Do you use any computer based tool for doing project layout?

Operating that 501 was like playing an organ ...

When we got the 70/45s I went to supervision. All the fun had been taken out of operation. :(

Half decent pic here:

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even be me in the photo - wore a suit just like that. :()

Reply to
LDosser
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> Might even be me in the photo - wore a suit just like that. :()

Hmm - I may have seen one of those. At one point in '65 the outfit I was working for needed more capacity so one Saturday I was loaded into a cab with a couple dozen tapes to borrow the 70/45 at NIPSCO (Northern Illinois Public Service Co).

They still had their pre-Spectra system (just in case) and it looked a lot like that.

That trip was my intro to RCA's high-speed tape drives - which, as I discovered, meant that if they glitched they could suck about 250' of tape into a vacuum column faster than an operator could say ****, and pack it so tight that it took a letter opener to pry out.

By the third time it'd stopped being even mildly interesting. (Hit the COIN button, abort the run, pry the tape out of the drive, rewind the other drives, mount a backup tape, and re-start the program. Ugh. :(

Reply to
Morris Dovey

The "tracing" of a component, imported into a project from an outside source, is routinely done as a matter of convenience and is a common practice to speed up a project, with any design software, and is one of the reasons for an "import" feature.

Furthermore, it is inarguable that if the software contains the tools to effectively "trace" a component, it therefore has the tools/ability to "draw" it instead, should you chose to do so, as this software indeed does.

Your argument in that regard falls flatly on its face ...

With regard to the 'seat", it was plainly stated why it was not contoured ... and, even then, for you to bring it up and pretend/insist that a shop drawing be a photorealistic image to have any value in woodworking is misleading, irrelevant, and a ploy to bolster a feeble argument.

On 4/10/2010 7:42 AM, Morris Dovey wrote: >

OK, then ... it was an ignorant attempt to imply it.

In short, I gave you a clear, factual and accessible example containing nothing remotely resembling your "...things that are essentially boxes...", and which nicely illustrates the ignorance of the software behind the remark.

Your arguments thus far do nothing to disprove that.

Reply to
Swingman

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>>> Might even be me in the photo - wore a suit just like that. :() >

Yeah, those babies were Fun. We used to have contests to see how quickly you could get all the drives off BT and then rewound - using the console. Then there was the tape mount rodeo! And with 3/4" tape, you did some upper body work every shift. When we got the Spectras, I wrote some cod to emulate the tape drives using the spectra disk drives. Really speeded up the stuff we still had to run using the 501 and 301 emulators. Drove the 501 prototype for a couple weeks in Camden, NJ. IIRC, RCA had several in Viet Nam. Supposedly one running in a tent, which I can believe as ours could take all kinds of a licking and keep on ticking!

Did they have a goony bird paper tape reader? Sometimes you had to use the eraser on the end of a pencil to keep the pt reader from snapping the tape. Idea was to use an Unsharpened pencil - DAMHIKT! I used to be able to read the paper tape manually.

Reply to
LDosser

Brain fart. It couldn't have been NIPSCO - must have been ComEd.

No paper tape on the RCA systems I used (thankfully), but the home system was tape only. The good part about the utility's system was that they had a disk drive for the operating system. Pure luxury for a TOS operator. :)

Reply to
Morris Dovey

Yeah fine. Give this easy one a whirl:

Draw parabola with curve length of 96" between intersections with the latus rectum (a line through the focus perpendicular to another line passing through both focus and vertex). Points separated by 0.0100" along the x-axis, and accurate to +/-0.0005". I don't care whether you draw or trace, only that all requirements be met, so that I can export it as a DXF (the format needed for my 'Bot) and machine it accurately.

Oh really? I just re-read the entire thing (4th time) and still don't see that. Perhaps you would quote that plain statement to make it easier for me to find.

I not only didn't "pretend/insist" - I never made such an assertion. I'm not sure what exactly your problem is, but please stick to the truth.

The fact is that I don't care at all about the graphic presentation - only that the exported DXF meet accuracy requirements. If you assumed that I was after a pretty picture, then you assumed wrong.

No. There was no such attempt - ignorant or otherwise. That issue was your contribution to the discussion - not mine.

Which part is false or misleading? - or are you in a snit because I omitted other capabilities you think the OP is likely to need for his entertainment center?

Eh? Why should I have any interest in proving or disproving anything?

Reply to
Morris Dovey

Obfuscation par excellence ... and totally, and ridiculously, irrelevant.

Yep, it's indeed a mystery why you bothered in the first place. You've made it plain in the past that you have little use for the software; that you don't use it; have minimum experience with it and are ignorant of its capabilites for the most part.

So, what's behind this obsession with taking snide shots at every opportunity that presents itself?

Hell, it wasn't even a good troll, so why bother muddying the water with ignorance?

A little self reflection might be in order there, Bubba ...

Reply to
Swingman

There is another free option, but I should mention that there is a bit of a learning curve to get started. The virtual world of Second Life allows one to build. You may enter exact dimensions, create multiple pieces, and it is free. There are tons of in world tutorials. I made my living for 3 years building spaces in SL for corporate clients, so that is where I design most of my stuff. The nice thing about SL is that you could build in groups, if your woodworking friends also joined. As for curves and such, no problem.

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This is a video showing things that either I personally built or my workers built. There are lots of bits of furniture.

I also love Google Sketchup and 3Ds Max.

Good luck,

Brian

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Reply to
ExtremelyAvg

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>>>>>>>> Might even be me in the photo - wore a suit just like that. :() >>

Ah, the tape emulator idea. We had a 360/40 and got a 7094 free from the Navy. Also got an IBM TICU (Tape Intersystem Connecting Unit). It connected to the 7094 and looked exactly like 10 tape drives. It also connected to the 360 and didn't look like anything without some code work. I got the job of writing the tape emulator program on the 360. We were running OS/MFT and I had all of 8K for code and buffers. The challenge was the 7090 could read/write 32K words of 36 bits in one whack. It was an interesting I/O chaining challenge with CCW's imbedded in the disk buffers. It also depended on a seek of one cylinder taking no more time than one rotation of the disk and not having any re-assigned tracks. Those were the days...

Reply to
Doug Winterburn

I do not care for Sketchup either. I downloaded DoubleCAD and have been using it for a while.

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Reply to
Greg O

I'll put in a Univac and a Ramac :-).

Reply to
Larry Blanchard

OK, so throw in the Philco 2000, too...

Reply to
dpb

I'm a little late to the party, but 'snide shots', 'obsession', 'troll' and 'ignorance' are not words I can associate with the Morris

*I* know.

Some self reflection is in order, however, but I am a bit confused as to who should be doing the reflecting.

Reply to
Robatoy

Here ya go, Bubba. Let me help you out:

"For things that are essentially boxes - like kitchen cabinets and, perhaps, your entertainment center CNC has acquired a substantial following. "

A ridiculously ignorant, superficial remark, showing a decided lack of depth of understanding, eh?

Now, live with it ... lol

Reply to
Swingman

Perhaps irrelevant to you, but has real relevance to others (a _lot_ of others!) Photos here:

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's a real project. No one much cares whether it's relevant to you. I was merely curious to find out if you and SketchUp were up to the challenge - and received a clear enough answer.

I've made clear that I felt it seemed to be a weak tool for some real problems I was trying to use it to solve, and when I did so I limited my comments to my specific problem.

Back when I had access to a.b.p.w, I posted SketchUp solutions (the last I can recall was for dado set storage) and have had SketchUp illustrations on my web site for quite some time - along with a credit that some of the drawings had been produced using SketchUp. See

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a couple of years of use is "minimum experience", then your statement is true, otherwise false.

I'll assume you're telling the truth, and so will feel free to warn newbies that the resident SketchUp disciple pronounced two years of use "minimal experience".

You exaggerate - I've passed on most of the opportunities, but now that I know you're so emotionally involved I'll try to do better. :)

Reply to
Morris Dovey

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>>>>>>>>>>> Might even be me in the photo - wore a suit just like that. :() >>>

We thought they'd never end ... As late as 1983 I was still keying stuff in on the front panel of an SDS Sigma 7 - using my nose. :o) Had to Manually calculate overlays and break up the code to fit.

Worked on a port of Unix to PDP Micro J/11 only to find out two years later that the company hadn't licensed it from ATT. :(

Reply to
LDosser

I'll raise you punchboards ...

Reply to
LDosser

:) ... thanks for the warning. I hereby gird my loins in anticipation, but be gentle. ;)

Reply to
Swingman

solar panels?

This was big news about five years ago in the green building seminars, and then disappeared into the noise.

Went to another seminar a couple of weeks back and it was brought up by the organizers again as a "rapidly emerging technology"?

Seems that some manufacturers are coming out with windows coated with a spray on product?

Reply to
Swingman

402,403,407,509,552,077?
Reply to
Larry Blanchard

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