Intamin Ball Coaster Model

I decided to try recreating an Intamin Zac Spin/Ball Coaster in CATIA V5 R19 the other day. After a few hours of work this is the result. Still trying to figure out a way to dumb done the model so it isn't as heavy and take so long to load. Maybe converting to step file and then back to catpart? This model itself is based off of Kirnu (RCBD it if you're not familiar). Still working on some of the details like the track to support column connections. I pretty much used all circles and lines so I could easily pattern the track's ribs. What do you think?

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Some You Tube Videos

How does this chick with absolutely no talent what-so-ever have hundreds of thousands of view on everyone of her videos and I do not? What am I doing wrong?



I will hopefully be going to Orlando in November and can interact with Donkey from the Shrek movies.

Engine Blower Assembly

This is a model I started in Pro Engineer Wildfire 4.0, saved as a .step file, imported into CATIA where I added the materials and colors, inserted into a product assembly and finally saved as a 3D XML viewer which I then uploaded into my 3D Via site. Enjoy!

That's Just Wrong

Oklahoma has the highest rate of people who have been married three times or more.

Pro/Engineer Learnings

Here are some pictures of models I’ve drawn eight days into the world of Pro/Engineer. It took a couple of tries to finally figure out the blend feature. The pattern tool also didn’t work quite right as it wouldn’t let me go right to the number of configurations I wanted. I had to ramp up to that number by adding one each time. There are still quite a few growing pains where Pro/E does not respond or react the way I want or would expect it to. It’s all part of the learning process.

Contests Entered this Year Update

If you haven’t been following lately, I have been keeping track of every contest I have entered online this year. Thus far I have entered 92 different contests and have had 297 chances to win (by entering a few contest more than once based on whatever rules apply). I’ve won* four contest which brings my winning percentage per entry to 1.35%. The percentage per each contest entered is slightly better at 4.35%. This shows that entering a contest multiple times does not necessarily increase your chances of winning. However, there are still 49 chances for me to win so those percentages may improve, though it is more than likely they will only get worse as I hopefully continue to add to the list for the remainder of the year. When am I going to win one of those awesome trips or helpful shopping sprees?

Would anyone like to use this data for anything? Write an article about it? Anyone?

*Two of the “contests” I have listed as winning weren’t really contests, and another that I won I suspect they gave out a ton of prizes. I truly have only won one competition.

Abandoned Amusement Park

Ever wonder what an abandoned amusement park might look like? A park just left as is, to rot and decay with time, slowly consumed by nature. Wonder no more. Elvis would be rolling over in his grave at the pictures John posted over at Coaster101 of Libertyland in Memphis, Tennessee. Other than the wooden Zippin Pippin roller coaster, which has been exposed to the elements for four years without any maintenance, the carousel is the only thing of value at the shuttered amusement park. The rest of old Libertyland is in a state of advanced decay, with garbage strewn everywhere and graffiti defacing several buildings.Check out Coaster101 for the amazing pictures.

Xcelerator FAIL

BREAKING NEWS/VIRAL VIDEO: Xcelerator coaster cable snaps mid-launch, two injured.

The cable snapped on Xcelerator coaster at Knott's Berry Farm and was caught on videotape. The coaster uses a hydraulic motor to launch riders from zero to eighty miles per hour in a few seconds. The cable snapped during a launch, spraying debris over riders, then as the ride lost its momentum and began rolling backward it ran over the broken cable and it went up through the floor boards of the cars injuring several people. Though none of the injuries appear serious we don't yet know for sure. My hopes and prayers go out to those riders. It must have been agony sitting in the cars after wards, waiting to be released.

Somehow the video of the accident made it onto the internet (Warning, not for the faint of heart, very disturbing video indeed)

Roads Should be Automated

On my way to Toledo last Friday I was driving down I-275 and drove past the scene of this horrible accident on the other side of the highway involving three cars and a truck. I don't know the conditions or the cause of the accident but I think this is just more evidence that the road system needs to be automated and controlled by a computer. Not only would it make traveling safer (and cheaper), it would also be much more efficient in terms of fuel usage and duration. I envision some sort of wire down the middle of the road that an eye under your car follows. A master computer controls the spacing between vehicles and compensates for congestion. You could effectively eliminate traffic lights by seamlessly alternating cars through intersections. I can only hope something like this happens soon, for the sack of all those injured or killed in vehicle related accidents.

Suffice it to No

I have never, in all of my life, heard the phrase "suffice it to say" as much as I have this week. Oh my word.

Great American Midrange Review

My copy of the Elms latest work, The Great American Midrange, arrived in the mail two days ago and here is my initial review. I was a bit disappointed after the first listen but the album is slowly growing on me. If you like old school rock and roll you will dig this album. Not a huge fan of the style. I was hoping for more variety. I wish they included more varied instrumentation which I know they are more than capable of. Here's My Hand is a perfect of example of what I would like to hear more of. My favorite song by far is The Little Ways. Thunderhead is also a good tune. I was sad when I found out the secret track at the end was not Promises, but Lily is the next best thing.

If you're thinking about purchasing the album I highly recommend getting the acoustic versions of all the songs as well. With the exception of The Little Ways, I enjoy the acoustic versions of each song much, much, much better. The songs sound much more real.

Overall, a nice effort but I think the Elms are capable of much more and can do better. That's not saying it's a bad record, I just can't wait to see what they do in the future. (Promises better be on the next album.)

"Jump on the zip and the ferris wheel." -from County Fair

CATIA > PRO-ENGINEER

This week I am being trained on Pro-Engineer CAD software. After using CATIA for eight months I must say Pro-E feels archaic. It really seems like an older, harder to use, more time consuming, version of CATIA. Someone posted this on Coasterbuzz: "I lift my cap to CATIA users. I learned it 5 years ago and I think my eyes were glazed over for the week long training session. I'll settle for Pro-E / Pro-Mechanica, thanks." Must have been an older gentleman because I think CATIA is much easier and more straight forward than ProE, although I might think differently if I had learned Pro-E first.

Figured Out the Cause of a Cyclone in a Kids Way

Not too long ago, I posted an entry about how someone found my blog by searching for “cause of a cyclone in a kids way” and I had no idea what they meant or why anyone would search for that. I think I figured it out. The searcher was from the great state down under, Australia. The Australian term for hurricane is cyclone. It makes complete sense now. What causes a hurricane and how to explain how a hurricane forms in a way that children can understand. Cause of a cyclone in a kids way. Brilliant.

Today, an American found my blog by searching for “formula for a b c d for kids.” Hmmm. How do people searching for stuff for kids always end up at my blog? Let the investigation begin.

Rockets Own the Big Twelve in the Glass Bowl

Since I began classes at the University of Toledo I have witnessed the Rocket's football team win a big game every year.

2004: MAC Championship over Miami.
2005: GMAC Bowl Champions over UTEP 45-13
2006: Beat Kansas 37-31 in the Glass Bowl
2007: Beat Iowa State 36-35 in the Glass Bowl
2008: Beat Michigan in the Big House 13-10
2009: Beat Colorado 54-38 in the Glass Bowl

The Colorado game was awesome. Did anyone catch me on ESPN Friday night? I was standing to the right of the clowns, behind the painted, shirtless people, and to the left of Jim Tressel and Santa Claus. Sounds more like a Halloween party than a football game, I know, but it sure was good times.

I'm calling it right now: Toledo will upset Ohio State in Cleveland this Saturday. You heard it here first! Aaron Opelt is on fire with NINE total touchdowns in two games. The defense is still suspect but the offense can score points. I've never seen a hurry up offense operate as fast as the Rockets. Coach Beckman has been just what this program needed and I have high expectations for the future.

I decided if OSU beat USC I would root for them against Toledo, but because they disappointed me again I cheer for my alma mater as it would be a huge win for them. My favorite Brent Musburger quote from the OSU-USC games: "Barkley needs a blow."

Dog Days of Summer

This graphic from the Columbus Dispatch shows just how much the weather has sucked this summer in comparison to last year. Summer 2009 yielded only five days ninety degrees or above, with none coming in the month of July. That’s fourteen days less than last year. The average temperature in July was 5.5 degrees cooler. June started promising with the same number of days in the 80s as last year and only a 0.8 average degree cooler. But by the end of the summer we have been deprived of thirteen less eighty degree days. And these values were recorded in Ohio. I’m sure it was even worse here in the state up north. What happened to global warming?

Updated CATIA Model Pictures

Internet Dehumanization

I was playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare online the other day when during one of the matches one of my opponents sent me a message: "ur a f@g." Seriously? Somebody took the effort to do that? What is the world coming to? I wanted to respond with something clever "Wow! How did you know such bad grammar would piss me off so much?" or "How did you know! Are you alone in your room right now? Can I come over?" In the end I figured that is exactly what he wanted me to do so I restrained from replying. Still, it really annoys me that someone would do that. Why? To what end? Does he lack self-confidence and have to try and make himself feel better by putting others down? This also begs the question if we were playing in the same room together instead of over the internet would he have said the same thing, and if so would I have the same reaction or felt of it more as a joke? I think this is just another example of internet dehumanization.

Height v. Heighth

Words that are not actually words drive me nuts. I’m not talking about useful made-up words like “janky” (which means “crappy”) or “trotch” (an excellent swear word). Those kind of words are fine. The ones that bother me are those common slips you hear frequently that are either a massacre of the accepted form of the word or (in the case of today’s word) are simply obsolete versions. Specifically, two that have been bothering me lately are heighth and verbage. Today we’ll discuss the former.

Listen people! “Heighth” is NOT A WORD. And neither is “hidth,” if you’re inclined to spell it that way. Get this through your heads. Yes, it is true that wide becomes width and deep becomes depth, but that doesn’t mean when we discuss the height of an object we need to mention its heighth. Watch this:

ADJECTIVE -> NOUN
wide/narrow -> width
deep/shallow -> depth
broad/narrow -> breadth
long/short -> length
high/low -> HEIGHT

There just isn’t another H, and that’s because the word “height” is already on the right hand side of the nifty table above. That is to say, it is already a noun. Unlike its compadres, who need to end in H in order to move from left to right, high gets to be special by trading the “th” for an “ht.” Do you really want to be the one to make height feel less special? No. I didn’t think so.

Now, to be fair, heighth was an acceptable form (indeed, the proper form) all the way up to the 19th century. And it is still used frequently enough that I suppose it isn’t exactly an abomination to run around discussing the ever-growing heighth of your eldest son. Plus, languages change all the time, right? What harm is it to revert back to an antiquated form?

All fairly valid points. But, much like the Cro-Magnons chose not to revert back into Neanderthals, we should embrace this modern era and speak like we belong in such. Height is so much easier to pronounce than heighth—why make more work for ourselves?

Fluid Traffic Dynamics

I encounter a traffic flow problem everyday on my commute to work. For several miles in Farmington Hills, eastbound I-696 has four lanes. A mile or so after Orchard Lake Road the highway expands into six lanes. Every day, without fail, the half mile leading up to the expansion and through the first mile of the expansion the speed of traffic slows down. One would think that with more lanes the rate of travel would increase, but that is not the case. Every day I angrily wonder why that is. I decided to turn to engineering and fluid dynamics to explain this phenomenon.

The volumetric flow rate of a system is a measure of the volume of fluid passing a point in the system per unit time. The volumetric flow rate (V) can be calculated as the product of the cross- sectional area (A) for flow and the average flow velocity (v). V=Av or V/A=v. The velocity of a fluid through a pipe is inversely proportional to the area. As the area gets bigger, the velocity gets smaller.

Does this apply to traffic, treating the road as a pipe, or area, and the cars as fluid? The volume of cars is constant. The area increases with more lanes. And the result can be seen is that the flow decreases when the area increases.

Is this accurate? Is this a good idea to make these assumptions? Probably not. I suspect the issue is more a result of idiot drivers (it is Michigan, although bad drivers are universal). Oh well, it is a fun theory to think about and makes the drive go by quicker.

Excel "Contains" Formula

There a simply way to use the "contains" formula in excel. It works the same as the AutoFilter 'Contains' in words.

For one cell, you can use the SEARCH formula, that returns the position on a string where you can find another string, or an error. With some logical formulas, you can make Excel return if the value is present or not, for example:
=NOT(ISERROR(SEARCH("x",A1)))

In order to count in a range, you could use the SUMPRODUCT formula, something like:
=SUMPRODUCT(--NOT(ISERROR(SEARCH("x",A1:A10))))
This will return the number of cells that contains the "x" text in the A1:A10 range.

This returns whether it contains ABCD (but is a little bit of a longer formula)
=IF(ISERR(FIND("ABCD",A1)),"False","Tr…

or... the simpler formula, but will return TRUE if the cell DOES NOT contain ABCD
=iserr(find("ABCD",A1))

= find ("what you are looking for", cell ) -- the output is the number of characters from the beginning of the cells value where it finds "what you are looking for". If it doesn't find it, it returns #Value

=ISERR (cell) -- output is whether that cell returns an error (such as #Value)

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(Exceptions!$J$2,Sheet2!A2)), "DELETE","")

Radiohead + Dirty Projectors