The engineering and design software we use here to create 3-D models of out parts and assemblies, and to generate our blueprints from those 3-D models is called PRO/Engineer (or PRO/E as verbal shorthand). It consists of various modules and add-ins that allow increased functionality such as the capability to model thin sheetmetal parts (PRO/Sheetmetal), perform finite element analysis (PRO/Mechanica), model highly-styled parts like tool handles and grips (PRO/Designer) and several other modules that follow the same sort of naming convention. It’s normally a pretty stable software, at least in its last several iterations, but we are in the process of upgrading to the newer version of the software and some bugs seem to have appeared during the changeover. Just now I think I discovered a new module that must be an undocumented enhancement. I think it’s called PRO/Vanish because when I tried to save some changes to the part I had been working on the PRO/E application just vanished from my computer desktop, taking my unsaved changes with it! This, of course, caused me to invoke an old plug-in for PRO/E that I haven’t used much in the recent versions of the software. The plug-in is called PRO/Fanity, it’s a very useful plug-in for when a software application isn’t working properly.
I think our unseasonable weather might be about to revert to more normal conditions. It was around 60°F this morning when I came to work but as I walked the 200 yards or so from the parking lot I felt a bracing north wind, and the forecasts are for a high in the low 40’s tomorrow. I had thought of driving up to Rockingham for a race tomorrow, the new owners of the track are promoting a 150 lap race for street-stock cars that will pay $15,000 to win. They plan to start up to 99 cars on the 1-mile track, in 33 rows of three cars each. That should be quite a spectacle! I’m not hard-core enough to drive an hour and a half to sit in 40° temperatures for 150 miles of racing, though. |
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