Wozniak: Creative Engineer Part 2

One of the best quotes I was able to write down from Woz was “Where ever really bright people work, they always leave the doors open.” He said it in a literal sense, meaning that the doors to the technical library were unlocked at night, but I like to think it could be taken more metaphorically as well, meaning that the doors of opportunity are open as well. This certainly seems to be a theme for Woz. He is actively involved in sharing information for the benefit of other engineers and young people.


 

I wrote down a number of other quotes, isolated phrases:

 

“…the creators – the engineers.” Steve clearly sees engineering as a creative activity.

 

“This engineering stuff is really cool.” This was from when he was young, and starting to pick up engineering from his father. There is something that makes creating stuff really exciting, not only as an adult career, but also part of the learning experience for kids.

 

“I got an A+  in the class, but got put on probation for computer abuse.” Pushing past the limits is a necessity if you are going to create something new.

 

Again, I want to congratulate SolidWorks on an excellent choice in keynote speaker. There was no flash, there was no pretense, but his experience was very relevant to my situation. He made sure we saw him as a normal human being with a normal job, a lack of money, and a real passion for what he was doing. His is an uplifting story at the intersection of creativity and engineering.

0 Replies to “Wozniak: Creative Engineer Part 2”

  1. Hey guys,
    I just started using 3D CC and as it mentions that it supports the Pro/E file format but i tried several times it always shoed error in format. It upload STEp and IGES format. So i need a solutions for this, for uploading Pro/E files.

    Second thing is the model in 3D CC kind of rotate awkwardly, so i wanted to know how do i fix it and make it roatet freely in all views and direction.

    1. I would suggest using support options on the 3DCC site itself. My blog is not officially associated with DS SolidWorks Corp. in any way, aside from me being a solution partner due to author activities.

  2. VRML is a standard written for the internet. There are plenty of free browser plug-ins that work with that. Unfortunately, they are almost all junk, and VRML files end up being huge.

    You can export to flash, but you never get full 3D control, as flash is just a bunch of “screen shots” piled together (albeit vector art).

  3. Matt,
    I know of a plug-in for 3ds Max and one for Strata to generate 3D Flash files (SWF). I don’t know of any plug-in for Solidworks. For several reasons embedding an Acrobat 3D model in a blog page is not an option.

  4. Personally I’m not crazy for this plug-in. It looks so 1995… But surely it’s a huge improvement compared to the messy e-drawings. Did you try some tool to convert 3D models to a 3D flash file?

    On a more general topic, it is unbelievable that the browser in 2008 still a 2D world! All 3D options available are based on proprietary solutions (e-drawings, adobe flash, Viewpoint Media Player). The only promising option is the CANVAS HTML element. But still far away from becoming mainstream.

    ****
    The thing I like about the Viewpoint is that it’s simple, and easy to use. There are some options I’d like access to, and maybe I’ll figure it all out someday. I’d like to take a look at some of these other applications. Do you have an example of a flash 3d viewer? One thing I really don’t like about the Viewpoint thing is that the data has to be on someone elses server. I’m assuming a flash viewer would allow me to host my own data without giving up rights to it. I’ll look into the CANVAS.

  5. Where’s the code for this? 🙂

    ****
    It seems to only be available with customer supplied models, not the vendor supplied stuff. So you can upload a model, then embed the code on your site and let it whirl! Just like youtube. The code is just below the model window on 3DCC, click the Embed link.

  6. Great addition to your BLOG. As I said in my comment on your KNEE REPLACEMENT MODEL, anything that aids in visualizing what your writing about helps. The fact that yuo can view it and manipulate the views here is a big plus.

    Wes

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