Presenting ~ Adaptive Footwear™

grabcad

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Riding the Freelancer Wave •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• My name is Tommy Mueller and I’m here today on GrabCAD bringing you my experience on how GrabCAD’s Workbench BETA tools are the convenient and beneficial way to collaborate with clients. Just recently, I've come to a “Phase 1” completion with my client, landing a very large step in a ten year commitment and vision of GrabCAD newcomer Doug. We wanted to share our advantages and successes using the newly available tools while developing his innovative Adaptive Footwear™ product. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Adaptive Footwear™ Beginnings ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Doug Smith spends much of his free time adventuring outdoors - call him a more than average outdoor enthusiast. Through his experiences an idea was born, a vision to make an adaptable shoe which can persevere through harsh environments, be modular to accept new terrain, and have an inherit functionality to improve the adventurers’ spirit. To bring or not to bring, that is the question. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Stages In Prototyping ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Noticing this lack of dynamics in current footwear, Doug set out to prototype his idea by first going to a sports medicine doctor to make an initial physical prototype. With heavy investment he met his goals with success developing his “first article” which proved most of his claims, but after many tests he needed better performance, enhanced design, and structural rigidity beyond his current physical model. After a short hiatus, Doug sought out a freelance Solidworks contractor, www.scottcavanaughdesign.com, whose design work landed the idea well and modeled many of the features present in the current version. The 3D model needed some redesign and a practical manufacturing perspective to make the boot work. Enter Tommy Mueller, www.pdxeffects.com. Just a few obstacles to overcome. We have different demographics, backgrounds, and contributable talents and we needed a way to converge our skills. For one, Doug lives in Virginia on the East Coast of the United States, I live in the Northwest in Portland Oregon, thousands of miles apart. Doug knows computer technology, but understands it better when presented with it, 3D is new to him. I spend every day of the week engaged with technology of many forms, and GrabCAD happens to be the most useful of them all next to Solidworks. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• GrabCAD Meets Contractor, Meets Client ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• GrabCAD’s Workbench http://grabcad.com/teams BETA tools allowed unprecedented collaborative abilities, I first found this out during Solidworks City when Andrew DiVincenzo introduced me to the GrabCAD Workbench and its functions. I introduced these tools to Doug after he found me online while looking for a Solidworks design engineer to take the boot into a manufacturable product. GrabCAD bridged the gap geographically and technologically. It allowed me to efficiently communicate and share progress with my new client, who could easily look at the same 3D model during design reviews, and in that same location download & upload sketches, videos, 3D models and other files. It became an intuitive interface to move the project forward and document our aggregated information, and was the future friendly solution for Doug to push his 3D model into fabrication. GrabCAD is our one-stop source for all of our design notes, links to manufacturing components, part models, design renderings, technical shop drawings, and more. We got more out of GrabCAD’s tools than we put into it.