Happy New 2017

4-28-13 144

Well a new year is here and motion as physicists say never stops. its time for engraf “me” to find itself new fields to plow. It seems every year a new design for this site is needed. It looks very dated. Spent the morning doing some behind the scenes server side stuff getting ready to make the “new” look happen.

This wordpress app is last years look at an overhaul. Making it the main page is really not gonna cut it for what engraf should be so a link to this will be added to the main page at some point and it will just exist separately. The past several years has found me working mostly on my graphics stuff.

This year it would be nice to revisit some of the other things that have interested me in the past. This will include getting back into coding and systems configuring. With luck the renderfarm and the engraving systems will go online at the new location. It hopefully will be the year this site is raised to a level of elegance and sophistication so it will no longer be an embarrassment.

Internet marketing has become so pervasive this site needs to expose and expand the things engraf can achieve usually on a budget. This is hopefully the year real tangible services and products start to appear. The immediate goal is to wrap up things here and start to build elsewhere. Fortunately engraf will still continue to reside where it has since 2o02 or so.

Writing more is also on the agenda. It is an enjoyable pursuit even if the quality is questionable. So here is my first post for 2017 hopefully, just the first of many.

 

Entrepreneurs in the future will build more than Web Sites.

blue punch tape

There will always be manufacturers making products on a massive scale. Through technology what an individual or small groups can make will be much different in the not so distant future. Labor intensive fabrication will be replaced with machine intensive fabrication. It is those people who can manage the machines who will drive the economy in the future. They will become the entrepreneurs.

Beyond counting people and collecting taxes and accounts payable one of the prime early uses for computers was to run machinery. If you know your computer history then you know it is arguable one of the first mechanical computer devices was the jacquard loom. It was a machine programmed with punch cards used to create complex patterns in woven cloth. It is partially what inspired Charles Babbage. Punch cards were in use as recently as the seventies and rolls of tape were in use into the early 90’s. Large manufacturers have long depended on automated devices to control the fabrication process.

There are a lot of smart people out there who just want knowledge and information to be free. Free as in liberty and sometimes if not most times free as in beer. So much has has been done by these folks it would probably fill a few of volumes just to do a summary. Traditionally software has been the “magic” intangible keeping advanced systems out of the hands of those small time entrepreneurs who could benefit. There has been a wall of business types and sale people all who paid themselves better than those who actually did the work. This limited distribution and also the financial opportunities for those who were actually creating today’s technological wonders. The internet has leveled the playing field. There is a lot of software that is low cost or no cost to acquire and deploy. Help is readily available ant a reasonable cost from the people who developed it if necessary.

Nothing has become more competitive than hardware. It would seem Moore’s Law was prophetic. I am constantly amazed at what can be bought for fifty dollars. The short list, would be Aduino’s, Raspberry Pi’s, and those amazing little 6560 based multi axis controllers splattered all over E-Bay. Add to that the multitude of tables cheap used workstations and tools available there too. Then there is the interest in additive manufacturing also known as 3-D printing and you have an arsenal as big as the research and development department of most corporations if they even have one.

Artificial intelligence is starting to take off as well. I could digress into the nuances of this idea. However it is apparent one of the first uses of this technology is going to be for use i knowledge systems. It will only be a matter of time before the Engineering Handbook, Machinist’s Handbook, and other things like the properties of materials and calculations for a variety of uses will all be available for the asking.

Every idea manifested into something tangible starts off as a sketch of some sort. It may be in the mind’s eye but most likely it is in the form of some kind of sketch. For the past 30 years or so it has most likely been in the form of some kind of Computer Aided Drafting System. This is another area where technology has really exploded. Traditionally it too was a high flyer with regard to cost. The software was expensive and the hardware required equally so . Today a perfectly adequate CAD system can be had affordably .

The internet is a wonderful and powerful tool. It has connected industrious and brilliant people all over the world to one another. It is my opinion and only an opinion mind you its real value has been overlooked. The direction of computers and the internet will be to free those with the ability to take control of the production of what they need on a local as well as a global scale. The disrupters will be those who will be able to provide goods locally and globally with the flexibility to adjust and adapt to the needs of the marketplace.  This will allow STEM workers a unique opportunity to become self employed empowered entrepreneurs no dependent on a banker or a corporation for their livelihood. It will be a real game changer.

So It time to get into some Revit

revsrnshot

There are some new developments in software that has piqued my interest. AutoDesk has decided to get into the CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) business. They have at some point recently introduced a product they call Fabrication. There is a specific version of this software called CAMduct which caught my interest. Included with the latest version of Revit is an export utility for creating files CAMduct can use.

Revit has never been particularly appealing. This is probably mostly because it isn’t very difficult to model on the fly. Most drawings are meant to be plotted out and used in a flat plan representational view, particularly in construction. Revit’s metaphor pretty much is intended to constrain the designer to use only elements clearly defined and inserted into a model in a manner which creates a solid unified representation of a building. Built into it are facilities for hierarchically organizing similar elements into families. So in order to use Revit properly much more stringent organization is necessary. Normally my approach is the good enough  philosophy. AutoDesk’s ADT/MEP facilitates this rather well. Anytime a non standard item is required it is a simple matter of modeling it off in the margins, creating a block, and converting it to what they refer to as an MVPART. It is sloppy but, it is fast and convenient.

REVIT does not like the on the fly approach to model development. This structured way of modeling certainly is more accurate and the correct way to do things, however it is easy to be lazy, time is always a factor, and complicating methodology by adding steps to the process is annoying. However now there is a motivating factor, the ability to download the model to CAM software, Nest the resulting parts, and create the G-code required to cut out the ductwork in the design. This is cool for a variety of reasons. Its not on point so there is no point in delving into it. I have been modeling building and ductwork for over ten years now. For ten year prior to that all the drawings were 2-D. The old process required keeping it all in your head as you worked by building the thing in your mind and projecting it flat on a piece of paper. It was all there was and I got proficient with it. I still rely on this skill set and it probably affects my lazy approach to modeling.

This blog is intended for my own use. Lots of things drift through my head as new techniques and problems come my way. I can’t remember details of much of what has passed under the bridge. It is my objective to start to document things so in the future it can be referred back too. Drawing became tedious and boring over a decade ago. My interest in it only came back as a result of being able to model instead of draw. Modelling instead of drawing has been my approach for over ten years and now it is time to up the game since there is a reason to.

Revit is a in its essence a pure modeling approach. Frankly all the documentation I have seen takes a backwards approach. It is probably because I take a top down view of things. Without an overall purpose the details are just tedious and boring. My approach to things is to start with something that works and take it apart. Been doing it since childhood.

 

Top down

atticviewsAttic view of prior project to be reproduced

Okay I needed a place to start. Not too long ago a fun project came across my board. It was a 18th century building being retrofitted with modern mechanical systems. It was originally a dormitory for an Indian School and is now used as an administrators office. It is a historical building and so everything had to be hidden as much as possible. It was complex for such a smallish structure. So as a project this will be the starting point for my exercise. The purpose will be to complete a model for this building. It will probably be a long process as I really don’t have time so dedicate to this it. It is simply an academic exercise to facilitate the understanding of the software.

roughstart

Project so far

So far the outline of the building is done, the preliminary windows are done and a rough roof is placed. The foundation is incorrect, the windows are the wrong size and have no muntins and the roof is just plain wrong. what is right is the floor to floor dimensions, the levels, the floors are in the correct place.

This article is intended as an introduction to the blog thread I intent to create documenting the process of creating an accurate model of a fairly small but complex and sophisticated building. So far the goal has been established a rough outline started. When this project is completed my understanding of the tools required to properly model a BIM structure in REVIT that conforms to what is there verses what can be done out of the box should be better. Who knows maybe I’ll write a paper from my top down overview to the details perspective reversing the process. Maybe someone else like me will benefit.

The Convergence is Near

welcome to the machine

Being a vector graphics guy the significance of origin, magnitude, and direction has long been apparent. Points arranged in three dimensional space using Cartesian coordinates with vectors  connecting them creates a wire framed object. Fill in the the spaces between the the “wires” with polygonal planes and now you have a theoretical solid object. Project realistic textures onto the planes and you can create or simulate anything you can imagine.

There is a relatively new technology emerging called photogrammetry. The idea is to create a three dimensional “point cloud” from photographs. This technology applied to  LIDAR which is using light from a laser to triangulate distances to a point can create accurate real world point clouds. These systems can create millions of points quickly and store them as coordinates. These points can then be filled with planes, surfaced with photography and now you have a virtual reality database of reality. Pretty slick. Doing this in real time would be an obvious goal.

Scale is an obvious problem. In this instance it is magnitude not proportion. How this will all wash out still remains to be seen. Billions of points would not be unusual for a point cloud of suitable resolution for practical use. All of thes points would have to be stored and retrieved. The solution will most likely be some sort of cluster with a shared memory pool. Fortunately there are free (as in beer, and liberty as well) operating systems, databases, and even rendering software. This is where big opportunity exists.

Robotics for lack of a better word is developing rapidly. Recently there have been released examples of machines navigating rather adroitly over some pretty rough terrain. It shouldn’t be too long before remotely operating something on the ground should be doable. Cameras alone would not suffice for a human operator to interact with the real world. Immersing the operator into a three dimensional real time environment would be the ideal situation. Then proportion becomes relevant. A supersized strong system could be used to do the work of many. A miniaturized system could be used to go where it is uncomfortable or even impossible. The ideas here are limitless.

Virtual Realty was one of the first big concepts I encountered once my interests turned toward what can be done with graphics. The concept of turning geometry in objects and attributing physical characteristics to them was a real mind blower. Back then the physics engines and the graphics were crude. Fast forward a few decades and the landscape has changed dramatically. We have fifty dollar quad core single board computers which run on free operating systems. A multi axis motor controller can be had for the same amount of money or less. Battery technology has evolved in its own right. Three dimensional scanners are available although no cheap yet. Robots are being designed to be able to navigate and recover using autonomous systems. It is all so fascinating to watch. The day is coming when we will be able to create using our hands and eyes as naturally as we cook a meal or wash our cars to interact with the theoretical and the physical world. One person will have the ability to do things that in the past required many.

Like science fiction this is just a projection of what is to come. I hope to live to see it. Even more I hope to get to use it. I am but a passionate observer. Long ago but, in my lifetime computers were expensive, clumsy, and limited. They have evolved way beyond my ability to imagine back then. My first very expensive video card was designed around CAD. A few years later cards were being designed for games. So much development has been fueled by the internet. It is a virtual reality of sorts but, it is purely theoretical. The happy byproduct of all this might just be the internet stepping out in the physical world, converging with reality.

I am sick of you and your non business model!

nospam

This is my place to rant. There are a lot of asshats out these thinking they gonna get rich on the interwebs or some such rot. Well you know something you are epic fail and are gonna do barrel roll at some point.

Barrel_Roll

I go way back on the internet, before the days of the web which of coarse to you mouth breathers is the internet. The incessant logins, sign up for out “news” sprorge plastered in the middle of my browser and insistence my adblocker be turned off is just that a TURN OFF.

Force feeding people crap is not a way to ingratiate yourselves into peoples lives. It is a sure fired way to drive people off. The sales weasels have taken over everything and frankly just made it all plain bad. I for one have been withdrawing steadily from any interest in anything on more and more sites. I look at the link, see it is from a clickbait “news site” and just ignore it.

Knock this crap off. The sales idiot and the marketing morons are just that STUPID. You are too lazy or unsophisticated to inline your advertising. GO HOME. You do not belong on the internet and your investors are doomed to failure. Do you have stock in one of these companies? Sell it, sell it now, the little babies who think everyone on the internet is an idiot are just burning your dollars into a death spiral. STOP listening to the herd, get your act together. Just because you are dealing with millions of impressions does not mean you aren’t are simply pissing off millions of users who will eventually through the effect of cumulative abuse will just tune you out all together.

Just say no! It is effective advertising companies want. Sporging a page with a zillion ads obscuring the purpose the client is there is counter effective. I go on sites, read the ads, and even click through occasionally. I am not against advertisers. However i am not just some gullet for you to cram your crap into so you can pay your bills. As soon as you make me start to feel like one then screw you and I am not coming back either!

Time for the first computer post. So I’ll tell you where my Philosophy on them came from.

ENIAC-changing_a_tube

I bought myself my first computer for myself for my 21st birthday. That was over 30 years ago.  It was immediately addictive. A lot has changed since then. The main purpose of this site is for my own reflection. Stuff either becomes of interest or, things long forgotten come into focus. This site is my place to ruminate. It is after all a vanity site.

Probably the single coolest thing ever with regard to computers anyone ever put in my hands was a stack of disks that contained a very early version of Slackware. It was an amazing day. Operating systems are the fundamental core of a modern computer system. 25 years ago computers didn’t really do much. So I studied operating systems. Slackware was one of the first distributions of an operating system usually referred to as Linux. The name isn’t really correct but, it stuck and there you have it.

Much is written on the subject of so I am just going to use broad strokes. What Linux did for me was expose me to a philosophy. It would be a tedious read to get into who said what. The central theme though was all this software should just be available. People should benefit from their work and their expertise. Code once written and paid for can simply be replicated an infinite number of times. A computer is worthless without software. If something new is needed or a better way can be contrived having to reinvent the wheel instead of building on existing code is simply counter productive.

Back in the day there were huge philosophical rifts between commercial software companies and those who held the above philosophy. Funny thing is it all started over some drivers for a HP printer. So the end result of this was the creation of the Free Software Foundation. Its major asset if you will is a group of Unix tools known as the GNU tools. GNU is a self referencing acronym for GNU is Not Unix. This collection of tools is arguably the foundation of Linux. GNU tools were released under the GPL license.   GPL is another self referencing acronym with the reference to itself implied, so its the (GNU) General Public License. Its rather brilliant. The deal is, the owner maintains the copyright yet, the source code is freely distributed, anyone is free to modify it for their own personal or commercial use but, if you do use it for commercial purposes you must also release it as GPL software.

This idea was and is a game changer. Linux actually refers to the kernel of an operating system. It is a non Unix kernel that behaves in a very similar manner of Unix so much so the GNU tools were compiled for it. Now would be a good time to mention just how ubiquitous GNU tools are. At the time the Linux kernel was released into the wild most if not all versions of commercial Unix contained the GNU tools and were in widespread use. The GNU tools are pretty much a comprehensive set of tools that make well, uhm with addition of a kernel the operating system. So now the world has free unix free of restriction. Different groups and individuals started to come up with combinations of software, the GNU tools, and the Linux kernel these were called Distributions. Slackware was one of these early distributions.

So why does this crap matter. Read on and I’ll get into it briefly. This is published on a web server right? I can even tell you what kind of web server. It is an Apache web server. What most people call the internet is really just the World Wide Web. I say just, because a HTTP server or web sever is just a subset of what the internet consists of. I do go back before the days of the web and just leave it at that. One of the first common packages to be included with early distributions was the open source Apache web server. Today more than 50% of all web servers in the world are Apache server and most likely running on a Linux box. So there you go. All this E-commerce this and Social media that, its running on free software. The web as it is today simply would not exist without GNU, The FSF, Linux, and Apache. All boring operating system mumbo jumbo. So I relate heavily to all the giants who have made my life interesting just by humbly following along with their brilliance the best I can.

So my philosophy is to use as much open source GPL software as possible. It keeps costs down, the money spent goes to those producing “software as a service”. I do use and own a great deal of commercial software as well. I resent the attitude of those who provide it and pay them their money begrudgingly. Fortunately the list of must have commercial software is getting shorter. Who knows maybe the day will come when I am no longer dependent on it and can make a living or run a business without it. Its possible to do a great deal without commercial software and my network at work as you may have guessed by now runs GPL’d open source Linux and BSD. I couldn’t have built it otherwise, we couldn’t afford it.

I am not an Architect I just draw buildings

samplebldrender1

I have the good fortune to work for a construction company. Flat line drawings are boring. For many years is was the only way to draw. The third dimension was always there. Once modelling became possible oh around the time ghz processors and gb memory pools were affordable in around 2000 my interest immediately shifted toward it. This site engraf.com is the last remaining vestige of the desire to try to make a business out of it. This image is a rendering of a view of a building. The building was an existing one. The ductwork is new. It was the purpose behind creating this model, which for the most part was never actually seen as one. So, I still get to model and work on those skills everyday. It great even if its not glamorous. Obviously it would be great fun to do more advanced work.

sillyhouse

I do work on stuff for my own amusement. this simple little house is an example. This image probably took a couple of hours from start to final render. I remember doing it to try out the latest install of my software. Most people do not seem to realize just how time intensive this is, nor do they have an appreciation for the body of knowledge required just to get to the point where an idea can go from thought to finished product/image.  Its not Automagical a lifetime can be spent just to become mediocre at it.

Architecture, its a living….

4-28-13 102

I really like architecture. Never did it occur to me many years ago when learning how to draw it would become so important to me. The interest came as a result of drawing so many buildings. It was either get interested or go mad. Now it is possible I am quite mad but, its not a result of drawing for nearly 30 years.

The Engraver

 

 

system300pub

It has been a long time since I have gotten to play with my engravers. This section is for documenting odd control and embedded computer drivel. I have a this engraver in the picture, another smaller chinese made one. I also have an arduino and a raspberry pi. As soon as things settle out these are going to get a lot of attention