Today's Message Index:
----------------------
1. 06:33 AM - Re: Schematic drawing software (Ernest Christley)
2. 07:26 AM - Re: Schematic drawing software (Robert L. Nuckolls, III)
3. 07:44 AM - Re: spade lug failure. (Robert L. Nuckolls, III)
4. 04:54 PM - Re: Schematic drawing software (Kevin Horton)
Message 1
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Subject: | Re: Schematic drawing software |
Robert L. Nuckolls, III wrote:
>
> TurboCAD 7 or higher will open, edit, print and save the drawing
> files posted on my website at:
>
> http://www.aeroelectric.com/PPS/
>
> You can get TurboCAD off ebay for under $20. Your wiring diagrams
> are 90% done on the website. Just grab the pages closest to what
> you want and suck them into your own wirebook.
>
> Bob . . .
Bob,
I'm really appreciative of all the work you've done with the Z drawings,
and educating us all. It is all worth the cost even at twice the price,
but I'd like to make a suggestion for an improvement.
You publish the documents electronically in DWG format. DWG is a format
that is proprietary to AutoCAD. The complete specification is not
public, and AutoCAD has unilaterally made some changes to the format in
the past. There are several implications to this fact.
One is that you risk loosing months of work if the supporting company
goes away. I've had this to happen to me. ProDesktop was a 3D package
that was made available for free, and I invested months learning it and
drawing my Dyke Delta. Then ProEngineer decided to pull the product.
They allowed you to keep the unlocking key you had for 5 years, but my
hard drive crashed and I lost the key. I didn't want to spend the
thousands that the professional package cost, so that left me with a lot
of digital flotsam. I doubt AutoCAD is going anywhere as a company, but
they do play the game that Microsoft created of trying to use file
formats to keep users on an upgrade treadmill.
Another problem is that AutoCAD is only available on the Windows
operating system. There's no good reason to use Windows, other than
having been corralled by closed file formats. Well, let me qualify
that. There's no good reason for *me* to use Windows, other than closed
file formats.
Fortunately, there are some very easy solutions that will make everyone
happy (or at least me). The most difficult is to switch authoring
programs. KiCAD (http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)
is an open source package for designing circuit boards. It has an
excellent tutorial that will take you through building a simple board.
After you do a couple, you will be amazed at the way the program makes
laying out a circuit board so simple. Better yet, the file format is
XML. It's somewhat tedious, but you can edit the circuit using nothing
but a text editor. The package is designed more for laying out a
circuit, vs an entire system, but I suggest anyone interested in
creating circuit boards give it a try. The coolest part is laying out
your circuit board, and then looking at the 3D view of it.
The simplest solution is to just publish the Z drawing in DXF format.
DWG is closed, and it's benefit is that it provides primitives for
composing 3D drawings. DXF is a well documented, open format with
published specifications. We're not doing anything in 3D, so DWG offers
nothing. There are no open source DWG libraries, but nearly all the
packages support DXF. There are converters that go from DWG to DXF, but
they did nothing but create an unruly mess of the drawings when I
tried. I even tried running the CAD programs you include on the CD
using WINE, but again, all I got were trashed files. AutoCAD should be
able to save as DXF, so this fix is nearly painless.
Again, thank you for being an excellent educator, and I hope this
suggestion is taken in a charitable light. There are good reasons to
use closed source programs and proprietary formats. It just seems
reasonable to me that those reasons do no apply to our exchange of
information, and using them is not the best we know how to do is the result.
Thank you.
Message 2
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Subject: | Re: Schematic drawing software |
At 09:31 AM 9/10/2007 -0400, you wrote:
><echristley@nc.rr.com>
>
>Robert L. Nuckolls, III wrote:
>>
>> TurboCAD 7 or higher will open, edit, print and save the drawing
>> files posted on my website at:
>>
>>http://www.aeroelectric.com/PPS/
>>
>> You can get TurboCAD off ebay for under $20. Your wiring diagrams
>> are 90% done on the website. Just grab the pages closest to what
>> you want and suck them into your own wirebook.
>>
>> Bob . . .
>
>Bob,
>
>I'm really appreciative of all the work you've done with the Z drawings,
>and educating us all. It is all worth the cost even at twice the price,
>but I'd like to make a suggestion for an improvement.
>
>You publish the documents electronically in DWG format. DWG is a format
>that is proprietary to AutoCAD. The complete specification is not public,
>and AutoCAD has unilaterally made some changes to the format in the
>past. There are several implications to this fact.
<snip>
I have $thousands$ tied up in AutoCAD software and thousands of
hours of $time$ invested in being proficient with it. All of my
customers can open, edit, print, and save my drawings under either
AutoCAD or the format of their choice. Public access issues
aside, AutoCAD is the logical choice for me to produce drawings
and illustrations to support my career.
I didn't plan to publish editable drawings because of the
difficulty some folks might have acquiring suitable software
to manage the drawings. At the time I first published the .dwg
formats, AutoCADLT was available through university bookstores
for about $125. Taking an engineering student to lunch would
offer a means by which folks could get into a "real" autocad
environment. In the mean time, folks told me about more than
one application that would open, edit, print and save the
.dwg format . . . not the least of which is TurboCAD v10 which
I bought off Ebay for $10.
While .dwg is AutoCAD's offspring, a number of companies
have seen fit to offer applications that import the format
at exceedingly reasonable prices. The DXF format is problematic
and I've had more problems with transporting data between applications
with dxf than I've had with a third-party application where
the software guys took the .dwg format head-on.
The short answer is that stuff on the aeroelectric.com website is
a hobby that makes a little money and I cannot justify a great
shuffling of the applications I use for my business just to
expand the hobby. That doesn't preclude efforts to maximize
access to the .dwg work product . . . and for the moment, my
best suggestion is TurboCAD v7.0 or higher.
Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter!
Your assertions are quite accurate but I'll suggest that for
me, the TurboCAD work-around is a useful solution.
Bob . . .
Message 3
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Subject: | Re: spade lug failure. |
At 05:44 PM 8/31/2007 -0700, you wrote:
>
>I have been wiring my plane using some high quality (well, at least
>they're expensive - $0.65 each) T&B insulated fast-on type connectors and
>an Ideal crimping tool (not expensive as crimpers go - about $50).
>A couple days ago I found a #22 ground wire that simply didn't conduct.
>I removed it from the plane and sliced away insulation near each end to
>expose the wire just before the connectors and determined which one
>wasn't conducting. It looked fine. The wires were just visible sticking
>out of the spade lug end and I could touch them directly with my
>continuity tester, but they weren't connected to the rest of the wire.
>Using a dremel tool, I removed the plastic covering and part of the
>crimp. A little bit of the insulation extended into the part of the
>barrel that crimps the copper wire. Apparently what happened was that the
>act of crimping it cut thru the wire, but NOT thru the insulation.
>The connector was held on by the insulation. That tefzel is pretty tough
>stuff.
>
>I made a new wire and got things working, but I have to wonder if more of
>my wires aren't in the same or nearly the same condition. Am I doing
>something wrong here or was this probably just a 1 in a 1000 fluke? Do I
>need to check the connections that seem to be working? If so, how?
Good question. What you're experiencing is a demonstration
of the fact that there is a menage a trois to be
crafted between wires, terminals and tools that apply them.
Some time ago I crafted some articles on terminal and tool
performance. I'll suggest you review:
http://www.aeroelectric.com/articles/terminal.pdf
http://www.aeroelectric.com/articles/CrimpTools/crimptools.html
http://www.aeroelectric.com/articles/rules/review.html
Your reported experience does raise some questions. I'd
do a pull-test on a terminal crimped to a wire. When
it fails, there should be a clean break between the loose
strands and where the closed barrel turns them into
a solid mass. You should not pull any strands out of
the crimp.
I did some tests on AMP tools putting AMP terminals
on 22AWG Tefzel a few years ago and found that you could
put a terminal on an UNSTRIPPED wire. When you think
about the pressure (tens of thousands of PSI) it takes
to bring the copper barrel into intimate contact with
the copper strands, there's no way some layer of plastic
is going to figure in a discontinuity. The plastic
extrudes out of the joint like toothpaste.
Having offered all this, I'll have to confess that
what you've stated does give rise to some concerns.
If one terminal was found to be insufficiently installed
by ACCIDENT, what might you find if other terminals
were investigated deliberately. I wish I could give
you some warm fuzzies about this . . .
Bob . . .
Message 4
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Subject: | Re: Schematic drawing software |
On 10 Sep 2007, at 11:28, Robert L. Nuckolls, III wrote:
> <nuckolls.bob@cox.net>
>
> At 09:31 AM 9/10/2007 -0400, you wrote:
>
>> <echristley@nc.rr.com>
>>
>> Robert L. Nuckolls, III wrote:
>>>
>>> TurboCAD 7 or higher will open, edit, print and save the drawing
>>> files posted on my website at:
>>>
>>> http://www.aeroelectric.com/PPS/
>>>
>>> You can get TurboCAD off ebay for under $20. Your wiring diagrams
>>> are 90% done on the website. Just grab the pages closest to what
>>> you want and suck them into your own wirebook.
>>>
>>> Bob . . .
>>
>> Bob,
>>
>> I'm really appreciative of all the work you've done with the Z
>> drawings, and educating us all. It is all worth the cost even at
>> twice the price, but I'd like to make a suggestion for an
>> improvement.
>>
>> You publish the documents electronically in DWG format. DWG is a
>> format that is proprietary to AutoCAD. The complete specification
>> is not public, and AutoCAD has unilaterally made some changes to
>> the format in the past. There are several implications to this fact.
>
>
> <snip>
>
<snip>
> The short answer is that stuff on the aeroelectric.com website is
> a hobby that makes a little money and I cannot justify a great
> shuffling of the applications I use for my business just to
> expand the hobby. That doesn't preclude efforts to maximize
> access to the .dwg work product . . . and for the moment, my
> best suggestion is TurboCAD v7.0 or higher.
>
> Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter!
> Your assertions are quite accurate but I'll suggest that for
> me, the TurboCAD work-around is a useful solution.
Bob,
I greatly appreciate all you have done, and continue to do to assist
builders and owners. I too would hope for a way to access editable
copies of your work without having to purchase a computer that can
run Windows (I use OS X, on an ancient PPC machine). But, it
certainly isn't appropriate for us few misfit OS X and Linux users to
expect you to change your standard document flow just for us. But, I
wonder if there is someone out there who has a CAD program that can
read DWG format who would be willing to convert the drawings to DXF
format. If someone did that, and you didn't want to take the trouble
to host them on your site, I would be quite happy to host them on mine.
Kevin Horton RV-8 (finishing kit)
Ottawa, Canada
http://www.kilohotel.com/rv8
do not archive
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