a ton of fun! You are gonna love it.

--Winston

I'm sounding like a broken CD here, but if you are enrolled at your local JC, you can get the student discount for Rhino.

$195 instead of $995 is an insane bargain.

--Winston

I'm much too old and slightly too young for a 'nappy check'. :)

--Winston

So are CA JCs. Up here, courses cost $130 per credit, with most courses 3+ credits, plus half a dozen extra college fees. I'd be back up to $995 in a heartbeat with 2 basic classes. But thanks for the thought. Welding and landscaping programs cost upward of $3k each here. I think a commercial course would be cheaper.

My Adobe products cost $100 each as a dealer, but they stopped that practice. Now everyone pays outrageous prices. I never sold a single extra copy because online dealers beat my vendor (Ingram Micro and TechData) pricing every single time, and savvy buyers went there.

-- However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -- Sir Winston Churchill

I haven't yet run into this, but I'm sure I will.

Being buggy is normal with a "clean new design", and is the price for not having to learn all the eccentric curliques of a beloved product, now at release 781.0.50.

Not having 23 years invested in any CAD program, I want to start with a newer one that is actively supported, and grow older with it.

Joe Gwinn

So get on the other side of the equation and let the JC purchase your discounted software, yes?

Teach a 'beginning XTML' telecourse for your local JC/CC.

Your local JC is swamped with folks who want to know this stuff!

Looka here:

--Winston

Most mfgrs require specific courses to purchase the software, or they did the last time I looked. Sometimes they checked, other times they didn't, but Crom help you if you cheated. You were buggered for it.

Not EVEN! I wouldn't survive the lugubrious liberal bastion of blubbering maroons. As a student, it would be bad enough, but as an instructor, look out! Besides, they don't hire people who don't believe in AGWK. And I refuse to put a Bammy sticker on my vehicle. They'll just have to do without me.

That's because there is none offered in any quarter, sir. P.S: That note said "Current Term is Fall 2011" not "full".

-- However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -- Sir Winston Churchill