playing with CAD - historic & hobby projects
| Software used
| Date
| Model
| Lessons learned
| Image
|
| Dassault/IBM CATIA V5
| 1999-2004
| design and construction of 4-wheel vehicle (hobby project)
| basic 3D CAD, hierarchical object management,
DXF data to Trumpf Laser (Witec AG),
further metal workshop skills,
kinematics
|
|
|
| 2003
| FhG-ISE off-axis parabolic mirror (Mg material 500mm x 400mm)
| constraints on CNC tool paths
|
|
|
| 2002
| hobby computer chassis (PC104 hardware, black PE-HD material)
| 3 axis CNC milling (using a Maho 600-E2),
tool path strategies, basics of mold design.
Actually this dataset was the first CAM data
to be used at Fraunhofer-ISE with a milling machine. Feeding it into the Maho 600E2 , which
had been somewhat dated at that time already, used a specifically written RS232 program for the
handshake, and relied on the 600E2 "behind tape reader" (BTR) mode.
|
|
|
| 1999
| (domestic) roof structure (5m x 1.5m, 1 metric ton load, S355J2G3 steel)
| designing CAD model for simulation use, example of finite element stress simulation
|
|
| Hewlett-Packard/CoCreate ME10
| 1997-1998
| hobby 4-wheel vehicle design
| export to laser cutting machine (St37 plates),
most complex design done at FhG-ISE using the ME10 CAD program (image on right shows 10% of the design)
|
|
| 1989
| FhG-ISE diploma work, gonio-photometer
| inaugurated HP's ME10, a 2D-CAD, at FhG-ISE.
|
|
pre-CAD,
Diploma work
| 1989
| diploma work, design & construction of a gonio-photometer
| 3D view of my first gonio-photometer, image rendered with Rayshade
|
|
| it started with no CAD at all. This particular sub assembly is made of 61 parts, the struts of which I had machined myself.
|
|
| DIY at home
| 1988
| optical bench #2
| my beam expander for HeNe lasers using home-made blocks
(this simple design has proofed itself very stable and is still in use in 2020)
|
|
|
|
| 1987
| laser-photoplotter
| mirror adjustment driven by stepper-motors and control with an Apple ][
|
|
|
| 1986
| laser-interferometer
| home-built three-point mirror adjustment and interferometer
(This one got me an offer for a diploma work at CERN, - but I went to Fraunhofer ISE)
|
|
|
| optical bench #1
| home-built holografic diffraction grating and measurement:
used a photo of a computer-generated hologram,
CGH,
taken off a screen with high-resolution black-white film,
as diffraction grating. A makeshift scanner recorded the Fourier diffraction pattern on a slow-scan oscilloscope.
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A very big thank-you to all who allowed me access to their equipment over the years and who taught me all I know about mechanics:
