On Sun, 21 Jul 2002 13:09:30 -0400, Alex Fraser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>You are more in touch with the group than I am. If you don't see it happening then
>I probably won't. As far as KISS goes I agree they do have the tools they need for
>the project. However if ERPS doesn't have a good technology base to build on then
>you won't be able to move on to more complex machines. Take the time loss to the
>schedule now so you can go forward later (and if you don't have a schedule, what's
>can you loose?). If not now , then when?
Since we don't have a schedule, the only way to measure our progress
is by our accomplishments. Accomplishments fall into two categories:
flying, and development. (Development, in turn, consists of design,
review, construction, testing, and infrastructure; and sometimes of
twiddling our thumbs or just sitting on our duffs. These last two are
to be avoided.) Flying gets us the respect of our peers, kudos at
Space Access, and increased visibility, all of which lead to more
volunteers, more skills, and more money, with which we can do more
development.
So naturally my incentive is to avoid falling in love with the tool,
and just get the work done so we can go flying again. If it becomes
apparent that we need CAD/CAM (it's currently at the gosh-that's-neat
shame-about-the-learning-curve and-the-price! level of necessity),
then we'll get it, learn it, and use it.
>> We really need all the attributes Dave M mentioned for a package to
>> have enough appeal to enough ERPS people to make it useful.
>
> Well no you don't, you just need to be able to share data, not applications.
>Work on a common file format. I'm sure the government has already done this for
>you. Solid modeling would be great, but as long as you don't lock in to a dead end
>scenario 2D CAD is better than 0D CAD. Crawl, walk and then run.
I'm not making myself clear. Dave said...
>We have not found a good solution. A good solution includes the
>following: Available on both Windows and Linux, inexpensive, both
>imports and exports most common interchange formats, and has a bunch of
>useful features. Nothing actually meets those requirements.
...with which I agree. The people in ERPS are, first and foremost,
volunteers. They're showing a good bit of dedication just being
active in ERPS, and that dedication needs to be rewarded by it
producing useful work, on a fairly regular basis, or the volunteers
will lose interest and go do something else.
It's one of our greatest challenges. Anyone who is interested in
amateur rocketry, and capable of contributing meaningfully to a
society of volunteer amateur rocket engineers, is going to be very
bright and have many other interests. We are competing with those
other interests for that person's time, attention, and energy. What
Dave is saying is that no CAD package currently offers a rich enough
combination of feature set, interoperability, and price that anyone is
willing to invest time/attention/energy in learning it, let alone that
several people are so willing.
And it isn't something anyone can legislate or dictate. Again,
volunteers, all of them talented, most of them libertarians of some
stripe, you cannot -tell- these guys to do anything. You must ask,
and explain why it's necessary; then it'll happen. (I don't get too
fussy about the how as long as the happen happens.) We are very much
a consensus driven organization, and any large project that requires
several people (such as CAD/CAM would, to make it an effective use of
time spent learning the package), requires consensus. There is no
consensus on a CAD/CAM solution; hence, we're not using it.
(I should add that being consensus driven does not paralyze us,
because we're all interested in getting things done, and most work is
done by individuals or small teams.)
>come on, wouldn't you chum around with the devil himself if you could get into
>orbit?
Absolutely not. I do rocketry to support my goals in life. Rocketry
itself is not a goal, and deserves no such compromise.
-R
--
"Sutton is the beginning of wisdom -
but only the beginning."
-- Jeff Greason
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