Made some good technological improvements this week. Got Solidworks installed and upgraded the RAM on my Dell. This dell is a beast weighing in at 7 3/4 pounds a freebee from a few jobs back. Solidworks does not run on Mac

The video above shows the movement of the sunset and sunrise wedges and a zoom in of the mechanics of how I envision it working. Two notched belts are looped around the perimeter and are guided in groves on the edge. the wedge is attached to a fixed location on the belt. A motor turns a little gear tooth pulley and indexes the belt back and forth.

Being back in Solidworks after not having it for 10 months felt SO. FUCKING. GOOD. There are methods unique to the program that I have adapted so deeply into my creative workflow that without it, the creation just doesn’t come. It is akin, I think, to working in a preferred medium such as oil paint vs acrylic. Working in other CAD was very frustrating, fundamentally I know what I want to do but am unable to express it since the mechanics of the programs are so different. There are many different philosophical approaches and end cases that different CAD systems are designed around. Also, key point, I am extremely reluctant to learn new programs (much to the chagrin of every manager I have had)! Anyhow. I am happy to not need to learn anything new, just quickly bust out models again and let the engineering part be the heavy lifting you know?

What programs/tools are integral to your creative expression?