New contributor

I am a mechanical design engineer.
I have recently started my own small company, hoping to work from home.
I am hoping to use this newsgroup to keep up to date with the software, get
tips about software purchase and training and to help in getting work.
I am based in the UK.
Are there many contributors to this newsgroup based in the UK?
Are there many similar to myself?
Have you any advice for me?
Any advice will be gratefully received.
David B

 

I'm based in the UK, but work in a consultancy.

News group is great is you have troubles, or want some sympathy when you
need to rant about SW....

Lee

 

Welcome to the club - I went solo back in September after five years as
project manager at a CAD/CAM company. The NG is a good place for problems,
ideas and generally making you feel less paranoid (you realise that you're
not the only one with SW hassles!!)
Where abouts are you based and what area are you working in and what
software do you have? My background is marine engineering from a Mechanical
Engineering degree and I have contacts with a couple of other SME's and
consultants who cover everything from ID to Naval architecture and Bio
mechanics. It's always good to know what others are up to and have a "I know
a man who can" solution for the customer!
Working for yourself is lonely, but I wouldn't go back (speak to me in 18
months time!) - I've got a hell of a lot more design work done in the past
two months than I did in two years dealing with projects.
See the website at www.djaweb.co.uk for some of the stuff I've got involved
in.
Best of luck
Deri

 

Hi David,

I started about 5 years ago working for myself, personally I found it quite
difficult to keep the motivation going, seemed all to easy to stop and make
a coffee and jam sandwich! I also found that it was at times difficult to
stop work at a sensible time, once I got stuck into a problem I was there
until 3 in the morning, unable to stop and start again the next day. Another
problem that slowly raised it head was that my clients began to realise that
they could phone me any time of day and get an answer to questions! The best
move I made in the early days was to move to a purpose built brick shed at
the bottom of my garden, seemed to break the link between home and work.
I now have a business partner and 4 employees working from offices in the
centre of Southend, althought the same problems still exist, like late
payments and bad debt, i would'nt change it for the world.
I wish you all the luck in the world, just remember keep smiling no matter
what the client changes or the absurd delivery date he's asked for!
Send us an email with a little description of you experience, you never know
we might be able to pass some work between us if we get busy!

Regards Simon Miller

SGM Design Limited

 

What is "SW"?

 

Solidworks

 

South Wales.

 

And if it happens to be NSW, it would be New South Wales.

WT

 

south west

 

Say, noticed you've done some marine architecture stuff.
Do you know where I might find some engineering data on planing hulls.
I'm wanting to model up a small (18 to 20') planing hull with some
functional geometry.
Most of the swx models I've run across are visual representations that don't
seem
like they are functionally accurate. My local library doesn't have much of
anything.
Thanks
Bill Allemann

 

Gentlemen,
Thanks to you all for taking the trouble to reply.
Thanks for your words of encouragement and advice.
It is really appreciated.

Best Regards

David Bowles.

 

The Rhino NG has quite a few people on it (although using Rhino rather than
AutoCAD) involved in boat design, who may be able to advise you.

The group is just called rhino, on the news server news.rhino3d.com

Matthew

 

Paul

They must have known that! they were being ironic..... its the basis
of UK Humour you know?

Alan

 

Bill
Try the Aero hydro website - Surfaceworks has some examples of a variety of
hull forms that you can bring in to Solidworks (no more SW!). I have a
couple of customers who use it and the full demo is good. Email me for
further details.
Regards
Deri

 

David
Welcome to the newsgroup. I to am based in the UK down in Brighton
working for a local manufacturer as a Senior Mechanical Engineer and
have been using Solidworks since 1997 for plastic component design and
sheetmetal work.
It might be an idea to add your company to the Solidworks
Manufacturing Network, you cant beat a bit of free advertising.
If I can be of any other help drop me a line.
Regards
Ken Carpenter

 

I must reiterate my thanks to you all for all the good advice.
I am heartened by all the good wishes, and cheered, (somewhat) by the
humour!
Thanks again and
Regards
David Bowles

 

Yeah.......ok.........so.......?
Results are as inconclusive as the responses in the thread.

 

Did a search on the net for it and came up with 2208 sites try it

 

Hei David!!
I am a engineer, and I also work in a engeneering deparment.... We are
designing pressure vessels under ASME CODE... concretely I design the
vessels, i don't make the calculations, but... if I can help you in some
cuestion, I have not problem to help you.... about organization.... etc....
Best regards!!!
My personal e-mail is