Watercooler Talk

[DanPihlaja]

So, was anyone affected by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Debby? We got hit on friday with over 4 inches of rain, Montreal had it pretty rough with floods but some place had it worse with landslides and roads collapsing. We got a lot of rain and a lot of wind where I live but only a few places were flooded in the area.

Michigan: Meteorologically boring. And I like it.

[SPerman]

We got heavy rain for about 24 hours straight on Thursday.


There was a time on Tuesday where it was like an invisible wall was blocking the storm. 20 miles east, all the way to the coast is getting hammered. We just had a cloudy day.

[AlexLachance]

Pretty lucky eh, they were saying we'd be spared at first but changed opinion 24 hours before it hit and even then they weren't really expecting that much of a rainfall. I was surprised to see that we got more then Ontario or the northen US States.

[DennisD]

So, was anyone affected by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Debby? We got hit on friday with over 4 inches of rain, Montreal had it pretty rough with floods but some place had it worse with landslides and roads collapsing. We got a lot of rain and a lot of wind where I live but only a few places were flooded in the area.

I live near Jacksonville, FL. We only got about 3" of rain (that's 7.5cm for you). Just north and NW of me there was a lot more. About 60 miles (100km) west of me there were reports of 15" and more (38cm).

[AlexLachance]

I live near Jacksonville, FL. We only got about 3" of rain (that's 7.5cm for you). Just north and NW of me there was a lot more. About 60 miles (100km) west of me there were reports of 15" and more (38cm).

15 inches, jesus that's crazy. That'd be over 12 feet of snow if it were to fall in snow.

[AlexLachance]

Project me and 2 collegues worked on, I worked on the rear trailer, one guy did the dumping trailer and the other did the development for special stuff such as the side-doors and the tarp system. Since it is a B-Train, the axles of the front trailer require to slide up front so that the trailer can dump. I think I spoke about it before.

https://algoma.app.box.com/s/j23x4y4k0f ... ew7kmx1u7p

[ctsturdiv]

Project me and 2 collegues worked on, I worked on the rear trailer, one guy did the dumping trailer and the other did the development for special stuff such as the side-doors and the tarp system. Since it is a B-Train, the axles of the front trailer require to slide up front so that the trailer can dump. I think I spoke about it before.

https://algoma.app.box.com/s/j23x4y4k0f ... ew7kmx1u7p

That seems a lot more complicated that it seems at first.

You are saying it's the axles where the tires are that bend?

I always thought on those things it was the vertical horizontal hydrolic lift cylinder that is moving a few degrees to the rear of the truck. Along with some kind of brace to keep it from moving too deep an angle.

Regardless, it looks sharp in action.

[AlexLachance]

That seems a lot more complicated that it seems at first.

You are saying it's the axles where the tires are that bend?

I always thought on those things it was the vertical horizontal hydrolic lift cylinder that is moving a few degrees to the rear of the truck. Along with some kind of brace to keep it from moving too deep an angle.

Regardless, it looks sharp in action.

image.png

There are different variants, in this case it is a chassis that slides on nylon and is "dragged" by the truck. So he reverses with breaks locked to have the chassis slide front so that the trailer can dump, and puts it in drive with breaks locked to have the fifth wheel slide-out and be able to have the other trailer pin onto it.

[ctsturdiv]

There are different variants, in this case it is a chassis that slides on nylon and is "dragged" by the truck. So he reverses with breaks locked to have the chassis slide front so that the trailer can dump, and puts it in drive with breaks locked to have the fifth wheel slide-out and be able to have the other trailer pin onto it.

Okay, I think I am wrapping my head around it.

Just never been exposed to a lot of vehicle type stuff and it I had not have take drafting probably would not have even thought about it. But watching the video, I started going down a rabbit hole for a few minutes on how you would design something like this.

Thanks for sharing!

I would imagine if something on that assembly breaks, it's not like you can just walk up into AutoZone for it. LOL.

[AlexLachance]

Okay, I think I am wrapping my head around it.

Just never been exposed to a lot of vehicle type stuff and it I had not have take drafting probably would not have even thought about it. But watching the video, I started going down a rabbit hole for a few minutes on how you would design something like this.

Thanks for sharing!

I would imagine if something on that assembly breaks, it's not like you can just walk up into AutoZone for it. LOL.

Indeed, there are certain things which you can get at most shops, like an air booster for the breaks for instance, but if it's something like a beam's web then generally you have to contact us

On another note, I've had the opportunity to be invited to visit Dassault's facilities and do some troubleshooting with them on the pre-release. It's been awesome to meet so many people that I've interacted with over the years and finally putting a face on them and speaking face to face. I cannot stress enough how grateful I am for the opportunity.

Me and Matthew Hall

[AlexLachance]

Okay, I think I am wrapping my head around it.

Just never been exposed to a lot of vehicle type stuff and it I had not have take drafting probably would not have even thought about it. But watching the video, I started going down a rabbit hole for a few minutes on how you would design something like this.

Thanks for sharing!

I would imagine if something on that assembly breaks, it's not like you can just walk up into AutoZone for it. LOL.

I'm back in the office, here's a picture of the dumpingg trailer with the axles pulled out

[bnemec]

I'm back in the office, here's a picture of the dumpingg trailer with the axles pulled out


image.png

That's a cool solution instead of pintle hitch dollies. I'm guessing it trails/trains a lot nicer then tandems/triples on dollies? Backing up is a bit more realistic. It seems a bit of chore to unhook to unload, but again, less than other solutions. Are these typically used in longish hauls, like several hours of driving between dumps? Are road trains popular in your area or do these go to Australia?

[AlexLachance]

That's a cool solution instead of pintle hitch dollies. I'm guessing it trails/trains a lot nicer then tandems/triples on dollies? Backing up is a bit more realistic. It seems a bit of chore to unhook to unload, but again, less than other solutions. Are these typically used in longish hauls, like several hours of driving between dumps? Are road trains popular in your area or do these go to Australia?

Road trains are popular in Canada for transits on highway but if I'm not mistaken they can only do a certain distance from highways to their destination. The goal of this train is to be able to carry the load of steel coils to a client and then leave with the scrap metal the client has and whatever else can be put on the rear trailer. The locking and unlocking of the sliding frame can all be done from the truck's cabin.

[AlexLachance]

New trailer model we developped, made to carry chickens to the slaughterhouse. The roof is operated by hydraulics, it lifts to give clearance when loading/unloading.

[ctsturdiv]

New trailer model we developped, made to carry chickens to the slaughterhouse. The roof is operated by hydraulics, it lifts to give clearance when loading/unloading.

Resized_20240829_145351.jpeg
Resized_20240829_152849.jpeg

Looks like a cool solution to getting people in there.

Funny enough, I did have someone from a transportation company look at my Linked In. I must have come up in a search. They did not message or anything. But I view stuff like that kind of like dating app "likes". Meaningless. And just like dating, I did not consider it a success unless I have gotten them off the app, met for coffee, been on a dte or so and am sleeping with them. LOL! Linked In, I think likes to play these psych games to get you to pay money just like dating apps. "Pay us to see who the hell this was so you can message them". Even though it could have been a fake view or a bot or some kind of scraper for a bossiness analyst firm. Thankfully, I am married and don't have to deal with that anymore at least on the partner front. But will on career front.

Type of stuff you do I would be not be opposed to interning at or doing entry level, but in my area it seems just from casual looking guarded by nepotism and the people that do it have been doing it since the 1990s it seems.

But I will deal with that headache in January.

I hate job hunting. Especially career switch job hunting.

Do love seeing those projects, though.

[Damo]

Project me and 2 collegues worked on, I worked on the rear trailer, one guy did the dumping trailer and the other did the development for special stuff such as the side-doors and the tarp system. Since it is a B-Train, the axles of the front trailer require to slide up front so that the trailer can dump. I think I spoke about it before.

https://algoma.app.box.com/s/j23x4y4k0f ... ew7kmx1u7p

This is cool.
I work also on transport equipment. Even tho the rules are a little different here in Australia, the needs remain similar.
I used to be somewhat involved in a similar product. This one did not require disconnection to tip each trailer.
Providing the unloading site allowed the necessary space to achieve it.

The 5th wheel is located below the rear tub hinge of the lead unit.

[retonny77]

That trailer looks awesome! The hydraulic roof is a smart idea.

[AlexLachance]

This is cool.
I work also on transport equipment. Even tho the rules are a little different here in Australia, the needs remain similar.
I used to be somewhat involved in a similar product. This one did not require disconnection to tip each trailer.
Providing the unloading site allowed the necessary space to achieve it.
STAG Tipper.jpg
The 5th wheel is located below the rear tub hinge of the lead unit.

That's pretty neat, I was wondering for a few seconds how the cylinder was in lowered position then realised there's probably a doghouse cage built inside the front end. We've never done dual dumping trailers, though we've done both front train dumper and rear train dumper, so we aren't that far from it

[SPerman]

I hope everyone survived the latest hurricane. I was without power for a day and a half, which all things considered, is nothing.

About 150 miles west of me the damage is hard to comprehend.

[AlexLachance]

I hope everyone survived the latest hurricane. I was without power for a day and a half, which all things considered, is nothing.

About 150 miles west of me the damage is hard to comprehend.

image.png

All the pictures and videos I saw passing during the weekend were horrifying to see. I hope things can return to normal quickly altough it seems like it won't for a while.

[SPerman]

Some areas of the state received over 30" of rain in a 4 day period.

So much infrastructure is gone, I can't imagine what it will take for things to get back to normal.

If you live on the coast, you expect hurricanes. If you live in the woods in California, you know there is a possibility of a forest fire. No one on that mountain thought their lives would be washed away in a flood.

I have a much greater appreciation for how easy my life has been. The "challenges" I have faced in my life are inconsequential compared to a disaster of that level.

[AlexLachance]

Some areas of the state received over 30" of rain in a 4 day period.

So much infrastructure is gone, I can't imagine what it will take for things to get back to normal.

If you live on the coast, you expect hurricanes. If you live in the woods in California, you know there is a possibility of a forest fire. No one on that mountain thought their lives would be washed away in a flood.

I have a much greater appreciation for how easy my life has been. The "challenges" I have faced in my life are inconsequential compared to a disaster of that level.

It indeed is humbling

[Glenn Schroeder]

I hope everyone survived the latest hurricane. I was without power for a day and a half, which all things considered, is nothing.

About 150 miles west of me the damage is hard to comprehend.

image.png

I'm glad you're okay. Two of my wife's siblings have homes on Davis Islands (a suburb of Tampa). They both had about a foot of water in the houses.

[DanPihlaja]

I'm glad you're okay. Two of my wife's siblings have homes on Davis Islands (a suburb of Tampa). They both had about a foot of water in the houses.

A friend of mine's son lived in Asheville. He couldn't get a hold of him for 24 hours.

Once he was able to call, he found out from his son that all the main roads out of Asheville were closed, and that his son fled with his wife, 2 children and his mother in law. They drove through mountain trails to head west. They have a video of driving though a mountain trail through 18 inches of water.

Scary stuff.

[SPerman]

The stories I am hearing are horrifying. They expect the number of dead to be 5x or more higher than what has been currently reported.

It is really hard to fathom how destructive this event was. Everything close to the river is gone. They are still trying to get access to many areas. Large sections have NO infrastructure remaining. No roads, no power lines, no cell towers, etc. I saw a text from a lineman that said he got to an intersection that used to be a subdivision, and it was a 100 foot ravine. No remnants of anything that used to be there.

If you weren't off of the mountain Thursday night, you weren't getting off, and the real heavy rain didn't come until Friday morning.

[SPerman]

It is a wonderful start to the week. We rent the back portion of our shop to a machine shop that does 95% of our machine work. The owner has been on dialysis for a decade waiting on a Kidney. Over the weekend he had stroke, and while it isn't as bad as it could be, he has a lot of therapy ahead of him to get back to "normal." I also found out this morning that one of the other owner's wife has incurable liver cancer. She will be on chemotherapy for the rest of her life. They have another round of MRI's this week to determine if that is the only place the cancer has spread.

[AlexLachance]

It is a wonderful start to the week. We rent the back portion of our shop to a machine shop that does 95% of our machine work. The owner has been on dialysis for a decade waiting on a Kidney. Over the weekend he had stroke, and while it isn't as bad as it could be, he has a lot of therapy ahead of him to get back to "normal." I also found out this morning that one of the other owner's wife has incurable liver cancer. She will be on chemotherapy for the rest of her life. They have another round of MRI's this week to determine if that is the only place the cancer has spread.

Ouch, a decade with a missing kidney and then to be hit by a stroke has gotta be hard on the body and on the mind. Prayers to them, cancer is an awful disease that kills so many people every day, most of my family members that are no more have been lost to cancer

[Frederick_Law]

You never know what gonna happen.
Enjoy and treasure every day.

[AlexLachance]

New dumping trailer developped! Testing will begin soon

[AlexLachance]

Anyone looking into going to 3DXperienceWorld? I might be going for the first time and just started looking into it. I might split this as a seperate thread if it gets a lot of responses.

[DennisD]

Anyone looking into going to 3DXperienceWorld? I might be going for the first time and just started looking into it. I might split this as a seperate thread if it gets a lot of responses.

TL:DR SolidWorksWorld was fun and exciting, but there is now a lot of Kool-Aid being served. SWX Desktop is the bastard stepchild and gets short shrift compared to everything else. If you have never been then go, but I'll not attend another one.


I went in 2013 (Orlando, 2 hour drive from here, paid for by my VAR because he was trying to make up for his failures with me and my influence in the local area) and 2018 (Los Angeles, paid for by SWX at Richard Doyle's arrangement as a result of the noise we made for "ONE and TWO". NEVER EVER will I go to LA for anything again!)

2018 was the last SolidWorksWorld, after that it became other worldly (not in a good way IMHO). Rick Becker (@RickB) and I had the pleasure to sit down with SWX tech guys Bruce Holway, John Sweaney, Jim Wilkerson, and a few others. THOSE guys were great and they really listened. (We DUMPED on them about the new cloud system they were building and that it was insane to make it where you did not have bidirectional compatibility with SWX desktop and to have different look/feel/functions/layout. Just insane. This is not mentioned in the report.) You can read our comments here Follow-up to Top Ten and ONE and TWO from SWW2018:
https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... eYLRVpOt_A

Rick had made up a couple of ONE and TWO hats and we gave them to Bruce and his crew.

Ahhh, those were the days when we felt listened to!

[dave.laban]

Once again they've put it on the wrong continent so I won't be going.

[AlexLachance]

TL:DR SolidWorksWorld was fun and exciting, but there is now a lot of Kool-Aid being served. SWX Desktop is the bastard stepchild and gets short shrift compared to everything else. If you have never been then go, but I'll not attend another one.

That's what it feels to me, it's 1100$ just for the ticket, the plane to fly there and back will be another thousand or two, hotel reservation should be another thousand and other expenses will vary around 1000$, I have a hard time seeing myself justifying between 5000 and 6000$ in spending for something that I'm not entirely sure will be worthwhile. I know there are certifications and general sessions but it seems to be a lot more around networking. I love meeting people that I've been exchanging with for a while but I can't go for that reason alone.

[ctsturdiv]

I have survived my first two weeks at my first real drafting job. I am currently enjoying Thanksgiving off and will return Monday. I STILL have the finals for Drafting Disciplines II and Plant 3D/BIM but am going to death march those to get them done.

PAID holidays at that. Previous industries I worked in, you may have had things like Thanksgiving off, but it messed up your already tiny paycheck and you struggled. Either that or you had to show up and missed time with your family.

I WILL graduate in December with an AA in Drafting in Design, barring tragedies. But even if I was to bomb, I am sitting on high As and would probably still pass but I am not going to press it. After I spend today just unwinding, next 3-4 days I am going to death march the final and project. I do have accommodations from the college because my Dad died in November and am taking advantage of it, but finals and final project dates are firm.

As far as what the job is, they were so wanting to hire people I did not know what I was getting into. I also thought the pay was a bit high for a greenhorn drafter but was not going to turn money down. I thought this was going to be a mechanical drafter job.

No. This is more than that.

This is straight up outfitting designer work for a friggin war ship!

Definitely not "CAD monkey" type work that my class mates who went into Civil or Piping are doing. But what they got were internships. This is an actual Jr. Outfitting Designer job.

And it is TOUGH, TOUGH. The college said most things would be easier than the college work. No. I have had to learn on the fly advanced techniques. There are drawings that reference multiple Excel sheets and other drawings. Blocks for everything. That stool mounted to the bulkhead? There's a VFI for it and you have to make the block for it orthographically and put it in if the vendor did not give you anything.

What's even more challenging is my team took over from another and CAD standards are all over the place. Fortunately, there is a senior designer I can reach if I get really stumped, but he is on another project and the engineers know little about CAD and I pretty much have to cope and figure it out. We are talking multiple broken stuff like xrefs that's path was moved or file name changed and I have to find it, data links broken, and some 30+ long drawings that have wrong drawing names on them and obscure settings they did not go over in college I am having to learn.

HUGE learning curve balls.

But they don't seem to be jumping me and at least seem pleased. So, I guess I am doing okay but the job honestly makes me feel like a dummy at times.

For what it is worth, though. Job has been life changing. I should easily be able to pay off my little student loans and may be able to move to a nicer place eventually as I live in a very bad neighborhood that while cheap, landlord fixes nothing and can be dangerous if you do not watch it. Someone got shot a few months or so in my parking lot. Probably hard drugs stuff, but still...

[AlexLachance]

I have survived my first two weeks at my first real drafting job. I am currently enjoying Thanksgiving off and will return Monday. I STILL have the finals for Drafting Disciplines II and Plant 3D/BIM but am going to death march those to get them done.

PAID holidays at that. Previous industries I worked in, you may have had things like Thanksgiving off, but it messed up your already tiny paycheck and you struggled. Either that or you had to show up and missed time with your family.

I WILL graduate in December with an AA in Drafting in Design, barring tragedies. But even if I was to bomb, I am sitting on high As and would probably still pass but I am not going to press it. After I spend today just unwinding, next 3-4 days I am going to death march the final and project. I do have accommodations from the college because my Dad died in November and am taking advantage of it, but finals and final project dates are firm.

As far as what the job is, they were so wanting to hire people I did not know what I was getting into. I also thought the pay was a bit high for a greenhorn drafter but was not going to turn money down. I thought this was going to be a mechanical drafter job.

No. This is more than that.

This is straight up outfitting designer work for a friggin war ship!

Definitely not "CAD monkey" type work that my class mates who went into Civil or Piping are doing. But what they got were internships. This is an actual Jr. Outfitting Designer job.

And it is TOUGH, TOUGH. The college said most things would be easier than the college work. No. I have had to learn on the fly advanced techniques. There are drawings that reference multiple Excel sheets and other drawings. Blocks for everything. That stool mounted to the bulkhead? There's a VFI for it and you have to make the block for it orthographically and put it in if the vendor did not give you anything.

What's even more challenging is my team took over from another and CAD standards are all over the place. Fortunately, there is a senior designer I can reach if I get really stumped, but he is on another project and the engineers know little about CAD and I pretty much have to cope and figure it out. We are talking multiple broken stuff like xrefs that's path was moved or file name changed and I have to find it, data links broken, and some 30+ long drawings that have wrong drawing names on them and obscure settings they did not go over in college I am having to learn.

HUGE learning curve balls.

But they don't seem to be jumping me and at least seem pleased. So, I guess I am doing okay but the job honestly makes me feel like a dummy at times.

For what it is worth, though. Job has been life changing. I should easily be able to pay off my little student loans and may be able to move to a nicer place eventually as I live in a very bad neighborhood that while cheap, landlord fixes nothing and can be dangerous if you do not watch it. Someone got shot a few months or so in my parking lot. Probably hard drugs stuff, but still...

That sounds like an awesome opportunity mate, glad everything seems to be falling into place for you. Keep at it, it'll go so fast you won't even see the end of school coming.


It's tough at first because it's different, but you'll be able to accustom yourself to whatever it is you are working on, and eventually you'll develop tools to help yourself and make things easier on you, I believe in you.

Take notes where you see possibility of improvements, present them to your boss eventually. I'm sure he's aware of all the challenges you've noted in your post and would love to have someone come up to him with a solution, even if the solution isn't the final one. Keep in mind most people go through a day's work and do not want to lift their sleeves and do the hard work, they just wanna keep it simple and do the least necessary, it's not out of bad intention, simply human nature.