吹喇叭XD

Derek Hutchinson on Modern Sea Kayaking

This video recently turned up on westcoastpaddler.com or via Twitter. It's Derek Hutchinson being interviewed on the beach during the 2007 West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium. He provides some pretty interesting perspectives on a variety of aspects of sea kayaking in Britain versus North America, and the 40 years ago versus now. Arrogant and out to lunch, or a genius and visionary pioneer? Some of each, I suppose.



Not coincidentally, here is an article from Adventure Kayak Magazine from 2008 that was posted today on the Adventure Kayak blog.

Protect the Fluffy Kittens!

James Vandezande has been tweeting that he gets upset every time someone says “BIM Model”. So much so he has suggested that every time somebody says it, a Fluffy Kitten is shot! Sad, cruel, but probably true! The debate & discussion on the term…..nahhhhh I won’t even type it BIM ##### will go on. James told me today that Mr Paul Morrell will even highlight that the term should change, after James mentioned it at this weeks BIMforum in Washington D.C during his presentation. :-)

RTC USA 2012 is announced

I noticed today in my email that RTC USA 2012 is announced. If is was anything like this year, this is a go to event!

RTC 2012 North America will be held at the Evergreen Marriott Conference Resort, Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA from Thursday 28 to Saturday 30 June, 2012. Mark it in your calendars and we look forward to welcoming you to Stone Mountain in June 2012.

The event organisers are looking for Abstracts from individuals interested in speaking at the event. Note that this current call for abstracts is for the North American event only. More details can be found here….

http://www.revitconference.com.au/rtc2012us/index.htm

BIMshow Live 2011–Presentation & Content

I was fortunate enough to be able to present at the inaugural BIMShow Live event on Tuesday the 1st November. With the UK government now mandating BIM, there have been plenty of BIM events & conferences over the last 12 months. However, BIMshow Live was different, as it was trying to cut the discussion & really showcase working examples of how the UK is using BIM. Think of it as the UK’s version of a mini one day Autodesk University or Revit Technology Conference. It was a great event & attracted at least 350ish paying attendees!

When I was originally asked to presented I decided straight away that I wanted to actually show some “live BIM” so attendees could go away & think that they could do what I showed; it really isn’t that difficult. Many say doing software presentations live is too risky, but I am confident in a live environment & if you are coming to BIMShow Live; then you are paying to see live BIM!  Death by Powerpoint just don’t cut it!

My session covered conceptual design with Autodesk Vasari. I often get asked where should you begin with BIM, well in my humble opinion massing & early concept design is a great start point. Its part of the process. In the session I showed how to use BIM for concept form making.  I reviewed how, even at the early stages of the design process you can use the power of software tools such as Autodesk Vasari or Autodesk Revit to provide immediate feedback & how it allows you to capture vital data to aid in the decision making process.  Concepts covered:-

• Generate forms
• Use parameters to control geometry allowing you to test options
• Schedule areas
• Divide complex surfaces for early stage panelisation
• Create solar studies
• Generate basic solar analysis
• Use CFD for wind analysis

Below are the two examples I showed live. The first is a simple parametric massing block, this introduced simple parametrics to drive a form.

The second example was a slightly more in depth example of the roof designed by HOK Los Angles & Parsons Brinkerhoff designed for the Artic Project in Southern California, USA.

I have also provided a link to the Powerpoint presentation I showed. I hope you find this useful as well as informative.Roll on to 2012, I expect BIMshow Live to be even bigger & better!

SolidWorks Premium - Simulation

SolidWorks has a fantastic range of tools that allows us to design a vast array of products.  A key question in the design process is will the product work?

Is it strong enough?

With SolidWorks Simulation embedded within SolidWorks Premium, these questions can be answered quickly allowing the design to progress along the right path. 

How often is a product designed, with many man hours expended only for it to fail when it's sent to be analysed?

It takes time to export the files out so that other tools can test and
then this needs to be repeated each time a new test is required.

SolidWorks Simulation is built-in. 

It's just an extra tab on a toolbar.  Here is an example:

I am part of a design team working on a bench
mounted mitre saw and have designed a new
Yoke component.  Is my design any good?  Can
it withstand the forces it will experience during
operational use?

To get the answer we set up a
quick study.  The values I used
were from a previous test:

We removed any parts that were already tested to
ensure that the results were calculated even quicker.  The study looked like the image below:

Running the analysis only took a minute, but the great thing about SolidWorks Simulation is that it does not tie up SolidWorks during the calculation.  We can still use SolidWorks to progress other areas of the design or other projects.

Once the analysis is complete we can generate vast amounts of data to interrogate the result.  Here we see a Factor of Safety plot looking at the performance of the part measured against the yield strength of the material used. 

In this test the minimum is over 7 (The load could be increased sevenfold and the part would still not fail) so we should reduce weight in the part.  A quick model update and we can run the test again:

The minimum is now just over 2.5.  This is an acceptable value for this project so we can now finish the design sure that this part will withstand the operational loading.

This is just a small example of how SolidWorks Simulation can help the engineers and designers to ensure that they are not only designing better looking products, but also ensure that they are fit for purpose.  It all happens within the same familiar design environment and there is minimal additional skills required to get some truly useful and detailed results.

To see a video of Simulation in action, click here

KeelEazy revisited: How did it hold up?

Two and a half months ago, we wrote about applying the new KeelEazy strip to one of our boats as well as to the Delphin, a plastic boat in the Geneva Kayak fleet. We found it was quicker and easier to apply than a traditional fiberglass keel strip, and we promised to report back later in the season.

Alec, pulling his boat up on a break wall.

We don't primarily paddle in a rocky or barnacle-encrusted environment, but we don't baby our boats, either. We land on sand and gravel beaches, pull out boats up on rocky break walls, and travel to places where we do a little rock gardening. That's why we are interested in having keel strips on our boats; they offer needed protection.

We can't completely account for the abuse that the Delphin endured over the past couple of months, but it was definitely paddled on the Yorkville whitewater course.

How did they hold up? The strip on Alec's composite boat has done pretty well. It peeled a little bit in the area that had to be cut out to accommodate the skeg, and it buckled a little bit on the rocker in the stern. (As we wrote in the original post, the weather was very warm--above 90 degrees; the ideal temperature for applying it is 70 degrees.) The areas where it peeled or buckled attracts small pebbles. But it has protected the keel and hasn't peeled at either end. It's gotten a little scratched and gouged, but it has held up admirably.

The area where the KeelEazy had to be cut around the skeg peeled a bit and attracted sand and pebbles.

Although the KeelEazy buckled near the stern, the wear on the strip was comparable to the wear on Sharon's fiberglass keel strip.

The small strip we put on the Delphin didn't do so well. (We had only a few extra feet, so we couldn't apply a full keel strip.)

We applied the extra length to the keel of a Delphin in the GKC rental fleet.

Two months later, the KeelEazy had peeled off at the end and was gouged all the way through. (The impact of whatever happened was strong enough to gouge the boat as well.)

We ran our observations by Chris Mitchell at KeelEazy, who suggested the following:

• If your boat has a tight radius on the stem (the portion of the keel where the boat curves up toward the deck), the strip may buckle. In that case, cut it and fold the flap over; you can use a drop of Super Glue if necessary to adhere it.
• Plastic boats will generally accept the KeelEazy well, provided they don't endure serious abuse. He's put strips on the bow and stern of whitewater boats to protect them, too.
• It's a good idea to use a solvent to clean any boat prior to installation; alcohol (which we used on our composite boat) or acetone (one plastic) work well. Mineral spirits will leave a residue.
• Because KeelEazy is a thermal plastic, avoid stretching it too much in the heat because it will seek to return to its previous shape when it cools.
• If you have trouble with a section -- as we did with the skeg area -- try cutting that section out and replacing it before you replace the entire strip.

So what do we think? If you aren't willing to spend the time to apply a fiberglass keel strip, which is a significantly messier process, the KeelEazy is a good option. It really takes only 15 minutes and no special tools. In the two-and-a-half months we tested it, it proved as durable as a traditional keel strip. Either can be damaged, of course. A traditional keel strip can then be repaired; the KeelEazy can be removed and replaced.