I think it’s true that many of us have a ‘dream job’ or ‘dream career.’ For some of us, it’s the place where our thoughts go when we’re daydreaming. For others, it’s an active pursuit. And, of course, some of us already have that ‘dream job’ or ‘dream career’ I’ve been talking about!
A lot of times, this aspiration is informed by what we think is possible for ourselves – even if it’s only remotely. If I were to ask you, “How many people think to dream of building and flying their own bush planes for a living,” you’d probably give me an answer that’s likely reflective of reality. It’s some fractional number; certainly below 1%, right?
For Mike Patey, a member of the SOLIDWORKS Influencer Program, this actually is his job and career!
This is why, when he’s looking for answers to some of his engineering problems, Mike uses the capabilities of 3DEXPERIENCE Works Simulation to gain insights that would otherwise be fairly hard to get without doing things like wasting tons of material and relying solely on gut instinct.
With 3DEXPERIENCE Works Simulation, Mike and his team are able to test things that ‘could’ happen in the real world with his planes. In the examples here, Mike talks to his viewers about how he’s able to make decisions on the landing gear assembly for Scrappy by running an analysis on the landing gear assembly on different loading conditions.
While it’s true this gives Mike an understanding of worst-case scenarios, with an ability to observe stresses and deformation at a variety of intervals/scales, it also allows him to make decisions that go beyond physical risk mitigation. For example, he discusses in this second video how 3DEXPERIENCE Works Simulation enabled him to consider changing the structure of the landing gear overall to cut weight and costs.
Mike’s story is remarkable in a couple key ways. Personally, I find his story of how he got to where he is fascinating. Secondly: he’s an awesome example of how SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD users everywhere can use 3DEXPERIENCE Works Simulation (part of the new 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio) to test their designs under important conditions using the power of the cloud on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
Sean O'Neill