Stunned Silence

[Jim at Gentex]

Years ago we had a Composites Engineer who went out in a blaze of incompetence.
Guy was weird AF to begin with, and I always thought he was as dumb as a sack of hammers, but I digress.

One of his weird habits was drinking bottles of Yoo-Hoo, and he liked it hot rather than cold.
(I did say he was weird AF, right?)

Anyway, for some strange reason he thought it would be funny to have a bottle of his Yoo-Hoo heating up in the autoclave DURING A PROCESS DEMONSTRATION FOR THEE F'KIN US AIR FORCE, with one of their prototype helmet shells IN THE AUTOCLAVE at the time.

I shit you not...this actually happened.

The group of observers was led by a no-slack Air Force Colonel wearing his dress uniform, and probably had his skivvies starched.

This dopey engineer pulls the bottle of Yoo-Hoo out of the autoclave thinking it would get a laugh, but instead got that same stunned silence Mike is talking about here. 

After a loooong moment, one of Colonel No-Slack's lieutenants asked, "Won't that potentially contaminate the atmosphere inside the autoclave, and possibly affect the curing process of the helmet shell?"

Colonel No-Slack's answer was, "OK, I've seen enough..."

Dumfuk engineer was walked out of the facility by security that same day, and the R&D project was placed on indefinite hold.   

[gcode]

Pity to pay close to $100K for a Catia seat and not have the .prt translator included

SpaceClaim for the win
It will open just about any CAD flavor you can think of.. for less that the annual maintenance on a seat of Catia.

Now for the palm to face part

We get lots of files that were built in NX.
When they are saved out as STEP an MD5 file is created as well.
It is just a tiny checksum file you can open in notepad.

Our customer's purchasing people keeps sending us these md5 files as models to quote.
SpaceClaim doesn't know what to do with an md5 file, but they are completely useless to us, so who cares.

Our estimating dept, was having kittens because SpaceClaim won't open md5 files.
It came down to a formal department head meeting about how to solve the "md5 problem".
They finally asked me and I told them to tell the customer to send us the right files.

[neurosis]

"Beware of people educated beyond their intelligence"....

Are they as worrisome as uneducated people who think they know things?

example: 

[beej]

Just had a conversation with a young engineer.

Him: "Can you open a .prt file with Catia?"

Me "No, that's an NX file. Catia won't open it"

Him: "Well, how do you open a Catia file?"

Me, trying not have the "are you serious" expression: "I go to Catia and hit file open".

Him: "Will Catia convert the .prt file"

Me: "Not the configuration we have"

Him: "Don't you load the model from Vericut into Catia?"

Me: "No."

In the words of Lilly Von Stupp:

I'm tired.

I prefer to open Catia files with a Monster Maul.

[mowens]

The issue is not so much with the geometry itself; the bigger issue is the composite data that we use to program the AFP. The geometry we can convert to .stp files but I don't know of a good way to convert the composite data.

[Del.]

The issue is not so much with the geometry itself; the bigger issue is the composite data that we use to program the AFP. The geometry we can convert to .stp files but I don't know of a good way to convert the composite data.

Probably not using the correct pronouns for conversion.  😆

[gcode]

Probably not using the correct pronouns for conversion. 

well Catia does identify as Boss Hog/King of the World... so reverent groveling is required 

[mowens]

Probably not using the correct pronouns for conversion.  😆

I use the normal programming pronouns; f&*^%g P.O.S and stupid motherf*%$#g software.

Should I use something else? 

[Del.]

I use the normal programming pronouns; f&*^%g P.O.S and stupid motherf*%$#g software.

Should I use something else? 

No. Those are all proper.

[gcode]

I use the normal programming pronouns; f&*^%g P.O.S and stupid motherf*%$#g software.

those aren't pronouns, they are adverbs.

[mowens]

those aren't pronouns, they are adverbs.

Yeah, I was talking to my coworker and misspoke. I started to say I have early onset alzheimers when I realized that I'm so old that if I got it now they would leave off the word early.

[neurosis]

I watched a couple of clips of him where he was on Rogan. Interesting thoughts there, backing up what Tesla said about the key to everything being vibrations.

To paraphrase some "educated" scientists; this guy has no idea what the f he's talking about.  lol.  He is spouting utter nonsense.

He could probably easily convince someone that he does. I think he was able to convince some people that 1x1=2.

[TSmcam]

SpaceClaim for the win
It will open just about any CAD flavor you can think of.. for less that the annual maintenance on a seat of Catia.

Now for the palm to face part

We get lots of files that were built in NX.
When they are saved out as STEP an MD5 file is created as well.
It is just a tiny checksum file you can open in notepad.

Our customer's purchasing people keeps sending us these md5 files as models to quote.
SpaceClaim doesn't know what to do with an md5 file, but they are completely useless to us, so who cares.

Our estimating dept, was having kittens because SpaceClaim won't open md5 files.
It came down to a formal department head meeting about how to solve the "md5 problem".
They finally asked me and I told them to tell the customer to send us the right files.

I'll go one better with file formats.

Back in my Mastercam days (and not long before I parted ways), our beloved idiot of a reseller would send out Hasp update codes. As we all know, these are the *.hcode files.

Except the file he sends me is a MHT file.

The email conversation went like this:

Me: Hi (reseller), thank you for the Hasp update email. Unfortunately, the code doesn't work, as the file format is incorrect. You've sent a MHT file, which I assume means you have saved the webpage from which the code is generated, and not the actual file

Reseller: The file format is correct. This is how I always send them out. You need to update your hasp driver. If you need help doing this, refer to <inserts Mastercam webpage showing driver update instruction>

Me: Thanks, but the driver doesn't need updating. The file format is incorrect as the Hasp update utility doesn't recognise it. It needs to be an HCODE file. That is how you have sent them previously

Reseller: I haven't changed anything, this is how it has always been sent. Your Mastercam installation must be corrupted, so it is best that your reinstall Mastercam

Me: (Forwards previous email received approximately a year ago, showing an attached HCODE file from him). As you can see, in the attached email, you have sent an HCODE file. Could you please resend the update code in the correct format.

It was at this stage, I had two other Mastercam customers contact me, asking wth was going on, and why weren't their update codes correct. They weren't as tolerant as I had been, and they were both fired up.

At that point, I emailed CNC Software directly (I was working as a contract) support engineer for this idiot at that stage) and explained the situation. I politely asked for them to provide the update code, for myself and the other two customers, of which they did.

I then emailed the idiot again:

Me: Hi, I have contacted CNC Software, and have got them to provide the HCODE file, which I have used to update the hasp correctly, and which worked fine. I did not update the driver (it was already updated) and I did not reinstall the software. I have also got CNC Software to provide the HCODE files for Customer A and B, as they were encountering the same file issue with the supplied Mht files. I also included his previous email sent with the MHT file attached and with clear instructions stating "double click on HCODE file to run HaspX and update the Hasp". His own words contradicted his email....

Reseller: Since the middle of last year file format has been mht and I have had no complaints

(The email I supplied him with HCODE files was from earlier the last year....)

I never replied. I was exhausted.

In parallel however, I was having an email conversation with CNC Software. They alluded to me that yes, I was correct, and that it was a process issue with the reseller, and that he needed retracining, and that he was struggling to understand how to process codes.

Now you can see why I couldn't continue. And this person still has the same role......

I never got an apology or confirmation I was right.

Go figure

[gcode]

Reseller: Since the middle of last year file format has been mht and I have had no complaints

of course he got no complaints
People realized that arguing with this guy was a waste of time and went straight to CNC Software

[TSmcam]

of course he got no complaints
People realized that arguing with this guy was a waste of time and went straight to CNC Software

Yep, exactly.

Then he realised that I was making him look bad, so set me up. Rest is history