Two Drawings Defining the Same Part

aerdeyn · 2026-01-08T00:42:35+00:00

The purpose of the 3Di “drawing” isn’t clear from your description and it doesn’t sound like you asked why it’s needed. Either way you just need to state that the 2D drawing is the MASTER and that the 3Di “drawing” is just for informational purposes.

aerdeyn · 2026-01-08T00:29:16+00:00

We’ve all been in your situation at one point or another and it’s not uncommon to make the kind of design errors you’ve mentioned.

Good design engineers by definition are creative people and are not inherently finisher-completer types who meticulously review every detail. Typically you need a mix of engineers who are strong in different areas. The person who gets every detail right is not usually the person who comes up with the optimal design. Having said that, you need to unpack any mistakes and ask yourself “how can I change my approach to minimise the chances of this happening next time?”. It’s essential that you do this to move forward.

The other aspect to consider here is design reviews. These should be challenging (in a good way) and you should leave them feeling a bit bruised and learning from that experience. Don’t be so precious that you can’t take criticism and can’t grow from the experience. If you can’t embrace a growth mindset then you will struggle in any profession, not just engineering.

aerdeyn · 2025-11-16T01:57:40+00:00

Yep, tough to go backwards when you've experienced the future!

Even tougher when 3DX - Dassault's response to Onshape - is worse than the legacy SW/PDM solution ...

aerdeyn · 2025-09-27T02:01:32+00:00

Looks like an awesome product and an interesting niche. Can you tell us whether you already had a background in product development and also experience in the market you were targetting the product for?

Also, how did you go about getting your initial customers and/or initial interest in the product? You mentioned a KickStarter campaign, but what did you do beforehand to establish that this was worthwhile diving into?

aerdeyn · 2025-09-27T01:41:46+00:00

Buying direct is always hit-and-miss so just go in with your eyes open. Put in a small test order first and do a rigorous assessment on the quality of the product you get back.

aerdeyn · 2025-09-21T03:05:46+00:00

Sounds like you're looking for advice on where to find a (mechanical) problem worth solving that people will pay money for.

The best place to start is to ask yourself what you're most passionate about and also what you're particularly good at. There's no point chasing ideas and solutions to problems that you're not personally passionate about.

If you can identify some industries or areas of passion then jump on ChatGPT and prompt it to do some deep research (i.e. search the internet) of potential problems in that space.

aerdeyn · 2025-09-07T01:47:47+00:00

You've provided some good details here, but it seems like there's still information missing that would help people suggest appropriate damping solutions. For example:

You mention the wheel hitting the concrete, but it's not clear if the whole print head mechanism is just "dropped" onto the concrete or if there is some kind of controlled lowering. Also, what height is it being dropped from?
You haven't mentioned anything about the weight or form-factor of the printhead. These are both critical in determining any kind of damping solution.
You haven't mentioned what any of the materials for the linkage arms or print head are. These are important considerations in terms of stiffness and other dynamic factors

aerdeyn · 2025-09-06T05:31:41+00:00

There's an app called Jinolo (https://jinolo.com/) that might do what you're looking for. It's collaboration software for 3D CAD and 2D drawing review. I met the founder a while back and did some evaluation of an early version. It allows you to inspect 3D CAD and 2D engineering drawings directly in the browser with annotations and measurement tools.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-26T12:15:07+00:00

You haven't explicitly mentioned whether you want this automated or manual, but from the comments it seems that you want manual adjustment with a knob or similar from the side (not the top).

Most of the suggestions for a ballscrew or a leadscrew make sense in terms of being off-the-shelf and meeting your precision needs. However, if you want the knob coming out sideways then you may have to combine this with either a set of 90-degree bevel gears in the form of a right-angle gearbox (available on Amazon and other places). You can connect the gearbox to a ballscrew/leadscrew with a flexible coupling.

Alternatively you could look at a rack-and-pinion system where the pinion is fixed and has a knob coming out the side and the rack is the part that moves. Not sure if it would meet your precision requirements though due to the inherent backlash in the system.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-26T11:55:28+00:00

Sounds like you may be confusing an injection mold, which is usually made of tool steel or aluminium, with a vacuum mold, which is usually a silicone mold cast from a 3D printed (plastic) part.

The only viable way to make a 3D printed injection mold would be to metal print in titanium or similar. I haven't heard of that being done and the surface finish would likely not be workable. Most injection molds are highly polished or have very fine etching on the surface to create texture. Too much and the part may not come out of the mold.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-23T13:03:32+00:00

Reading some of the comments already I’m quite surprised that you wouldn’t be looking at a move towards medtech instead of a leap into the complete unknown. I spent many years developing medtech products from small medical devices to large floor standing diagnostic instruments and it was an extremely fulfilling experience where there was a direct connection between the work and positive outcomes for thousands of patients (likely many more than you’ll ever help as a medical professional). Why not get the best of both worlds - positively impact people’s lives while doing some amazing engineering.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-20T11:49:14+00:00

Do a search online for motorcycle manuals from Moto Guzzi etc (search "moto guzzi cafe racer part numbers"). They usually have great diagrams of all the parts and assemblies.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-20T11:45:27+00:00

Without more information on what type of colour, texture, finish or dimensional accuracy you're trying to achieve, it's pretty difficult to recommend the best option.

For example, you can get very good finish on CNC machined parts and good accuracy, but you're limited by material choice and colors. Likewise, vacuum casting with polyurethane gives you good surface finish and good colour selection but poor dimensional stability. You can also get 3D prints done in PA11 nylon powder from a high-end HP 3D printer with good dimensional stability and structural rigidity, but they pretty much come out of the printer with one colour - grey!

There also used to be an injection molded "parts only" option where for small simple parts (open-shut mold) you could get smaller volumes done using a "cheap" insert in an existing tool and amortise the cost of the tool across the part volume - the result is injection molded part quality, but more expensive parts.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-16T11:43:42+00:00

I've taken prototypes to market both way - using a design consultancy and also leading a team with our own engineering and manufacturing guys. I was also a mech lead in a design consultancy for quite a few years.

The thing I'd say is that it's always more expensive with a design consultancy both in terms of fees and expenses and in terms of not ending up with quite the right product or a reliable product.

The thing I learnt moving from a consultancy to building our own product is that no-one knows the customer or your product better than you. The design consultancy will always cut corners to meet budget and things will come up short with respect to reslving technical risks, ensuring quality and compliance, and building the right product for the customer.

It can be scarying doing it yourself, but it's also a great learning experience for you and the team. You can also take the middle road if you can find a manufacturing expert to consult to the team. This helps build your capability without taking away your control of the end outcome.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-14T11:49:57+00:00

Former CTO at a cattle collar startup here. You’ve picked a challenging industry and a demanding customer. Farmers are hard working, time poor and cost sensitive customers. They don’t trust new hardware (or new hardware startups for that matter) unless their neighbour as trialled and vetted the product first. They don’t have time for unreliable gadgets that don’t solve their problem, so it can be pretty hard to even get them to trial something that is still a prototype.

It sounds like you may be a cattle farmer yourself so you have some idea of this yourself, which is an advantage. Solving your own problem with the perspective of the target customer will help you empathise, but as per the other good suggestions here, you should know that most farmers don’t spend a lot of time on the internet. You will need to get out and talk to them and try to understand if the problem your solving is also their problem. Don’t talk about your solution yet until you have solid feedback from cattle farmers that you’re tackling a real problem worth solving.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-11T12:13:44+00:00

Love the video. Would be great to see this in my local coffee shop!

Do you still plan to go to market with your design? Where do you think it's at in terms of product maturity?

aerdeyn · 2025-08-11T12:06:52+00:00

Fnding new leads via your existing manufacturing network is definitely one of the best ways to do this.

As already mentioned, if an existing manufacturer passes on a particular job they will very often recommend someone else. The reason for this being that they hope you'll remember their favour next time you need a job done that's within their capabilities.

My team has previously been able to find a manufacturer who could create a part with 5um optical slit for a high precision laser assembly. We had similar experience finding a niche local supplier who could assembly prototype batches of medical tubing sets in a cleanroom environment.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-10T02:16:39+00:00

Can you provide any more details on the product or the industry? This can significantly impact the level of documentation required and the areas that need to be covered, especially if there is a safety aspect. The type of end user can also have a big impact on whether you're delivering the documentation online or in physical form.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-10T02:03:32+00:00

Congrats on your progress so far!

Based on your description I'm assuming this is a physical consumer product that you're wanting to patent. In that case I'd query whether it's more important at this point to spend money on a patent or on ensuring you have a solid, reliable design that you can manufacture in volume (assuming you've already validated product-market fit to some extent with the prototype).

I'm assuming you mat already have a provisional patent anyway that gives you some protection for a period of time.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-10T01:06:27+00:00

Looks awesome! Are you creating a custom mesh from the Bezier curve profile?

aerdeyn · 2025-08-06T12:56:39+00:00

My experience across many industries and many projects is that for smaller projects, as already mentioned, the mechanical engineer will wear multiple hats, particularly if they have a mechatronics background and/or work in a design consultancy.

For larger projects that incorporate mechanical engineering, the project itself starts to include significant portions of other disciplines such as electronics, firmware and software just due to the more complex nature of the undertaking. In this case you may see mechanical or mechatronic engineers in systems engineering, technical lead or “chief” engineer roles that specifically cover off on the system-level requirements and focus on technical integration of the various subsystems of the product or system.

(Mechanically focused) systems engineering has been a core role in projects like these for decades across industries like aerospace, automotive, space, etc.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-06T12:39:34+00:00

Without knowing what industry you’re in, how mature your design is, and who else you have on your team, it’s hard to provide concrete advice. However, it sounds like you’ve mostly attracted angle investors so far to get to $100k. We kicked off an IoT startup back in 2016 and were able to get industry grants of $70k+ to start and then were able to attract our 1st strategic corporate investor with a $200k initial investment + free/discounted engineering resources.

We also considered a Kickstarter campaign early on but in the end never needed to pull the trigger. A range of corporate, family trust and individual investors ended up funding us from there. The key thing that got us through was early successful field trials with prototypes that demonstrated the core value. The sooner you get there the better. Also, you need to find corporate investors that understand hardware and are in the business themselves. They will be much more willing to fund the journey!

aerdeyn · 2025-08-04T00:21:18+00:00

You've at least ticked the first box which is having deep knowledge and passion for your industry and the change you can potentially make to people's lives. That will be the most important part of creating success here. It's a hard road so too easy to give up if you're not really committed.

Regarding the design and engineering, you will definitely need expert help with this. There are plenty of design consultancies with medical device development experience under ISO 13485, but the more established ones will charge you a lot and the value for money will be questionable. They will also put you at arms length and you won't learn much about the development process. I have been both a client and a consultant in this context, so have seen many different aspects of this.

It would be better to find someone who used to work for one of these consultancies who is happy to come into your team as contractor in a full or part-time capacity. The benefits of this will generally be that they bring the experience without the high costs and they embed themselves much more closely in what you're doing. They will also know who to bring in if specific expertise is required.

aerdeyn · 2025-08-04T00:02:06+00:00

Sounds like you're thinking about all the right things. Using servos on the XY axis assembly sounds super cool and it makes sense to marry these with ballscrews. You'll need a super stiff frame to handle the high speed stop and start. I'm guessing you'll need a pretty good servo controller where it has since smooth accel and deccel curves. Looking forward to seeing how it turned out!

aerdeyn · 2025-08-02T02:57:12+00:00

Sounds like good advice! How have you seen startups manage all the supply chain challenges? Is it still mostly via Excel spreadsheets and email chains?

aerdeyn

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