How the Cloud Saved my Butt - And my Homework Grade

I'm still taking my aircraft maintenance classes at Mt. San Antonio College.  And while it's rewarding, it's enormously time consuming.

Between work and class, it means days starting at 5:30 AM and ending at 11PM.  It makes me grateful for a supportive family, but something does have to give, and in this case, it's the blog that suffers.   

One of the instructional airframes, the Cessna 337 Skymaster.

But life is still teaching me lessons, and this is one where data in the cloud helped save my grade.

I store my homework in Google Drive.  Why?  I can access it anywhere, and it's always backed up.  It's always nice to be able to open the latest version on my phone, laptop, or work computer, without having to worry about uploading or emailing documents. 

And as a final bonus, I have semesters of homework available for my reference.

A photo posted by Jonathan Landeros (@jlanderos1973) on Nov 5, 2016 at 5:17pm PDT

The infamous textbook.  My dinner companion many nights.

Perfect cloud application, right?  Of course!

But last week, I had an interesting experience that thankfully, the Cloud saved me from. 

In a rush at work, I hurriedly printed and stapled my homework to turn into class.  Once turned in, I went merrily on  my way, satisfied with a job I thought well done. 

But the next day, I got a surprise that made my stomach sink. 

The instructor returns my homework with a 43% on it.  I'm shocked!  How?

He tells me, "You're missing half your homework."  

Gobsmacked, I flip through the pages.  Sure enough, two of the four pages are blank.  

I kick myself for not checking.  It's a stupid mistake. 

The teacher breaks me out of my trance.  "I don't know how to rectify this with you.  The quality of work implies you did the homework, but if you can't get it to me tonight.... "  

My brain races, and suddenly a solution.  "Can I email it to you?"  

"I'll take that."  The instructor tells me, giving me a ray of hope.

I fumble with my mobile phone for a few minutes, and manage to send a *.docx file to the instructor.  Mercifully, my grade goes from a 43% to an 83%. (I made some bonehead mistakes technology can't solve). 

So that's my story, but what are the lessons?  

1) Technology is awesome!  But don't rely on it too much. - I didn't spend 10 seconds flipping through the pages of my homework to make sure it was all there.  I assumed it was, and that nearly cost me. 

2) When used properly, technology is  invaluable. - As contradictory as it seams, technology also saved me from... technology.  If I hadn't been using a cloud account, and instead had my homework stored on a document on a machine, I may have been stuck eating a failing grade.  By having the ability to send the instructor a word document, I salvaged a bad situation. 

3) Make Technology Work for You! - I think this is the biggest lesson of all.  We all have different needs, and technology has many ways of helping us out, not just one.  Just because I use it one way doesn't mean you have to use it in exactly that way.  Take my ideas, combine them with so many others, and come up with something that makes you're life easier! 

So take my lessons, make them your own.  From now on, I'll be double checking that homework with my good ol' "Mark 1 Eyeball.". 

I'm Back in Class - Why You Haven't Heard from Me

I know it's been quiet the last couple of weeks.

But it's that time again, I'm back in Aircraft Maintenance Class trying to gain some new skills.

A "Special Fasteners" plate. I learned that safety wire
is both an exercise in patience, and p

The back of the plate shows just *some* of the fasteners
found it a typical aircraft. 

That means working a full week, plus running to class to put in an extra 25 hours per week.

Needless to say, I don't have much time to sit down and blog!

But I'm learning new skills and finding new ways to apply the skills I have.  It's a great experience!

Learning to hold a part with Clecos (the copper pegs), before setting solid rivets.

And I'm already dreaming of a few new posts! 

You haven't gotten rid of me that easily.

Two New Members, and Maintenance on "Websites Jon Likes"

A few years ago, I added a tab to InventorTales I named "Websites Jon Likes".

It contained resources I found helpful, or just a little interesting, and I just wanted to share them.

That page was long overdue for some maintenance, and so I finally cleaned it up.

I removed a few links that have gone dead.  The sites have now become the ghost of webpages past.

But two more sites were added, and for all the value I think they bring, I wish them a long and prosperous existence.

Here they are!

AIRCORPS Library   

An example of what you can find on AIRCORPS Library

The owners of this site have diligently collected and scanned prints and technical documents for aircraft form the 1930s, 1940s, and a few in the 1950s.  I grant you, they're a pay site, but in my opinion, they have earned every cent they earned, plus more.

Most of us live life in the cloud, and this has got to be one of the greatest uses for it I have seen.

If you like old airplanes or vintage technical documents, then this page is for you!

Lazze Metal Shaping

This is a great YouTube channel with a video after video of detailed sheet metal work.   Most of the work uses manual tools like English Wheels, shrinkers, stretchers, and brakes.

Definitely old school, and definitely worth your time!

Here's a video I liked, but this is just a small sample!  Check out the site on Youtube!



So take look a these sites!  I think you can find something worth while!

Thin Walled Inserts - Threads Screwed into Threads

This post is a bit more "manufacturing focused" than CAD focused.  It was brought on by my most recent experience in design.

I wasn't exposed them as much as I would have liked in college, so I like to share that newly acquired knowledge of mine with the world out there.

So what have I learned about most recently?

Threaded inserts.  I've been spending a lot of time working with them in the last year or so.

A Fusion 360 rendering of a thin wall insert. 

Most of us have probably used helical coil inserts, which most of us know by their trade name, Helicoil.

By The original uploader was Boellhoff at German Wikipedia - Transferred from de.wikipedia to Commons by MichaelFrey using CommonsHelper., Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7363606

But recently, I had to use "thin wall" inserts, designed to meet the MIL-I-45932/1 standard.  If you like, you can download that standard here.

A real image of thin wall inserts. Image from Acme Industrial.

They're a new experience for me.  I hadn't worked with them before.  I had only installed the  aforementioned helical coil insert.

We use them to reinforce holes in aluminum castings.  Stainless steel inserts provide a more durable interface for the hardware to fit into, and makes it easier to assemble and disassemble without wearing the threads as quickly.

The thin wall inserts have the extra advantages of using standard threads, so they don't require any thread making tools.

They also work when there isn't a lot of edge distance to play with, such as a flange.  Where using too big of an insert risks weakening the interior all.

The downside is that, at least from what I'm told, these are tougher to put in.  You can't twist them in like a Helicoil.  They have to be threaded in, then the collar has to be expanded with a special tool, and a bit of skill is required to keep from damaging the surface, or the insert itself.

For the steps to install a thin wall insert, he's a nice "shop video" from Acme Industrial.



There are so many things to learn, and such little time.  I hope this little blurb is something you find helpful!

As always, here's the embeded Fusion 360 model that I always have so much fun including!

10 Years! Unbelievable!

I can't believe it !  On this very day, in 2006, I created my first blog post for InventorTales.

It was under a different name then, it was actually about 8 years ago, that InventorTales took form.

The very first image posted to my blog. 

An Autodesk Fusion 360 rendering I created last night.
This product wasn't even a dream when I created my first post. 

But still, I'm stunned.  Has it really been that long?

10 years ago, I was;

• I was younger! 
• I had hair!
• I was in better shape! 
• I was single!
• Inventor was't using years to reflect versions
• Fusion 360 wan't a glimmer on the horizon yet! 

It's been an amazing 10 years!  The one thing I've learned is that things are always changing!

Thanks for an amazing decade!  I hope to keep things up for another ten years, even as times change!

Lessons in Manufacturing from 75 Year Old Airplane.

Have you ever looked at a manufacturing process and thought, "When was that process developed?"

I had that moment looking at a set of ailerons for a Seversky AT-12 Guardsman at Planes of Fame Air Museum, where I volunteer on the weekends.

The Seversky AT-12 Guardsman at Planes of Fame

Stripped of the fabric that normally, covers them, I had a rare opportunity to see the structure beneath.

Typically Structures of the era would be made of wood, or riveted aluminum like the images below.

An example of  riveted aluminum. 

A typical aluminum control surface.
This is in the process of being recovered in fabric. 

Instead, these structures were made of welded stainless steel that had been spot welded together.

A close up of the stainless steel structure.  The spot welds are the dark spots on the ribs.

And speaking of the era, the ailerons still bore their manufacturer's data plates.  Built by Fleetwings, in 1940.

My curiosity piqued, I looked up the company on the internet.

I found that Fleetwings started in the mid 1920s, and pioneered the use of stainless steel in aircraft structures.

It seems that this set of ailerons represents a small milestone in manufacturing of aircraft structures. The use of stainless steel.

It's an interesting note in manufacturing history!  All prompted by looking at a set of old ailerons.

 With so many tools that we have, we can be better, faster, and more efficient.  But don't forget to use those tools to be come something else. 

Become more curious, and always keep learning! 

The Art of Development - Give Your Content a Chance to Mature!

Today is a "5 minute" post.  Just a little idea I had while working in Autodesk Inventor. 

In my current engagement, I've taken on creating custom content in Autodesk Inventor's Content Center.  That means creating tables, upon tables of various hardware.  Mostly NAS and NASM hardware.  

It's not difficult, but it takes time, and it takes patience.  And that means there are times that I have to leave content incomplete, not ready to use, but it's still in the shared content database, exposed to the users. 

So that left me with a conundrum.  How do I make sure the users don't accidentally use the content before it's ready to release?  

I thought of the traditional route, which is to put "Do not use" or something similar in the family description, but then I had an idea I liked a lot better. 

I decided to use an image.  Just how graphical images are used to convey important information quickly

You can see the image I used in the screen capture below. 

Can you guess which one you shouldn't use?  

So enjoy the bit of humor I used to break up a long, tedious day.  And perhaps think of how you can use that in your daily projects, for both practical purposes, and maybe a little bit of humor! 

Embedding Designs in Autodesk Fusion 360 - My Practical Case

Wrapping up an aircraft maintenance class is a bittersweet experience for me.

On one hand, I miss sitting in a hangar full of airplanes, doing homework, while chatting with my classmates about.... airplanes.

What gearhead wouldn't want a classroom like this? 

On the other hand.... I suddenly have my weeknights back to relax! 

So how did I spend one of my first evenings free?  I took a fundamental lesson I learned in class, and integrated it into Autodesk Fusion 360.  

What was the lesson?  

It starts with something my aircraft maintenance teachers, both my formal instructors and my colleagues with far more experience have continually reinforced. 

"Know your references to your information!  Book, chapter, page, and paragraph!"  Sometimes they would add, "And because your buddy said so does not count!"

That meant looking through a lot of books, real paper books.  If I was lucky, I had a PDF that I could scan through.  But even that took time.

Manuals in Aircraft Maintenance are big, heavy, and required! 

I quickly learned to write down key class info in a small composition book, naturally, I included the relevant book, chapter, page, and paragraph.

My little composition notebook.

But next came rivet spacing.  It's the standard spacing found in the FAA Advisory Circular AC43.13. 

The image from AC43.13. 

Sure, I can write it down in my composition, and naturally, I did!   But I also decided that I would build it in Fusion 360, just for a little practice.

The completed rivet pattern in Fusion 360

But as I finished up my little practice exercise,  My teachers words echoed in my mind.

How can I make the most use of this.  How can I make the information available.

Why?  It's available to anyone with the link, and it's a good visual representation of the finished product.  (Note that AC43,13 is referenced in the title block)






It's a link in the chain of information.  Just like I was taught, it's part of knowing where to find the information.

And it's not about knowing the information, it's about knowing where to find it!

So here's another example of embedded information in Fusion 360.  If you'd like to see the full steps, I wrote a post on that subject here.

Take a look!  And see if it can help you! .  

5 More Things Aircraft Maintenance Taught Me.

I've been busy.  Crazy busy.  It's why I have been really bad about blogging.

The last five weeks, I've been taking an Aircraft Maintenance class.  This class is mostly book work, as a matter of fact, it's all book work!

It means many a night of being the first up in the morning, and the last to bed at night.

My days start at 4:30 AM.  They end at 11 PM at night.

But while it's time consuming, and at times frustrating, it's good to learn new things.

This includes everything from basic math, to FAA rules and documentation, to Calculations of Weight and Balance.

My text book.  I found the toy airplane laying on an airport tarmac.
Being a strange place to find a toy, I took as my "learning'" totem.
It reminds me to find joy in learning new things.

I could bore you with the details  of moments, engineering notation, Form 337, and AC43.13, but that wouldn't be much fun, would it?  Calculating the empty weight center of gravity of an aircraft isn't exactly the pinnacle of excitement!

Empty weight CG calcs.  With my learning totem.
I'm sure you can hardly contain your excitement.

And I get more out of these classes than that.  These are lessons beyond the syllabus, things I've observed in those times I look up from my textbook and observe the environment around me.

So what things did I learn?

1) Look for the inspiration of others. 

I look around my classroom and see many a 20 something "kid".  And some of them struggle with the course material.

I suppose I could make some snarky comment about the failure of public education or "those lazy millennials".

But the truth is, I've seen many of these students curse under their breath, then put their nose back into the book and try again.  And again.  And again.

They refuse to give up.  And then they succeed.  They succeeded because they were just to stubborn to give up.

2)  Class May End, but the Learning Doesn't

Being in a constant observation mode has made me better at learning.  And learning everywhere. I go. Sometimes its a document I find doing research for work has applications at school, sometimes its realizing that knowing how to safety wire means I'm better aware what it takes to make a design work.

Sometimes it's knowing when to listen when an old mechanic has something to teach you.

Safety Wire that I tightened.  Not bad, but it could be better.
Next time, it will be better. 

The lessons are many, and they breed other lessons.

3) An Ounce of Patience Can be Worth a Ton of Rework. 

One habit I continually struggle with is the desire to hurry.  Much of my career has been spent in the "hurry up corporate offense".  But many times the plan needs to look like

• Read the manual
• Form a plan
• Reread the manual
• Adjust the plan
• Execute the plan

Why?  I've mad the mistake of hurrying.  Then had to redo something because I rushed the job.  The result?  The whole thing took a lot longer than just doing it right the first time. 

Obvious?  It should be, do I always follow that advise?  Not as often as I should.
\
But I follow it a lot more than I used to.

4) Experts Know What They Don't Know.

The best aircraft technicians, and best mentors I've had, have the repair manual close by.  Do they know their job?  Absolutely.  They're some of the best you'll find.  

But they also taught me, "When in doubt, you'd better check that manual!". Why?  They know that they can't memorize every last little detail.  But the manual has everything they need.  

Maintenance Manuals.  The best friend you can have. 

5) "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity" Seneca

When I first started taking these classes, I figured I would be working on my own, spending a lot of nights studying.  But something quite amazing happened. 

Help came.  It wasn't help I asked for, it was help that came to me. 

People found out I was taking these classes, and they helped me. They shared their knowledge.  Sometimes it was a few helpful tips.  Sometimes they handed me a drill and said "You're going to learn how to drill out a #30 rivet today".  

Sometimes, it was a few kind words of encouragement when the long days seemed to be too much to bear. 

I didn't go seeking these people.  I simply found myself in the right place at the right time.   And when they saw me trying to help myself, they helped me stand taller than I could on my own. 

All it came with was a silent request that I return the favor when someone else needed it.  And I promise them that I will. 

In Conclusion

Here are 5 more things I learned from my Aircraft Maintenance classes.  Do I expect you to take your own maintenance classes?  No.  Of course not. 

But I'd encourage you to find your own "5 things".

Never quit learning, never quit looking for inspiration, and look for it in whatever form it takes. 

Busy, Busy - I Haven't Posted in a While.

InventorTales has been quiet of late, as you may have noticed.   And it because I've been wrapped up in a few of my other pursuits. 

One of those?  Yet one more Aircraft Maintenance Technician class, this time, "Basic Science".  In this class I'm learning weight and balance, regulations, and documentation. 

Maybe not as exciting as building things, but just as important! 

My Basic Science book.  The toy plane is my totem to remind me to always enjoy learning!

My little totem with some of the "instructional airframes".
Remember, learning doesn't always happen in a classroom.

I've been busy Saturdays at Planes of Fame, enjoying my time as a proud member of the fabric restoration team.  The current project for our team is recovering the ailerons on a Seversky AT-12 Guardsman

It's quite the amazing project!  One I'm privileged to be a part of! 

 

The aileron frame. Made in 1940, it's spot welded stainless steel!

The aileron in the process of being covered in fabric. 

So that's an update of what's going on with me.  I haven't forgotten about this blog!  I'm hoping to follow up with some CAD posts soon!  

Fusion 360 as a Viewer - Another Step in the Learning Experience

If you've spent any time at all looking into Fusion 360 you'll likely hear "the data is stored in the cloud" touted as one of it's big advantages.  

And it really is an advantage!  Here's one case that I've found where Fusion has helped augment Autodesk Inventor, but that's just the beginning!

Here's the end in mind!

What's the Scenario?

I was attending a design review for a small assembly, I may not be able to bring in my laptop, IT may not be able to install Inventor or Vault in time.

In other words, I may be on my own.  Time to think of a backup plan.  

Since I started out this post discussion Fusion 360, you may safely assume that Fusion 360 is part of the solution, and indeed it was.  

I also used A360 as a key part of my solution too. And that's where this story starts.

In short, I used Fusion 360 as my viewer. It was similar  to Inventor and I was comfortable using it. On top of that, the Fusion client is much simpler to install than Inventor, and can be done much more quickly.

Here are the steps I used to "get there from here".  In the interests of full disclosure, I'm using a sample file because the original file is proprietary.  Sorry, no peeks to that!

Here we go!

The first thing was to upload my assembly into A360 Drive.  Make sure to use the Assembly option under the Upload button.

Uploading into A360

Once that was done, browse to the folder containing the top level assembly, in this case, Engine MKII.

After hitting OK, there will be a few more questions to answer, the biggest one is which file is your actual parent file.  In this case, it's going to be Engine MKII.iam.

Choosing the parent file.  It's listed among it's candidates.

With the parent assembly selected, hit the Upload button, and the upload process will begin.

Ready to go! 

Now, the process of uploading to A360 will begin.  After a few moment, you'll get the indication that the assembly has been uploaded.

Time to Call Fusion 360

Now it's time to browse to the location you saved the file.  When you find the assembly, right click on it, and choose Create Fusion Design.

Creating a Fusion Design

Now, the converting process begins.

The upload is running

Give it a little time, and the conversion is completed.

And we're done! 

Make sure to refresh your project, and the newly created Fusion Design will appear.

The design is converted!

All that's left to do now, is double click on the file and you're ready to go with your new Fusion Design!

It's now ready to go in Fusion 360!

So what I ended up with was a quick way to use my design, without a heavy client install.  If necessary, I could even use the machine that was kept in the conference room!

I could navigate and control the visibility of parts.  Everything I needed at the time.

It was a great option that relieved a lot of stress.

Did you have any challenges uploading the file into Fusion?

I sure did!  I had some challenges loading the hardware, which was a combination of Inventor Content Center and iParts.  It wouldn't upload until I put it in the same folder as the components.

I don't know exactly why this is, but I'm going to poke around a bit more and see what I can find out.

Some of you may have a few questions on why I choose this direction.  Here are some answers to some questions you might be thinking of asking. 

Why didn't you use A360 as your viewer? 

I absolutely could have.   But I wasn't familiar with A360, so I made a decision to go with what I know.  Fusion worked great, but I know I can use A360 in the future.

Why didn't you use Project Leopard? 

Just like above, I knew it was an option, but I had less that 24 hours to make my decision, and very little experience with Project Leopard.  So I chose the path I knew.  Will I consider it the future?  Absolutely!

Did you use any of the review tools in Fusion 360?  

No.  I didn't.  And it's not because the tools don't work.  In truth, I haven't had a chance to try them yet.  The scenario simply didn't suit those tools.  But these tools do have my interest, and I'm looking for the opportunity to explore them!

And that's a wrap for this post... A little bit of what I've learned, and a few things to try in the future.

Learning Fusion 360 - Building a 20 Sided Die

Many, many moons ago, a friend of mine asked me to model dice for a local gaming store, Dicehouse Games.  The trickiest of these was the 20 sided die, like I have pictured here.



Feel free to check out that post here,  I'm going to focus on my Fusion 360 experience here.  I found the steps were actually very similar.

Consider it a little bit of a musing about how my previous experience in Inventor compared to creating the die in Fusion 360.

The initial steps were the same, I created three rectangle on the XY, XZ, and YZ planes with a ratio of 1:1.618.  Just like before, I referenced this Wikipedia article here.

You may hear these referred to as the "Golden Rectangle".

The very skeleton of the 20 sided die.  The golden rectangles with a ratio of 1:1.618

Next, came the "how does Fusion 360 do it?" moment.  That meant building some workplanes using the "Plane Through Three Points" tool, and creating a sketch on that workplane.

I sketched three lines, using the three points of the rectangles as shown below.

The three point workplane with a sketch created on it.  One of the "Golden Rectangles has its visibility turned off to reduce "cluttter". 

To keep my process as simple as possible, I also created a boundary patch from the triangle.  It makes it easier to use turn off the visibility of these objects when things get a little cluttered.

The same model, with the boundary  patch added. 

Now there's a lot of "rinse and repeat" type of steps.  More 3 point workplanes, more sketches, and more lines defining triangles.

More boundary patches begin to define the "skin' of the die. 

But as I added more patches, I realized I could tweak my process a little bit, and make the operation go a little more easily.

I realized, I had enough patches where instead of using the Plane Through Three Points Workplane tool, I could use the "Plane Through 2 Edges Tool".  This was because I now had adjacent patch edges I could use to help me .

Fewer picks, faster process.

Once you have a few patches created, you can make better progress! 

There was more repeating of the now modified steps.  More sketches, more patches, until at long last, I had a complete skeleton of the die made with workplanes, surfaces, and boundary patches.

The die skinned with twenty different patches. 

Now what's left to do is to to make a solid out of it, using the "Stitch" tool.   This seals the 20 surfaces into a solid.  I now have a twenty sided solid!

The now stitched die!  Note I changed my background color to make the now solid die a little more clear. 

After this, comes the long process of adding numbers.  This will take a while.  There's no real getting around that.

Sketching in text.  Fusion 360's drag and rotation tools really helped this process. 

There was a lot of sketch, extrusion, sketch extrusion, going on here.  But finally the whole die was modeled!

Now, I added a little color.  I had experimented with orange, but went for red this time.

Dragging color onto the die using the render environment. 

After quite a bit of dragging, the colors are all done!

After adding fillets to smooth the rough edges, and the die is done!

The die completed! 

So after that exercise, what did I learn, and like about this exercise?

1) Neat little workflow in sketching! 
When you start a sketching tool, and there isn't an active sketch, Fusion will start a sketch for you.  Thanks for the help with that!!

2) Drag and drop. I like it.  That is all. 
Fusion's push pull and rotation tools on the "drag and drop functionality really came in handy.  It was nice to rotate and move text by dragging with the grips.  It made that tedious task go a little faster.

3) Keep an open mind, you might need to try a model a couple of times to get it right.
I started one model, then threw it away when I realized I wasn't making it as efficiently as I could.  I get we can't all do that, but make sure to look for the lessons to improve your flow for the next time.

4) Take the lessons you learned from one program, but don't take them too seriously.
We've all heard the frustrated user say "This program doesn't do it like MYFAVORITECAD!"  Well, no. It's not MYFAVORITE CAD.  Maybe it doesn't better, maybe not.  But at least be open to the changes before you dismiss them!



So my adventures in Fusion 360 continue.  I'm enjoying them, and I'll continue looking for ways to improve my skills set.

And if you'd like to take a look at this model yourself.  Here's a link to download it.  That's right.  Yours for the taking, enjoy!

I'm considering writing some posts describing how I built the die in a little more detail.  If you're interested, feel free to throw in a comment!