Contests or challenges to keep people involved

[matt]

A long time ago, I used to do the modeling challenges on my blog. https://dezignstuff.com/category/modeling-challenge/

And then @Alin once told me he modeled the power user challenges off of that. So that had a life.

But now, what do we do?

1) @Alin is of course welcome to host the power user challenge here. That would be my #1 option.

2) We could go back to the old modeling challenges where we made 15 attempts at modeling something, and talked pros and cons of each.

3) Do a rendering contest like I think @gupta9665 used to do

4) Mini projects where we pool our resources and model assembly that requires a wide range of expertise (like an excavator or a riding lawn mower or a yacht, or a small plane, a sports car - bigger stuff than one of us would take on individually)

5) or... some new idea that one of you comes up with!

Why don't we collect some ideas then I'll put a poll together. What kind of contest/exhibition/team project thing would you like to initiate on an ongoing basis here?

[zwei]

Option 4 sound really interesting to me...

[Alin]

I like option 4, too.

Actually, all of them are great.

[bnemec]

I'm a noob so my opinion shouldn't carry much, but that doesn't usually stop me from speaking/posting. I find #4 interesting as well. There would be room for various skill levels as well as areas of expertise, one way to get more than just the "modeling élite" to join in.

I'm a little worried about the logistics of it though. How do we "collaborate"? Maybe we need to use the platform? Ok, sorry. Honestly though, PDM Pro can be a great tool and it is usually left out of many CAD things such as these challenges. Also, I find it troublesome that schools/colleges apparently don't even touch the topic yet they have all kinds of group projects in classes and club projects in SAE for example. Could it work to get some student involvement in this and at the same time introduce them to some other facets of CAD (PDM for example). I don't know that it's possible/practical to have PDM with ports open or if clients could even connect to PDM servers not on the same LAN, I assume they can they just aren't set up that way because of security reasons. The hard part would be licenses, can a VAR get access to "trial licenses" for such a thing? I haven't had a chance to look into the web2 PDM interface but if that allows check in and out that could work?

What about Simulation results as one of the outputs? Matt stated "a wide range of expertise"

One concern might be, "what's the point?" I mean why would someone choose to be involved? A challenge or competition invokes the competitive spirit in people so they just cannot help be compete. But not all people feel the need to be first or best. For some it's part of a group, some it may be just the challenge to figure it out.
Also, timing. How long should this take? How long do we have before people loose interest?

My last question will bring shrieks of horror; Can the collaboration be multi CAD?

[matt]

...

My last question will bring shrieks of horror; Can the collaboration be multi CAD?

Simulation results? Absolutely!

PDM? Lovely idea. We'd have to see if we could get a major sponsor to donate some PDM. That would be great. @Alin ?

Multi-CAD. No doubt. We have some new Solid Edge friends who might be convinced to participate. Not sure how we could incorporate Onshape or Fusion.

Wouldn't it be cool to operate some sort of central PDM from a forum? What a great live demo it would be for a company like Mechworks / dbWorks?

[bnemec]

Wouldn't it be cool to operate some sort of central PDM from a forum? What a great live demo it would be for a company like Mechworks / dbWorks?

I have been thinking that for a while. Done carefully it would create a great place for prospective customers to try it out. Almost like a github for CAD, I know it would lean more to Solidworks stuff where github is pretty much agnostic of programming language. Nevertheless it would make a great place to share CAD files when asking questions or for a community challenge like you suggest here.

[zwei]

...
I'm a little worried about the logistics of it though. How do we "collaborate"? Maybe we need to use the platform? Ok, sorry. Honestly though, PDM Pro can be a great tool and it is usually left out of many CAD things such as these challenges. Also, I find it troublesome that schools/colleges apparently don't even touch the topic yet they have all kinds of group projects in classes and club projects in SAE for example. Could it work to get some student involvement in this and at the same time introduce them to some other facets of CAD (PDM for example). I don't know that it's possible/practical to have PDM with ports open or if clients could even connect to PDM servers not on the same LAN, I assume they can they just aren't set up that way because of security reasons. The hard part would be licenses, can a VAR get access to "trial licenses" for such a thing? I haven't had a chance to look into the web2 PDM interface but if that allows check in and out that could work?

I sure wish schools/colleges touch about file management on CAD... I did a mini project on SOLIDWORKS during my college time and managing the files is a mess (i end up doing all the CAD stuff myself that time )

As for PDM, anyone is familiar with GRABCAD Workbench? I heard that Workbench is offering unlimited storage and use for Free... not sure to what extend though...

One concern might be, "what's the point?" I mean why would someone choose to be involved? A challenge or competition invokes the competitive spirit in people so they just cannot help be compete. But not all people feel the need to be first or best. For some it's part of a group, some it may be just the challenge to figure it out.
Also, timing. How long should this take? How long do we have before people loose interest?

"what's the point" may be one of the most tricky part and really depend on people and the project. If people see the value and impact of the project, some will be more than happy to join... (One good example that i can think of is the E-nable community)
Some may just join for the experience and knowledge, etc, etc

After all, some people had even come together to build a chicken slapping machine in order to cook a chicken;)

[MJuric]

A long time ago, I used to do the modeling challenges on my blog. https://dezignstuff.com/category/modeling-challenge/

And then @Alin once told me he modeled the power user challenges off of that. So that had a life.

But now, what do we do?

1) @Alin is of course welcome to host the power user challenge here. That would be my #1 option.

2) We could go back to the old modeling challenges where we made 15 attempts at modeling something, and talked pros and cons of each.

3) Do a rendering contest like I think @gupta9665 used to do

4) Mini projects where we pool our resources and model assembly that requires a wide range of expertise (like an excavator or a riding lawn mower or a yacht, or a small plane, a sports car - bigger stuff than one of us would take on individually)

5) or... some new idea that one of you comes up with!

Why don't we collect some ideas then I'll put a poll together. What kind of contest/exhibition/team project thing would you like to initiate on an ongoing basis here?

How about people do the same project in different systems and see how easy/Hard etc it is to do. I think we all have a "Work" system we use and Onshape, F360 have free versions. I think it would be even better if people worked in an "Off" system. If you're "Everyday" system is SW then you have to do it in F360 or Onshape and so on.

I also like the #4 idea. Maybe we could come up with something either ridiculous, like a minecraft world type of sandbox design, or maybe something more realistic/Marketable.

[MJuric]

4) Mini projects where we pool our resources and model assembly that requires a wide range of expertise (like an excavator or a riding lawn mower or a yacht, or a small plane, a sports car - bigger stuff than one of us would take on individually)

I was thinking about this last night. I'm wondering if there is a "Global Good" type of large project that we could come up to work on? I'm thinking something along the lines of the Engineering version of SETI or Compute for Cancer. Instead of each person working on a chunk of information each person is working on a small part of a massive project. Probably WAY out there but the first thing that popped into my head was a generational interstellar spacecraft....but you know, it doesn't have to be that