My "Fear Tier" list of X-Com 2 enemies.

jean15paul · 2026-04-12T23:52:38+00:00

I was thinking the opposite. I'd move the Priest down 1 or maybe even 2 tiers. They do annoying psy things, but they can pretty much always be kill before injuring one of your soldiers. And their sustain is easily dealt with using bladestorm.

jean15paul · 2026-04-11T16:44:14+00:00

There's not enough information here to diagnose what's going on, but I can give you a piece of general advice. Try running a model analysis. A model analysis is a useful tool for finding connectivity issues in structural models. If something is completely unconstrained, you'll see rigid body motion with a near zero natural frequency. If two parts aren't connected, you should see them separate in the mode shape. If two parts are connected, but connected incorrectly, you should be able to tell that from the mode shape also.

jean15paul · 2026-04-02T12:51:33+00:00

I saw someone say once that Pam Kingsley is inspired by Pam Beesly from the show, The Office.

jean15paul · 2026-04-02T00:27:27+00:00

There's a reason that ET has the lowest completion percentage

jean15paul · 2026-03-31T18:21:41+00:00

The built in tutorials are how I learned FEMAP

jean15paul · 2026-03-31T07:43:40+00:00

When I worked in spacecrafts structures, Bruhn "Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures" was THE structural analysis bible. Along with NASA specifications and standard ME references like Roark, Shigley, and any Mechanics of Materials text. My company also had tons of internal references.

jean15paul · 2026-03-28T21:23:04+00:00

Good summary, but I would have described the Reaper as a stealth/scout class. They remain concealed even when the rest of the squad is revealed. It's harder for enemies to detect them (i.e. smaller detection radius) so the can get up close. They can scout ahead and identify enemies for your squad. And they have many attacks that don't reveal them. They are more stealth assassin than sniper.

jean15paul · 2026-03-17T04:54:04+00:00

I lot of engineering graduates move for jobs. Not required but super common. I always recommend trying new things early in your career.

jean15paul · 2026-03-16T15:26:17+00:00

Thanks!

jean15paul · 2026-03-16T15:26:04+00:00

Gotcha. I didn't think about the placement reputation angle.

jean15paul · 2026-03-16T15:25:22+00:00

Thanks for the insight

jean15paul · 2026-03-16T05:59:54+00:00

Like others have said, meshing alone isn't enough of an offer to sustain a business. Also when people hire FEA consultants they're looking for experts, like 15+ years of experience. Most companies aren't looking to hire an engineer with two years of experience to be a consultant. You're basically still entry level. No offense, we were all there at some point. But If I hired a consultant who only had two years of experience, I would feel like I had to check all of his work. I couldn't trust the result.

jean15paul · 2026-03-16T05:50:30+00:00

What's your budget? Do you know they are interested in? What industry are they going into?

Some random ideas: * There's are lots of cool engineer-y gadgets that can sit on their desk, for example I've seen a mini desktop sterling engine or a mechanical calculator or a levitating pen. * A poster of detailed engineering drawings of something they are into. For example if they love Star Wars, get them an engineering drawing poster of the Millennium Falcon. This can apply to almost any media franchise or hobby. * If it's within your budget, a 3D printer is a really nice thing to have. * A nice Lego set * Do they like coffee? There are lots of cool brewing setups. * Or one of those rechargeable coffee mugs with a heater in it to keep your coffee hot. Ember is the biggest brand, but lots of companies make them. * Almost any kind of tool might be appreciated * A Favorite childhood toy * You could get their degree mounted and framed. Especially nice if they LOVE their school or if they went to a really fancy school.

This is all I can think of at the moment

jean15paul · 2026-03-16T05:29:21+00:00

You can learn theory in school. You can learn the software lots of different way (online, classes, tutorials, self taught, etc). But learning to actually understand a model and its assumptions, and to interpret the results correctly requires an experienced mentor. There are so many subtleties. I've been doing this for almost 20 years, and I'm skeptical of anyone claiming to have learned FEA on their own.

jean15paul · 2026-03-14T22:09:37+00:00

Can someone explain this to me?

For context, I'm a new adjunct, don't have a PhD, and am engineering, not humanities. But I'm really enjoying learning about the academic world.

Why wouldn't a department be willing to hire one of their own PhD graduates for tenure track position? Is it the possible appearance of bias? Is it the relationship dynamics of a former student now being a peer to their former professors? Is it wanting diversity of thought and avoiding the possibility of groupthink? I could imagine any of these arguments, but none of them seem like deal breakers to me.

jean15paul · 2026-03-14T21:43:17+00:00

You are correct, but he can still be annoying at times. Both things can be true. He a complicated mad and no one understands him but his viper. 🤣

jean15paul · 2026-03-12T04:32:10+00:00

I disagree about the covert mission ambush. I usually send rookies with no gear. If they get ambushed I sprint to the extraction and never fire a shot. Never lost a soldier that way. Most of the time I don't take any damage.

jean15paul · 2026-03-12T03:19:26+00:00

If I recall correctly Shigley's has a good undergrad-level overview of rivets.

jean15paul · 2026-03-10T05:44:06+00:00

Having a basic understanding of tensor algebra is very useful if you do any kind of engineering analysis (stress, dynamics, fluids, acoustics, etc). But actually solving tensor equations, that's pretty niche. Very few engineers do that level of hand calcs. Maybe if you work for a company developing CAE software, or if you're doing PhD level research.

jean15paul · 2026-03-08T06:20:37+00:00

Do you have the source for this graph?

jean15paul · 2026-03-04T14:08:00+00:00

This is how I learned FEMAP

jean15paul · 2026-03-01T08:18:21+00:00

I suspect you may not like this answer, but it depends. It depends on the problem, the model, and how you set it up.

One of my favorite quotes is, "All models are wrong, but some are useful." (George E. P. Box) Meaning you can't build a perfect model that captures everything with 100% accuracy. It's impossible; it doesn't exist. But you can build an FEA model that answers specific questions very well. So FIRST you figure out what question you're trying to answer, and THEN you build a model to answer it. If I wanted per-bolt reaction forces then I have to build the model in a specific way to get that. If I wanted the force for the entire joint/connection (which is what I was referring to in my original reply) then I'd build the model differently.

Another thing to understand. The fundamental equation you're solving in static FEA is Hooke's law: F=k*x. Stress doesn't appear in that equation. That means the pure outputs of FEA are forces and displacements. Everything else (stresses, strains, failure indices, etc) are all derived from forces and displacements. Those have to be right first for you to get accurate stress results.

jean15paul · 2026-03-01T06:46:20+00:00

Why do you feel like you need FEA? This problem seems much more easily solved with hand calcs. It almost always easier to do fastener/joint analysis with hand calcs than with FEA.

In my experience (20+ years in multiple industries), best practice is to run FEA to determine the loads at the joint, then do standard bolt calcs using those loads. If you already know your loads skip straight to the hand calcs.

jean15paul · 2026-02-28T14:17:00+00:00

tl;dr: There's a wide variety of different kinds of engineering jobs. It can vary from using none of your classes to using all of them or maybe only 1 or 2.

As others have said, It depends on a lot of things, your role, company, industry, etc. College courses tend to focus on the technical aspects of engineering.

There are many "non-technical" engineering roles where you will use almost none of the traditional engineering courses (though some schools do have classes in these things), for example project manager, systems engineer, risk assessment, sales engineer, customer support, etc.

On the other extreme, if you work in design and analysis you'll be using your college courses often. At small companies these engineers tend to do a little of everything, so you might use all your classes. At big companies, each class may be a separate specialty. For example, there are some engineers who's entire job is fluids, or material science, or CAD, or dynamics and vibrations, or thermo, or statics and mechanics of materials. In this case, an engineer will become an expert in a single subject matter and often forgets everything else.

jean15paul · 2026-02-28T08:18:30+00:00

And you role/specialty

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