Recently my company switched to the CAD software Solid Works. In general, I enjoy using this software a bit more than our previous antiquated version of Solid Edge. But today I came across one of the most confusing error messages I’ve ever seen.

I was happily dimensioning a part within a model when I mistakenly over-constrained the model. For the non-mechanical amongst us, that means that I measured the same thing twice. This tends to confuse modeling programs because they don’t know which of my two dimensions is more important. If I change one of the two, which should it follow?

To fix this problem, the primary dimension is defined as the driven dimension. Once you set the driven dimension, the software knows which dimension gets the priority and acts accordingly.

But today, when I mistakenly placed an extra dimension, The software came back with this:

Should I “Make this dimension driven” or do I “Leave this dimension driving”?

Huh? These are all the same things.

This makes no sense.

For the past two days our operations manager has been out on business and was foolish smart enough to leave me in charge on the shop floor.

Wouldn’t you know, yesterday afternoon our big revenue unit for the month which has been going through our test department suddenly tripped on an unexpected fault. The masses began scrambling. We had to get a replacement part into the equipment immediately so that we could retest the machine before the container came to pick it up.

We did what we could yesterday, but today was the real day of action. It started at 7am as I raced around the shop floor orchestrating a massive rescue attempt. Our workers responded and by 11:00am we had 7 people working on different sections all at once. It was a great testimony to our company’s ability to rally together. Still, there was a lot to do.

At 1:30pm I was called into a meeting with our president, vice president, and financial controller. They asked me when we’d be able to pull the equipment into test. Always the optimist, I said it’d be in by 4pm. They laughed.

“Wanna bet?” The president retorted.
“I’d put some money down, sure.”
“five dollars.”
“ten.”
“deal.”

I kicked it into full gear. I headed out to the floor and helped tighten bolts and collect needed components. Things were coming together with incredible speed. Come 3:30 we still had a few pieces left to assemble but it was mostly together. At 3:45 I sent one of the guys off to get the fork lift to bring this monster into the test department. At 3:55 we started moving it.

Time was ticking away. We turned the first corner. 3:56. We rolled around the second corner navigating between some large containers. 3:58. I watched in eager anticipation as the wheels on the fork truck inched the equipment around the last corner towards the final straightaway. I walked ahead and opened the test department’s large gate.

Suddenly I heard the test department’s bell blare three times. I turned to see the President grinning. The equipment rolled into test at 4:01pm.

One minute. One lousy minute late.

Darn it.

1. Saying I’m in Beijing is a bit of a stretch. I’m actually in Changping which is a dramatically less populous area on the northern outskirts of the city. In fact, breakfast at my hotel reminds me a lot of those ending scenes of 2001 a space Odyssey. Breakfast is held in a huge room. It has tall ceilings, ornate decorations, plates of food, and pristine table cloths. Yet despite this glitz and glamor, there’s no one else to share it. I sit at a huge round dinner table with the buffet table spread out in front of me and there’s isn’t a soul in sight. It’d dead quiet except for the occasional moment when my fork scrapes against the plate.

2. China really has a unique spot on the global culinary scene. It’s got all-stars like dumplings and delicious rices, but I have a hard time diving in when there’s a duck head* on my plate staring back at me. In somewhat related news, I haven’t thrown up yet on this trip. Keep your fingers crossed that I’ll make it through Thursday without digestive upheaval.

*It tasted like awkward.

I have arrived in Beijing!! The flight actually felt very reasonable. I was flying Air China and I must admit it didn’t have some of the amenities that one grows accustomed to on American flights. Namely, no air nozzels and very limited TV screens. That said, the service and food was wonderful and the airfair was very affordable. I had a window seat which let me finish Dune uninterrupted. I even got a little sleep.

For this trip, I experimented with a jet lag technique that I read about in some online article. Basically, the theory is that if you fast before your trip and then start eating on the new schedule your body will force itself to acclimate more quickly to help you find and hunt food. I stopped eating at 8pm on Thursday and didn’t start again until 5pm Friday. Now that I’m in Beijing, I will try and sleep and we’ll see if this theory works well. I really hope it does because this is a short trip and I don’t have tons of time to dominate jet lag before I have to fly home and screw everything up again.

There should be plenty of updates this week as I have a computer in my room. As a start, here are a few pictures of my hotel room.

Note the nice tall ceilings and the split brick columns. The pathway in the back leads into a second room containing the bed.

There are a bunch of ceramic pots and camel and horse statues adorning the mirrored glass shelves. It’s a pretty nice room.

Tomorrow I’m going to try and get in touch with Mika’s sister. My colleagues don’t arrive here until tomorrow night so this would be a great opportunity to do something fun. Stay tuned!

Hello readers!

I’m off to Beijing. While it is a work trip, I should get some personal time on Sunday. Hopefully I’ll be meeting my friend Mika’s sister and her husband in Beijing. They live there and speak the language well, so it’ll be nice to have an English speaking friend nearby. Mika also passed on some great ideas for things to do while I’m there.

Things will very likely be quiet around these parts for the next week as I traverse the far east. If I find myself having some spare time to put up some scheduled posts, I’ll do so – though my time is limited between now to tomorrow’s departure. OR, if I can find internet access while abroad, I will update the website with some degree of regularity.

For those with publishing abilities, feel free to log in and post on the site while I’m gone. Two hints:

1. change the tag. Quickthoughts appear on the right, Features on the left (not recommended). Everything else in the middle. The default is a Quickthought.
2. For non-quickthoughts, add in a short quip for the optional excerpt (it’s found in one of the expandable tabs below the text editor) otherwise the site will double post your work.

Good luck!

We painted the floors.
Fumes were bad, we opened doors.
Sooo cold. Fumes preferred.

To those who remain sedentary in their office cubicals the idea of business travel conjures up visions of glorious customer dinners in distant lands, exotic hotels, and peculiar and captivating cultures. It’s no wonder that the strongly rooted occasionally ask me why I don’t fervently relish* these travels.

Mike D’s top travel travesties
#1. Industrial facilities vary little between Boise and Bogota
#2. The shortest of trips still dramatically disrupts your week
#3. The time dependency of the labor limits visits to local attractions
#4. Waiting in lines gets old fast

Sound familiar? It should! Business travel is a lot like an extended stay at your local Department of Motor Vehicles with the added bonus of checked baggage. Yay!

Now, just like those times when the plate lady lets you choose between the available license plates, business travel occasionally redeems itself. Especially when you can take some vacation on either end of a trip to experience the local culture – a luxury better enjoyed in London than Cleveland.

I’m banking on that personal time for a potential China trip looming in mid-December. This particular plan puts Beijing on the menu. I was last in Beijing in 2006, so if this trip does go down I hope I’ll have a chance to check out the birdcage and other 2008 Olympic buildings.

First things first, I’ll have to make sure my passport and visas are up to date. Thankfully, this doesn’t require a trip to the DMV.

*relish as in ‘enthusiastically and vigorously enjoy’ not as in ‘delicious pickled condiment.’

This post coming live from 30,000 feet.

I’m trying an on-flight wireless account on my plane from Atlanta to Hartford.