cad software

[photoman290]

think it was julian was asking about cad software? i have a a need for some for a project i am doing. looks like solid edge seems a good one . just downloading it now. and its free for 45 days. you do have to answer a lot of stupid queestions first, like are you going to use to for making  nuclear parts or rockets? yes of course. and chemical biological ones as well. being as it was developed by nasa you should expect a lot of stupid questions i suppose. it looks good from the tutorial. no idea how long the guy in the tutorial has been using it though. years probably.

[Julian]

What are you wnanting to draw?

[photoman290]

its an experiment in getting power from trees. the idea is to have a gimballed  tube with ropes to tree branches. below the gimball is an extension of the tube attached to 3 or more air or hydraulic cylinders. my idea is the far end of the cylinders are fixed to ball joints so the cylinders can move in any direction. the other end is fixed to a yoke that is moved as the tube moves around. as the tube can be at any angle the cylinders need to be able to move in any direction as well. something like a radial aero engine except they stay in the same plane relative to the cylinders.

[greasemonkey]

Now that is a good idea.

[photoman290]

Now that is a good idea.

if it works it will be. someone local who lives in a wood asked me if i could come up with something. AFTER they spent lots of money on a wind turbine that cant possably produce much where it is. solar wont work either. doenst want a genny 'cause of the neighbours. i think a split charging dual battery system on the car would be the most effective personally, but they dont want to do that for some reason. what i know? should be a fun project. i am rapidly  running out of test trees though lost 4 big montery pines so far. havent been outside yet today ,but suspect there will be more down. the ground is so waterlogged they have nothing to hold the roots in.

[Chug]

I remember seeing a tree pump a few years back, rope from tree top to a pump similar to a drum pump that sucked water from a well and pumped it up to a storage tank to gravity feed the water to taps, when the tree swayed back and forth it pumped water.

[photoman290]

I remember seeing a tree pump a few years back, rope from tree top to a pump similar to a drum pump that sucked water from a well and pumped it up to a storage tank to gravity feed the water to taps, when the tree swayed back and forth it pumped water.

there is a paper by some Australians using a bike dynamo i have looked at. i emailed them for there opinion  of my idea. they were looking for a specific applications so only needed 5 watts or so to drive a remote sensor system. they don't think i will get much power out of it but said good luck with it. there is a patent for something similar but as the Australians have pointed out no results. that design is much more complex and uses a lot of gears. can send the links if anyone is interested.

[Jamesrl]

I remember seeing the trees, ropes and pully system to generate power donkey's years ago.

It was developed in New Zealand, said to be the windiest country on earth. 

[Julian]

Was it just a CAD program or a 3D package you are looking for?

It's 3D I'm playing with and there are quite a few free ones available.  Sketch up is probably the best known and I've looked at 123D design from the AutoCAD stable.  There was a list on one of the 3D sites I found ... if it helps I can try and find it again.

One thing I've found with 3D packages is that they all seem to differ quite widely in the graphical interface, and each seems to be a whole new discipline, not like say, Corel and photoshop where if you know one you can pick up the other easily.

The mechanism you describe seems quite complicated.  What about something like a rowing machine, that converts liner movement into rotation.

[photoman290]

Was it just a CAD program or a 3D package you are looking for?

It's 3D I'm playing with and there are quite a few free ones available.  Sketch up is probably the best known and I've looked at 123D design from the AutoCAD stable.  There was a list on one of the 3D sites I found ... if it helps I can try and find it again.

One thing I've found with 3D packages is that they all seem to differ quite widely in the graphical interface, and each seems to be a whole new discipline, not like say, Corel and photoshop where if you know one you can pick up the other easily.

The mechanism you describe seems quite complicated.  What about something like a rowing machine, that converts liner movement into rotation.

efficiency is the biggest problem. having an input from lots of directions makes it a lot more likely to produce usable amounts of power. on the test trees Monterrey  pines,the same the site it is for, they sway in all directions. the idea is to place the device betwwen say 3 trees and use the movement from all three. difficult to capture much from a linear arrangement.