Scary Mary

The great sailboat migration

After yet another unseasonably cold and rainy weekend, many boaters called it quits. Yesterday, sailboats and tour boats streamed into the Calumet River en route to their dry docks.
We figured we'd follow them.
If you ever want to feel really small, try paddling in the Calumet River. Nearly everything there is on an enormous scale: piles of coke, stacks of aluminum ingots, mountains of salt, mammoth ocean-going ships, towering cranes, groaning bridges...it's almost overwhelming.

A tractor atop a mountain of salt.

Our VHF radios enabled us to listen in on the conversations between captains and bridge tenders. We watched as the railroad bridge near the Skyway lifted up to let some boats go by, then lowered to allow an Amtrak train to cross. We paddled next to tug boats and ore boats and enormous ocean-going ships.

Alec provides a sense of scale. This ship was headed to Duluth and then to Spain.

Some of the photos we took look like images from faraway lands. If you didn't know better, you might think this was an apartment complex somewhere in the former Soviet Union with snow-covered mountains in the bacgkground:

Stacks of aluminum ingots with a pile of salt in the background.

 There's something timeless about the Calumet River. If industry had emerged on Earth before nature, this would be a primordial land.

A relic of the days when giant machines roamed the Earth.

Revit 2010 subscription advantage videos

For all those that need to know what’s included, check out Steve’s link.

http://revitoped.blogspot.com/2009/10/dept-of-echo-revit-subscription.html

Revit 2010 subs advantage – selection sets

This may have been blogged elsewhere and it was certainly highlighted by Autodesk at last Tuesday’s blogger day, but the Revit 2010 subs advantage pack introduces various enhancements.  The one I personally found particularly useful is the ability to make changes to the tool you are using once you have created a select set. Previous to this release, if you made a selection of items, picked a tool and you found you had picked the wrong tool, you had to drop the selection , reselect the items and then pick the correct tool! With the 2010 subs advantage pack, you can make a select, and then switch the tool you want to use. So if you pick “copy”, then change your mind to say “mirror”, you can do this on the fly without loosing your selection set. Take a look at this video to see what I mean……

Press Release: The Open Design Alliance (ODA) today announced the availability of a new enhancement request system

Phoenix, AZ, October 26, 2009 – The Open Design Alliance (ODA) today announced the availability of a new enhancement request system designed to improve communication between ODA Sustaining and Founding Members and ODA development.

As a member-driven organization, the ODA has consistently delivered technology that stems directly from the focus set by members through long-term development relationships and close communication. The newly implemented enhancement request system further strengthens the role of members within the organization by enabling them to enter and vote on new requests for ODA platform components, enhancements, and features. Members will also be able to collaborate on requests with each other and with ODA development.

ODA Chief Technical Officer Neil Peterson stated, “The ODA has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. As the size of our organization and the sophistication of our platform increases, we need to adopt infrastructure tools which are better suited to handling the increased communication load. The new enhancement request system will play a key role in future growth by providing an organized framework for expressing and prioritizing new ideas and development goals. It’s a strong addition to the membership infrastructure of the ODA.”

More information about the ODA and its members is available at http://www.opendesign.com/.

Ethics in Design: Istanbul conference and after

Images and Comments: Istanbul conference and after

Prof. M P Ranjan

On the 8th of October 2009 Prof M P Ranjan delivered the keynote address at the 4th National Design Conference at Istanbul Turkey and spent the next day listening to the numerous sessions at the conference on various issues dealing with design that the Turkish scholars found interesting and relevant, all in Turkish, with two student guides whispering the English translation into his ears. The conference was stimulating and the event was conducted in a historic setting of the Istanbul Technical University at Taskisla in Taksim in the heart of Istanbul. The conference was organized by Prof Alpay Er, Head of Department, Industrial Product Design at ITU and the participants came from many of the 24 schools of industrial design in Turkey and included teachers, students and professional designers. The keynote paper and visual presentation titled “Hand-Head-Heart: Ethics in Design” can be downloaded from here from this blog.
Download full paper titled "Hand-Head-Heart: Ethics in Design" here -PDF file 360kb Full Text
Download visual presentationas a pdf file here - PDF file 4.8 mb visual presentation screen resolution

Image1: Prof M P Ranjan delivers keynote lecture titled “Hand-Head-Heart: Ethics in Design” at the ITU Auditorium in Istanbul on 8th October 2009. The theme of the conference is “Design or Crisis”.

Image2: The historic building of the Istanbul Technical University has a mural painted by Abdurrahman Öztoprak from 1950’s while the building itself dates back to the 1850’s.

Cigcem Kaya, one of the researchers at ITU wrote to me that this fresco on one of the walls of Istanbul Techical University, School of Architecture, is one of the major works of Abdurrahman Öztoprak from 1950s. Trained in Academy of Fine Arts (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University) by Nurullah Berk, Öztoprak is one of the first and most reputable social realist painters of the country with some embodiment cubism as well. Although housed in an architecture school not many people know about the legacy of this fresco. It lies silent behind gatherings and conferences: untitled. Further enquiries with Fatma Merve, one of my student guides revealed that, "Abdurrahman Öztoprak (*1927 Istanbul, lives in Akyaka) is one of Turkey’s leading contemporary artist of international stature. His works are represented in the permanent collections of major museums and private collections in Turkey. He draws his inspirations for his abstract compositions primarily from Classical European Music. He created a unique body of abstract works during a fifty year period. On July 1st 2007 Abdurrahman Öztoprak has been eighty years old. Öztoprak was educated at the Art Academies in Istanbul and Rome and worked in Germany between 1960 and 1975. Öztoprak’s abstract paintings are a true archive artistic dialogue between East and West cultures and testimony to the way in which different traditions express their feelings. Their messages are continually universal. The geometrical abstract works of artist demonstrates a unique imaginative form vocabulary. Öztoprak’s paintings have recorded interesting dialogue between Oriental and Occidental Art; through them we witness a fertile symbiosis of Turkish and European Culture."

Image3: The beautiful courtyard at the Istanbul Technical University springs to life in the coffee and cocktail breaks and students stream out to sit in the sun and socialize between classes. Pelin Kazak who picked me up from the airport won the best prize for the student exhibit.

Image4: Experiencing street food views in Istanbul with student volunteers on the day before the ITU conference.

Image5: Entrance to the ITU building with the conference poster and views from the conference venue during the keynote lecture.

Image6: On the sidelines of the conference XXI Design Magazine conducted an interview with Prof M P Ranjan

Image7: On the day after the conference Merve and Saniye, student volunteers showed me the scenes of the Bosphorus, crossed over to the other side of Golden Horn and looked at the covered market and took the ferry ride to end the day.

Image8: Sunday it was street life in Istanbul on both sides of the Bosphorus, teeming with people, dressed in their best and nowhere to go in particular and nothing to do in particular, an interesting day of ambling about on the town.

Image9: Return journey through Doha Airport in Qatar is one big shopping mall and a number of halls full of Eames Tandem Sling Seating just like the original prototype that we have in the NID Prototype Collection back home at Paldi campus.

Prized takeaway from Turkey: A small book, "On Methods of Research by Bruce Archer, published locally by METU Faculty of Architecture Press, Ankara, 1999" was presented to me by Prof. Dr Fatma Korkut and Prof. Dr Gulay Hasdogan, both faculty at the Department of Industrial Design at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara in Turkey. This book is in both English and in Turkish language, front to back, and as a low cost offering it makes available valuable insights into design and research from one of the world thought leaders in the subject. I was wondering if India too could not do this and if some Indian school takes up this challenge they will soon be seen as the design leaders in the region themselves. I have a wish list of a set of books that must be made widely available to Indian audiences from the school level all the way to the level of industry stalwarts and Government officials who should be exposed to ideas in design if we are to see a change in the use of design in India in real sectors of national need. Is anybody listening?

Design Thinking: Is however the Flavour of the Day. Design Thinking Exchange posted a list of thinkers that generated scores of emails and Facebook & Twitter posts that came my way. Thank you all for your mails and Tweets. More about this in my next post, particularly since I am off to Melbourne next month to participate in another conference on Design Thinking organised by the Swinburne University by Prof Ken Friedman, Dean, Swinburne Design.

Prof. M P Ranjan

Cad Outsourcing: No Hire, No Fire

CAD Outsourcing offers a wide range of services from architectural to electrical designs. The benefits that this offers to the industry are varied.The main benefit you get from CAD outsourcing is that you are able to cut down your project cost. But the most important benefit that you gain is the advantage of No Hire, No Fire.

Typically, when you consider outsourcing your CAD work, timely completion of your project is a major factor. Another factor for taking this decision is that you dont have the required skills and resources (read skilled staff) to execute the project yourself. Todays competitive workplace environment also pressurizes you to to launch the project before your competitor does it.

When you intend to start a new venture based on CAD, you can be sure to choose wisely, especially because you will essentially be making an investment of time, money and expertise while hiring people.

With a good CAD outsourcing service provider in hand, you will never have to hire and train the required manpower and will never have to fire them as well, when they are done with their jobs. This simply means that when you go for outsourcing your CAD projects what you get is experienced professional services from skilled staff members who can meet the deadlines that you set. Invariably, your CAD outsourcing partners have to maintain your trust and confidence. All these finally help you increase your return on investment.

The most important benefit of hiring a CAD services outsourcing partner would be the non-requirement in hiring and training people. Most of the CAD ventures, if they are not outsourced, find problems with staffing and training. When you outsource your CAD operations, a whole team of trained staff is ready to look into the different aspects of CAD related jobs such as: architectural, mechanical, 3D modeling, electrical and electronic drafting and conversion of paper drawings to CAD as well as GIS mapping services.

The requisite software updates and staff training are also well taken care of by your outsourcing provider. If any team member is non-performing or not up to the standard, your outsourcing provider would deal with him. This is where you can divert your attention to other areas of business.

So, when you outsource your CAD projects, quality control can be maintained by you. This is where you earn your bonus in CAD outsourcing. No more scratching your head for higher quality levels!

The other benefits that come your way include technical and functional edge in the competition: this means that your products reach the markets quicker, every time. You will also be able to lower your operating costs and enhance performance as well as manage your business infrastructure in a better way to ensure reliability and security.

Furthermore to its credit, CAD Outsourcing can help you improve and enhance your strategic advantages while providing you with best quality people and products and also help you to focus on other critical resources.

There is no doubt that you can get all the benefits from the providers expertise in solving problems for a variety of clients with similar requirements. Thus, CAD outsourcing offers you a great deal of value addition too!

Read More......

Hit the Road With James Raffan

It's only a few more days until canoe guru James Raffan comes to Saskatoon! A blog is being posted of Raffan's travelling adventures on the Canadian Canoe Museum website. Click the top tab that says "Hit the Road With Raffan". And don't miss the presentation on Wednesday!

Paddles

This likely to be the final instalment in my series of posts moving material off of my about to be deleted Geocities site (Geocities is schduled to shut down permanently on October 26th). Some of the text has been edited & updated from the original.


A Greenland Paddle

I started building a Greenland-style kayak paddle several years ago and it was shelved shortly after gluing up the central part of the blank. Years later I came back to the project to finally complete it. The paddle is made of cedar and poplar laminated together such that the poplar forms the outer part of the shaft area (loom) and extends through the length of the blades. The blades are made from additional pieces of cedar glued to the central shaft and each of the four blades should have been made from the same piece of wood. Unfortunately, I forgot why I had been hanging onto those pieces of cedar and at some point I turned one of them into a toy canoe (shown in an earlier post). Since I no longer had a piece of cedar long enough, I glued together two shorter pieces. I should have used a scarf joint and glued them up properly, but instead I simply butted them together and glued them to the shaft. The result is a weak point in terms of aesthetics and possibly also in terms of structural strength. However, lack of strength has yet to become a problem witht the finished paddle. The excellent and free plans used for this paddle were those by Chuck Holst. The picture below was taken after carving. I waited to try it on the water before adding a finish.

The first thing you will notice when you look at the picture is that it doesn't look like most kayak paddles you may have seen. It is such a different style and that is one reason I wanted to build one - just to see what they are like to paddle with. The following is quoted from the introduction in Chuck Holst's plans:

Apart from its romantic association with the people who taught Europeans to kayak and to roll, the narrow-bladed Greenland paddle is popular because it is easy to brace and roll with and is not very susceptible to strong winds. Also, because it slips a little at the beginning of a stroke, it is easier on the muscles, and thus less fatiguing on day-long trips than wide-bladed “Euro”-style paddles. A further benefit for northern kayakers is that the Greenland paddle is adapted for paddling in freezing conditions. The shoulders where the blades and loom meet make an ice-coated loom easier to grip, while the narrow ends of the blades, which are immersed in water while paddling, offer an ice-free grip for emergency braces and rolls. The Greenland paddle is also popular because it is very easy and inexpensive to make with simple tools in a home workshop, which is the subject of this article. Working entirely with hand tools, it is possible to make a Greenland paddle with less than $10 worth of materials and 24 hours of labor.

I spent more than $10 on materials and more than 24 hours in the construction, but it was fairly inexpensive and once I got around to actually doing it, the project went fairly quick. Those who paddle with these "sticks" get pretty passionate about it. I haven't put a huge number of miles on the paddle, but I have used it a fair bit and really like it. The first impression was that it really wasn't all that different from the more familiar modern paddle. It still catches a fair bit of water, I can accelerate quickly and can paddle in a "normal" manner just fine. I like the long reach I have with it when I want to do a sweep stroke. Although I've attempted rolls with it, I can't say that it works any better, or any worse, in that department. So far, my rolling has not been terrible effective (one of these days I'll take some lessons on that). I should probably build a couple more greenland paddles and reduce the weight as well as possibly trying out different lengths.

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Kids Paddles

I have made two small beaver-tail style paddles scaled down to be suitable for small children. The plans I used were scaled down from those in the book Canoe Paddles - A Complete Guide to Making Your Own by Graham Warren & David Gidmark. These paddles are very easy to carve out of cedar and one can be made quite quickly. The latest one that I have finished was for my daughter & I completed that shortly before we went on a canoe trip when she was 3. The graphic with the seal is just clip-art printed with an ink-jet printer onto a plastic overhead sheet. I cut out the graphic and used epoxy to glue it onto the face of the paddle. I then fibre-glassed over top and the graphic is now entombed on the paddle blade. This method may not be suitable for something which may flex since any flexing could possibly result in separation of the layers above and/or below the plastic. However, it has stood up to 4 years of abuse from two kids just fine. On the other side I practiced my wood burning technique to draw a flower & my daughter's name. With the whole blade covered in fibreglass, it is quite strong and has withstood much abuse. (These pictures were taken after a season worth of use and therefore there are numerous cosmetic scratches.)

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Canoe Paddle

This is a "voyageur"-style paddle I built several years ago based on plans from the book Canoe Paddles - A Complete Guide to Making Your Ownby Graham Warren & David Gidmark. The paddle is laminated from maple and ash gleaned from the scrap bins of the local Habitat Re-Store. Both woods are strong and able to flex without breaking. Due to the strength inherent in the woods used, I was able to make the blade and shaft both quite thin and as a result the weight of this paddle is very reasonable. The tip has a mahogany insert running across the width in order to protect the tip from abuse and to prevent the laminations from splitting.

This paddle is LONG. The blade alone is approximately 30" long and as a result, this paddle is for use in deep water only. I think I also made the handle a bit too long for me. Unfortunately, it is tough to use in the shallow South Saskatchewan River and I have never really gotten the hang of using this paddle effectively. It sure looks nice though. (I need to take a better picture where the minor imperfections aren't magnified such that they seem far more prominent than they do in real life.)

2009 Update: I never really got the hang of using this paddle, it simply seemed too long. However, in 2007 my wife & I did an 7 or 8 day trip on Lac La Ronge & the Churchill River and I forgot my usual touring paddle (a basic Grey Owl bent-shaft) at home. Thus I was "forced" to use my voyageur paddle (we still had one more spare with us - on of those awful plastic & aluminum things). After several hours I started to finally develop a relationship with this paddle. Before long, I came to love it. It's light weight, thin edge, generous flex are endearing features. With such a long blade, it does best when the blade remains underwater, being knifed forward in and underwater recover stroke such as the "Indian" or "Canadian" strokes. I slowed down my paddle stroke, but put more power behind them, and the recovery becomes part of the correction to maintain a course.

A Canoe & A Kayak

Another in the ongoing saga of moving things off of my very soon-to-be-deleted Geocities site. Originally published online 3 or 4 years ago.

I built two boats in my garage in the spring of 2005. First was a Chesapeake 17 stitch & glue kayak based on the plans in the book The New Kayak Shop by Chris Kulczyki of Chesapeake Light Craft. The kayak was constructed of 1/32" birch plywood, "stitched" together with cyanoacrylate glue (aka slow-drying crazy glue). The hull was covered with a single layer of ~6 oz. fibreglass and the deck and cockpit sealed with epoxy. The second boat was a 17/6 Redbird canoe based on plans from the book "CanoeCraft" by Ted Moores. The canoe as I've built it is some sort of cross between cedar strip & dugout canoe construction. The hull was first made of cedar "strips" and the interior of the hull subsequently carved out. Again, the outside of the hull was covered with one layer of fibreglass and the interior sealed with epoxy.

OK, if you haven't yet looked at the pictures below you're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about. The boats were 1:12 scale models. Barbie can paddle them, but that's about it. (Actually I was disappointed to find that Barbie doesn't fit in the kayak - her hips are too wide. Maybe I should steal one of my daughter's barbies and use various power tools to administer some cosmetic surgery to make her fit - all in the name of getting a nice photo.) I made these boats as toys for my daughters and as "fun" little projects. Another reason for building these boats was to practice techniques (stitch & glue construction for the kayak, carving was used for the canoe). The kayak was a PITA and I'm not sure I would attempt another (at least with a normal size boat your pieces are big enough to hold properly). It was very tedious to get the thin plywood panels (cut with a scissors) to line up just right and to stay in precisely the right orientation until the glue dried (clamped with binder clips, tape and my fingers - which often became a structural part of the hull thanks to the glue). There are bulkheads in place so that the bow and stern compartments are fully sealed so it won't fill with water and sink. The kayak is very strong and should stand up to a fair bit of abuse.

As alluded to above, the canoe was made by first gluing together some scraps of cedar. I then pasted onto this block outline drawings of the canoe copied to the correct scale from the book CanoeCraft. I then used the drawings as a guideline to cut the general canoe shape out of the block using a band saw. With the rough blank cut, I used a spokeshave to carve away anything that didn't look like a canoe. This was very easy and went well. I'm sure it doesn't share the same lines as the original canoe design it is based on, but it still looks pretty fair and it is just a toy. I once tried the band saw to remove a bit more material, but ended up slicing into the canoe and had a patch I had to repair. I find that often I don't save any time by using the power tools, I just create a mess to repair. With the outside of the hull carved, I used a gouge to hollow out the inside. Carving the interior of the canoe was much more work and I never did get it perfect (it's just a toy after all). There are three reasons this portion of the carving did not go well: 1) I had only one gouge to use with a fairly narrow width (I opted to purchase one good tool rather than a set of multiple mediocre tools); 2) I did not sharpen the gouge after purchasing it (though it was still plenty sharp to cut me very easily when I slipped); and 3) I don't know what I'm doing. All three of those factors can only improve with time.




The picture below shows the plywood panels of which the kayak is constructed. The hull (bottom) is composed of 4 panels and the angle where they meet at the side is called a "hard chine." The presence of a chine gives particular handling characteristics to this style of boat with it's own pros & cons. The deck is curved over a masik or deck beam located just ahead of the cockpit opening. I constructed the curved deck beam by steam bending strips of 1/32" plywood and forming them around a spray can. Once dried, I glued the strips together, again using the can as a form. This laminated beam was then sanded smooth on the sides and cut to fit and glued to the shear clamps (strips of wood where the hull and deck meet, not visible in these photos).




As a sad conclusion and 2009 update, my kids have lost the very tedious to build kayak. I really hope it turns up again sometime, but it's been missing for a year or two now so I don't expect to see it again.

The Green Race: A Micro Epic with Will Lyons

It seems like every year the extravaganza gets bigger, crazier, and just plain more, but probably its just more hype...right? I have to tell you I have been involved with several interludes that tell me that this year is bound for glory. Starting with last weekend when injuries, swims, and broken gear was a norm and continued this evening with two swims, and a catastrophic boat failure.

As usual any micro epic, or massive epic is preluded by absurd decisions. This decision was assisted by Dukes release schedule which has loosed the hounds. What you say? The river is running when I get off work? I got the call late in the afternoon. "Hey do you want to meet us at the take out at 6?" I am thinking to myself...wait I am pretty sure its getting dark at 7 now. Lets see 30 minutes to the put in, 15 minute walk in, put on gear 5-10 minutes,.....hmmmm "sounds good I'm in".

One person hadn't been in their long boat this year....One person hadn't been in their boat ever (Will), Seems like a perfect combo for a Micro Epic. We hussled down to the put in paddled and quickly down to the meat of the river, and it all started...

Here is the interview with our intrepid C-1er. Will Lyons everyone!


The Micro Epic in Preperation for the Green Race from Shaneslogic on Vimeo.

Calibrating our inner anemometers

When we were newer paddlers, our estimates of wave height and wind speed were quite unreliable. We simply didn't have enough experience to provide a frame of reference.
These days, we get a kick out of seeing how our estimates compare with hard data. Yesterday, we paddled out from the Wilson "launch ramps" (now the Mondog doggie beach) to the Montrose crib against quartering winds. Then we paddled directly into those winds back to Fullerton Avenue. We estimated that the winds were about 22 knots gusting to something like 28.
Sure enough, when we checked the data from the Harrison crib, the wind speeds at around 12:30 were 11.7 meters/second (23 knots) gusting to 13.9 meters/second (27 knots).
Because the wind was off-shore, the water was flat near the beaches. Three miles out, the waves were perhaps 2 to 3 feet.
Best of all, the sky was blue for one of the first times all month.

AutoCAD Compatibility Improves with progeCAD 9.0.28.10 Product Release from CADDIT.net

Sydney, Australia - CADDIT announced today the Australia / New Zealand international release of progeCAD Professional 2009 9.0.28. This important upgrade offers several requested performance, reliability and DWG-compatibility enhancements. Over two months in development and testing has been invested in the release of 9.0.28. This upgrade is free to all progeCAD Professional 2009 stand-alone, network, USB and office license customers.

progeCAD is CAD design software offering many features found in Autodesk AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, at much lower cost. This includes AutoCAD DWG™ / DXF™ / DWF™ 2009 editing, 3D Google Earth Export, Spell Checker, Quick Dimension, Polar Tracking, eSnap (like oSnap™), PDF import / export, ACIS 3D solid modeling, raster to vector conversion and advanced hatching using a similar interface to AutoCAD. progeCAD has become very popular in Australia as one of the most reliable alternatives to AutoCAD for small to medium business - especially in the Australian architectural design and large mining industries.

CADDIT offers IT professionals optional direct access to local installation and technical support for their design CAD software from their Liverpool-Sydney offices in New South Wales. The latest free update for current progeCAD users was over two months in development, and includes many enhancements requested locally in Australia, including:

• Improved SAVE performances
• Fixed Text Style combo
• Fixed Layout print settings recording
• TRIM options selection fixed
• Fixed CopyClip and PasteClip between progeCAD<->AutoCAD
• Fixed block insertion point set in the BLOCK dialog
• Disabled BLOCK command during REFEDIT mode
• Fixed UNDO option in TRIM and EXTEND command, used after FENCE and CROSSING option

progeCAD 2009 users who have direct internet access and the progeSOFT autoupdate feature enabled should be notified of the upgrade automatically. progeCAD users with limited or no direct internet access to their progeCAD workstation can download the new version and install it directly over their existing 2009 installation.

Previous version IntelliCAD and AutoCAD LT users are also encouraged to try the latest progeCAD 9.0.28 release free for 30 days in full-function trial mode. German progeCAD users can visit progeCAD Deutschland for information about the latest version.

International users may download progeCAD directly from CADDIT.net and many other sites.

Bacon Explosion

Bacon Explosion: The BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes

Oh my.... I think that I'll have to try that on the new smoker this weekend!

Computer Aided Design

Computer aided designs (CAD) are essential components of any high quality engineering projects.

In modern engineering, designs are often complex and require more than just paper drafting to fully visualize the design in full details. That is where CAD comes in to provide stunning visual aids to help you, the designer, as well as your client, understand and communicate via a virtual prototype, leaving less room for miscommunication.

At CAD Design, we offer solutions to engineering undergraduates who are often burdened with heavy workload, let alone multiple projects to handle. As student once, we understand the amount of workload undergraduates go through.

With CAD Design, you can find reliable help for your project outsourcing, at a highly competitve rate.

We make use of Solidworks and Autodesk Inventor, two of the leading CAD software used in engineering industry as well as most established universities.

We are a team of freelance graphic designers, each equipped with good knowledge in handling CAD designs. Portfolios are available on our website.

We offer a wide range of services, including detailed dimension drawing, exploded views, illustrative and realistic studio rendering.

Rates are not fixed, due to complexity of individual project. However, be assured that our rates are highly competitve so as to cater to college students' budget.

Read More.....

Adjusting to colder water and weather

Lake Michigan's surface water near Chicago dropped about 10 degrees over the past week. This morning's 19-knot winds beckoned, but the water temperatures whispered, "Bring your neoprene caps and poagies."
We suppose some people don't hear things like that.
After weeks of warm water, we were somewhat sad to find the lake back in the mid-50s. But hey, this is Chicago. And besides, our west coast friends consider temperatures like these normal.
We surfed and played a bit, then tried to convince one of the denizens of the doggie beach that we weren't deep sea aliens come to steal his tennis balls.
It's important, we figure, to get out on the water as the temperatures drop to soften the shock of winter's arrival. Poagies and all.

So much to do, so little time

Winter seems to be on the doorstep and pushing it's way in (we have received a few inches of snow over the past several days) so it seems like a good time to evaluate all the things I want to get done in the coming season.

The Short-Term List

1. Clean the garage - Somehow my garage has developed some rather bad personal hygiene issues. Time to put stuff away for the winter and generally tidy up the place.
2. Oil the canoe - The wood components of our new canoe need a coat of oil to maintain their good condition. This should be a simple wipe down then the canoe can be put away.
3. Build a canoe hoist - In order to store our new canoe out of the way and protected from the elements, I want to build another hoist similar to what I did for the kayak. The hoist I built was inspired by the nifty but expensive Harken Hoister. However, my version used too small of pulleys combined with too small of rope. The small rope is hard to pull on, and the small cheap pulleys eat up a lot of energy through friction. So, Mk II will have to use better pulleys and better rope. Getting the canoe up out of the way will go a long way toward helping out with the #1 item listed above.
4. Varnish snowshoes - My snowshoes should get a coat of varnish before the season to keep them in good shape and to preserve the babiche. The earlier I get this done, the better in order to give the varnish time to better cure (and harden).
5. Fix the foot brace on our fiberglass canoe - A metal bar with ends cut & squashed to attach to a bracket, one of the ends has broken.

The Mid-Term List

1. Repair wear & tear on guillemot kayak - There are a couple of spots underneath the kayak that could use some repair.
2. Varnish kayak - I've not re-varnished the kayak since I finished it a couple of years ago. The sooner these two items are complete, the more time the epoxy and varnish will have to cure before the paddling season starts again next spring.
3. Repair wear & tear on the kid's kayak - The girls' kayak received a lot of use this summer. With all that use, came some wear & tear. The fabric has worn through at one spot on the bow and other spots show some wear. Interestingly, aside from that spot on the bow, most of the wear seems to have occurred during transport where straps would rub.
4. Build a portable wood stove - I purchased a used canvas "hot tent" recently. Now that I have the tent, I need a stove to go with it. Commercially made stoves range in price from $80 to $800 depending on size, materials, construction style, etc. However, there are DIY plans out there so I might as well give it a go. See here for Dave Hadfield's version and here for a good discussion on some improvements or variations.
5. Fix paddles - My wife's bent-shaft paddle developed a curve and crack on the blade during the last trip so that has to be fixed. I also have a kayak paddle from the canoe club that I volunteered to repair some months ago. My ulterior motive for fixing the kayak paddle was to use it as a template to make make my own version.
6. Varnish the kayak moby latches. (Not to mention to write the promised follow-up post on how to build the mobies.)
7. Build a crooked knife - Murat recently completed a similar project. I've started the process of turning an old file into a knife blade by removing the temper from the file and have started to grind it down. When completed, this knife would come in handy for the next item on my list.
8. Carve some paddles - I want to carve some paddles for my kids and some for friends too, plus I'd like to build one or two for myself. I was recently in the store at Classic Outdoors and saw some absolutely gorgeous one-piece cherry paddles from Badger Paddles. They were light with a fine edge and flexed beautifully - it re-kindled the fire to build paddles again.

The Long-Term List

1. Carve more paddles.
2. Build a knife handle - A few months ago I bought a blade because I want to build my own camping knife. I have various pieces of wood that might be good for the project, but have not yet gotten around to taking it on.
3. Build a toboggan - I want to build a long plastic toboggan that will be able to haul my new tent & stove over the snow into the bush. If it doesn't fit with my current arrangement then this item will get bumped up in priority.
4. Build a canoe - But which one?
5. Build a shaving horse - Useful for paddle carving.

Of course this is really just a sampling of some of what I have in mind. There are various projects on the "honey-do" list that should be cleared off before I undertake some of those listed above. I should also make some effort to finish the kids' playhouse before the snow really arrives.

Outsourcing Disasters Put Consumers at Risk

Outsourcing manufacturing and even development to overseas companies became a fact of life with international agreements and the economic globalization which quickly followed. Foreign export subsidies abroad and lowered import tariffs at home offer a powerful case for simply sourcing what we want from somewhere else. The benefit to consumers are cheaper display prices. However, the products themselves can have hidden costs which total much higher than the display price. Here are just three costs not on the price tag:

Safety: September 2009 saw the latest chapter in a long string of expensive and time-consuming product recalls of items manufactured in China. Just the other day one of our staff found themselves face to face with this reality in their own home, having narrowly avoided possible injury when the powder metal blade retainer for their new, one-day-old imported lawn mower cracked a large chunk off after just ten minutes of operation. This safety-critical part was stamped from powder metal and probably given insufficient oven time to bake - which means there are hundreds - thousands somewhere just like it. Back at the store our colleague watched as the entire model line seemed to have a similar flaw and started immediately getting pulled from the floor. How much could that have cost someone?

Economic: Training overseas personnel has opened the door to a flood of skillful black-market copycats, counterfeiters, patent and trademark pirates who apply inside knowledge to cleverly reproduce almost any product illegally, which becomes expensive and difficult to police. Local jobs and skills are lost overseas forever. Eventually, the local economy finds itself borrowing from China to buy from China.

Human Rights: Those employed overseas in the manufacture of low cost goods for export often discover their original expectations wrong, working in appalling conditions, with no way back out. Middlemen, business brokers and investors receive the entire net profit from the supply-demand relationship.

The real differential in the final consumer's decision is actually not cost, but timing. When presented a choice between "pay now or pay later", MBA 101 states that credit-based consumerism such as what is encouraged in the USA will pick "pay later" - even if it means paying more. Darwinism 101 responds that if cutting out fierce business competition could therefore be timed early, it technically justifies almost any other consequence in quality, ethics or community interest. Darwin knows that consumers will still have opportunity to pay their fare share of it all, just a bit "later".

Uncontrolled serial product outsourcing can be a disaster. Not surprisingly, there is growing understanding about the importance of highly selective outsourcing, supplier evaluation, certification and inspection by qualified local staff and agency, while maintaining tight product control, domestic R&D, and a healthy ratio of credible domestic suppliers and know-how at home.

Remix XP 10 on the Gauley

 Pillow Rock

Hey I just dropped into the Gauley River with the Remix XP 10 and thought I would take a few shots and put together a little video of how well it really does handle whitewater. Much of the time when we are taking bigger boats down rivers its a bit of a challenge to deal with the larger volume, length, and width but this boat, though it is bigger, was really designed to handle rapids as well as it handles the tracking, storage, and stability needs for flatwater.

Tumbling Home Pirouettte

 

Cheesy Grab Boof (as opposed to Cheetos Cheezy Poof)

Check out the Video.

Liquidlogic Remix XP 10 on the Gauley River from Shaneslogic on Vimeo.

Short video: Launching into surf and wind

Here's a short video of Alec launching into the surf against a 28-knot headwind.

James Raffan in Saskatoon

The Saskatoon Canoe Club, Recreation Division, will be hosting Dr. James Raffan, author and Executive Director of the Canadian Canoe Museum (http://www.canoemuseum.ca/), as part of his National Treasure tour. Dr. Raffan will be presenting an entertaining multi-media event celebrating canoes, Canada, and the wonders of the Canadian Canoe Museum. The presentation is all about canoes in popular culture, canoes in Canada (voted in 2007 as one of Canada's Seven Wonders), and will feature just a few of the many amazing stories attached to craft in the museum's collection of canoes and kayaks.

One of the newest acquisitions that Dr. Raffan is excited to talk about is a canoe that once belonged to Farley Mowat's family. Raffan writes "one of the newest canoes in our collection is one that was purchased and paddled in and around Saskatoon by Angus Mowat, Farley's father, when he was the Chief bookminder at the Saskatoon Public Library back in the 1930s. Farley claims that this canoe (a 1921 Peterborough sailing canoe) was the vessel that first took him into nature on the mighty South Saskatchewan and in the sloughs around Saskatoon--he also claims that this canoe is actually the reincarnation of the original canoe in which he was conceived on the Bay of Quinte ... and therein lies a bit of a tale."

This event is open to everyone. Admission is by donation with all money collected going to the Canadian Canoe Museum.

What: James Raffan, "National Treasure" Presentation
When: Wednesday, October 28th, 7:00 pm
Where: Castle Theatre at Aden Bowman Collegiate, 1904 Clarence Ave South, Saskatoon

Castle Theatre is a large venue so pass along this information to anyone who you think may be interested! Word of mouth/e-mail is the best advertising.

View Gateway Players in a larger map

A wind that commands respect

"Let's paddle!" Alec is ready to go.

Yesterday, we planned to paddle the Calumet channel with legendary local paddler Erik Sprenne. The "legendary" part of his name comes from his 25-plus years as a whitewater instructor and river access advocate for the Chicago Whitewater Association. (Never mind that he lives in Indiana.)
We've long wanted to check out the Calumet, and we figured Erik was just the guy to show us the way. At the last minute, relative newcomer Aaron Litchfield joined us, too
Friday arrived with 25-plus-knot winds out of the north, steady rain and 5- to 7-foot waves. We met at Rainbow Beach on Chicago's South Side, still intending to paddle down to the channel. We assessed the waves from the beach, where they didn't look too intimidating, and launched into the surf and the wind.
The unrelenting waves and wind made progress difficult and communication nearly impossible, so we fought our way through the breaking waves and tucked in behind the water filtration plant breakwall to assess our options. This was no day for inland paddling, we decided. This was a day to be out on the lake.

Sharon paddling out. 

We decided to head out to the water intake crib--a crossing that would take less than 45 minutes on a calm day. The rain pelted our faces and the wind howled in our ears. The waves were steep and came in quick succession. 

Erik enjoying the bumpy ride (above) and Aaron at ease in rough seas (below).

It was a slog, but a fun challenge. As we paddled out, I (Sharon) thought about Paul Redzimski and Mike Agostinelli's ill-fated Lake Michigan crossing in 2006. They found themselves in conditions a little bit gnarlier than these when they were just three miles from their destination on this side of the lake and had to be rescued--but they had to deal with those conditions in the dark, with colder water, after 47 miles of paddling, and with one boat taking on water. And it occurred to me: That was exactly three years ago.

The rain pelted our faces as we padded into the wind.

After 90 minutes, we still hadn't reached the crib. The rain hadn't stopped. The wind was intensifying. The waves were building. But perhaps most importantly, we were getting hungry. That might have been more of an excuse than a reason, but we decided to begin the return trip.

 Up and over. When you see photos like these, don't forget that somebody had to stop paddling to take them. Thanks, Alec.

We flew back to the beach, dragged the boats onto the shore and hid behind the beach house to eat some lunch. We looked over to see that the water flowing down toa ledge from a puddle in the parking lot was being propelled back up by the wind. When we lifted our boats onto our racks, they nearly blew back down. This was a wind that commanded respect.

Aaron, Alec and Erik enjoying a well-earned lunch.

We decided to let the wind do its thing in peace. As we drove away, we appreciated the simple things in life: the heating in the car, the tea in our thermoses, and the luxury of being able to go out on an otherwise miserable day and have a great time on the water.

From Erik's GPS. We traveled only 6.15 miles in 2.5 hours

(Note that the water intake crib is missing from Google Earth.)

Catching the surf after the storm

The two days after the storm passed offered nice waves.  The winds veered north and blew pretty steadily overnight, creating nice 4- to 6-foot waves. We enjoyed some good surfing at the beach and rough water paddling where the waves reflected off the end of the pier.
Our friend Keith Wikle has an excellent explanation of when to catch post-storm waves on the Michigan side of the Lake Michigan and why. Check out his post, "How to predict good surfing weather on the Great Lakes," here.