Friday, October 22, 2021
Mechanical Linkage CAD For Everyone
Hackaday: As much as some of us don’t like it, building things for real requires some mechanical component. Maybe it is something as simple as an enclosure or even feet for a PCB, but unless you only write software or play with simulators, you’ll eventually have to build something.
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3 comments:
This looks like a very straightforward software which is a good thing because it can sometimes feel overwhelming using advanced software that has lots of advanced features that the user may or may not understand. Sometimes when I use AutoCAD I feel like I’m cutting butter with a chainsaw. The cool thing that this software boasts is that it’s free (yay) and can model how defined 2D members would interact with each other. This is not something I’ve forayed into, but it seems like it would be useful for mechanical design of moving things. So far ‘ve only been assigned to stationary things in Carnegie Scenic. The drawbacks it looks like this has is that it’s too simple unless your movement happens only in one plane which happens occasionally in theater. People really like 3D moves and the most common 2D move I can think of in the theater is a lineset move which is pretty much standardized and really just up and down.
I have not worked with any CAD program as of yet but I do find it interesting that Auto CAD does not have a monopoly over the whole drafting process. I am aware that it definitely isn’t as good as Auto CAD at what it does, as it states in the article, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is a market variance. Based off of what was stated in the article, it seems like this Linkage program is considerably more accessible than Auto CAD. If it truly is at a lower price than what Auto CAD is at, then that opens up a world of possibilities for theatres that are not well funded at all. I can only imagine how exciting it would be to find out about this program as the technical director at a community theatre and be able to actually use a program for drafting the set.
I really like this program, I've had it since my mechanical design course in undergrad! As others have mentioned, it isn't really a CAD program on par with a solidworks/autocad/vectorworks/etc, however it is still a useful tool when exploring mechanical linkages. At times, though, I will admit that it is a bit less user-friendly than I would have hoped, and trying to calculate specific linkages to do a certain task prove to be more frustrating than helpful. At that point, my natural inclination is to open up AutoCAD or another parametric modeling engine to do the job. Linkages are also an interesting subject matter because they seem to be a dying art. With the availability of cheap servo and stepper motors and the relative ease of controlling them, linkages are falling to the wayside when it comes to mechanical design. For an artistic work such as the elegant ball-lift, they are awesome, but they are decreasing in popularity in engineered systems.
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