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Posts Tagged ‘Tool’

Wireframing is a usability method that is incredibly valuable to information architects and user interface designers alike.  Consequently, it has skyrocketed in popularity as a structural tool among those creating graphical user interfaces. However, wireframing’s ubiquity and esteem do not leave it invulnerable to the snares of the methodological stagnation that often results in poor implementation: bad wireframes. Thus, it is essential for designers to continue searching for new ways to keep the method fresh while simultaneously determining best practices for its realization as a usability tool.  One method for exploring wireframing and improving its capacity as a design tool is the workshop.  Workshops are often fountains of innovation for designers in any field and conducting a workshop on wireframing is a good way to keep the technique saturated in the creativity that can only arise through the power of organized brainstorming and idea sharing.

Why use the workshop format?

Hosting a wireframing workshop is all about building a sense of community for the greater good of the technique.  Wireframing workshops can bring designers and other industry members together to share new ideas and practices and improve upon those already in existence.  Bringing even competitors together is a good strategy because it will provide them with the incentive to introduce their best ideas on new ways of creating wireframes and how to factor wireframing into different types of design processes.  Wireframing workshops engender a sense of community and create an atmosphere of mutual exchange among (hopefully friendly) competitors.

How to conduct a successful wireframing workshop

Although it is a benefit to host a wireframing workshop with your industry adversaries, you do not need to.  You can keep the wireframing workshop contained to your colleagues, clients, friends, whoever you like.  The first thing you should do is decide who you want to be a part of your workshop, when and where it will take place, and how you will organize and structure it.  Other successful ingredients of a wireframing workshop include:

A facilitator with experience in IA and UX design (hopefully, that is you!)
A space in which workshop attendees can collaborate together without any technological or other logistical constraints
A good marketing and communications strategy: If you are planning on attracting people outside of your own company, you need to be able to communicate the event to them and convince them why it would be beneficial to come.
A set of questions, problems, and ideas that can spark the discussions and brainstorming sessions.
A pro-community and collaboration attitude, particularly one that can be imparted on attendees.
A good method for capturing, visualizing, structuring and documenting workshop results for use during and after the session. You can experiment with flipcharts, note cards or mindmapping tools. Or why not use a wireframing tool ?

What can you get out of a wireframing workshop?

Holding a wireframing workshop can help you to build community (a concept we are beating like a dead horse) but it can also help you determine:

How to distinguish the role of the wireframe early on in the project
Your wireframing audience
Whether or not the wireframes are for clients to see or solely internal
When to use high fidelity vs. low fidelity wireframes
New ideas for wireframing software or ideas on how to improve existing wireframing software tools.

The list of questions a wireframing workshop can answer is endless—it really depends on how well it is facilitated and how willing participants are to share enthusiastically and think creatively.  Organizing a wireframing workshop can only serve to enrich your abilities, your team’s abilities, and the community at-large’s abilities, so don’t hesitate to branch out and be a part of something that is forward thinking and collaborative.

Injection moulding is an efficient and effective way of producing quality plastic goods. Quality is often assured, but as with any production process, there are factors to consider when cost is an issue. It is usually the cheapest way of manufacturing a product, but that doesn’t mean it won’t necessarily be expensive.

The cost of injection moulding may in part be dependant on the quality of the materials used, size and intricacy of the part, but here’s a rundown of the three biggest cost drivers when it comes to injection moulding.

Part design. A good part design will save a lot of money. When designing a part to be injection moulded, may things must be taken into consideration. For maximum efficiency, a part will be designed with consideration for materials, cooling time and the labour needed to create the tool. Bad part design will cost a lot of time and wasted effort. A badly designed part will cause rejects, slower cycle times (including cooling time) and extra labour. The part may not be designed well for tooling — especially if a part is complicated or intricate — and may require extra or special tooling costs. A part may be designed so that it still requires post-moulding work, adding yet more labour. This is not taking into account transport and packing costs; a good design will account for space requirements when in storage and shipment. Good part design reduces the costs of plastic moulding dramatically.
Tooling. The quality of the mould creation will alter the cost of injection moulding to a large extent. A mould’s design limitation is the parting line — the line which divides the two halves of the mould, the core and the cavity. This must be carefully considered when tooling a mould. For instance, a protruding portion of the mould, if the mould is correctly tooled, can be orientated along the parting line. If the mould is incorrectly tooled, however, this will create an undercut or overcut, and the part will snag in the mould. This will require labour to fix and will cost precious time that could be being used to create more parts.
Tool design. The quality of your tool design will impact immediately on both the quality and production cost of your finished part. Nothing accounts for quality, and the reliability of a tool that will deliver what you want every time will outstrip your initial investment in a very short amount of time. For instance, a cheaper injection moulding tool will only save you money in the short term. Long term, it’s lack of reliability and slow running time is likely to become a liability. Investing in a quality tool design specifically matching your needs and requirements will ensure you will have a consistently high-quality end product.

Taking time to consider your needs will bring you a worthwhile return on your investment. By insisting on good part design, tooling and tool design, you are assured a relatively stress-less endeavour when setting out to produce your product.

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The Cad Cam machinery is based on CAD and CAM, the short of Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing respectively. As the term means, it simply means that the computer remote machines that can be used for the designing and the controlling of manufacturing processes purposes. The CAD and CAM machinery has its own value, it is so heavy and well equipped that it is used for the engineering and architectural purposes for drawing and sketching a really form of image making it more compatible for the technical usage. This can be explained easily that once the design is made by the CAD component, the design itself will control the machines involved in constructing that part, on the format.

Making it simple this can be explained in portions, let us first discus what does the CAD means and what machines do with CAD, as it is the short of computer aided designing, it directly signals that those machines are helpful in designing aspects, for the professionals, the engineers and for the architectural purposes. These machines are composed of special type of software and often hardware that includes the main geometry-authoring tool within the PLM process. As the CAD is the main type, according to its utility it has some different titles as well like the CADD and CAID, which defines as the computer aided designing and drafting, as the CAD is often termed as the drafting tool as well, and the computer aided industrial design and also the CAAD which means the computer aided architectural designs, these all titles tend to be similar but minor differences in the work manner have given it new names.

The new packages of CAD include the 2D vector based drafting system and the 3D parametric surface and solid design modelers. The CAD is a very useful tool for which it means a lot, it is not just a designing tool but it is high full-bodied designing tool. It is the power of computer designing sources that is merged with the heavy machinery to make it more compatible for the advanced functioning in the thermal processes, fluid flow analysis, stress analysis and shear analysis. The meaning of advanced designing is fulfilled with the use of CAD tool. It is simple to use and is highly effective, thus saving time and profiting the person who owe it. It is drastic software that is used in many purposes of work fields where time is less like CAD and CAM is used for the food processing as well to secure the speed of the production line. When it comes to the CAM, it simply means that it is helpful tools regarding manufacturing processes in definite time. It the tool that is aided by the computer in the robotic form so as to make the manufacturing purpose more enhanced. The CAM is used to make the procedure more easy and quick to make the yield in less time and less complex method.

The use of CAD and CAM together is very authentic and together they are used in different working areas to make the designing and manufacturing processes highly well suited. The CNC program is created with the CAM tool, the combination of CAD and CAM tools create a CNC program, the CAM usually comes wit the machine called lathe or chisel, the two if comes together costs very expensive that is more than million. The two together offers great advantages because its accurate and focused functioning on the major and minor objects for correction, realigning and adjusting geometric positioning and aligning metric systems within it.

The CAD CAM machinery is used worldwide in schools and many organizations that create, invent or manufacture new products.

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Read theory and solve objective type questions related to electrical Concepts : http://www.electricalquizzes.com

Work Area for lab:

A work area should consist of a large workbench, desk, or table (preferably wooden) for performing circuit assembly, with household electrical power (120 volts AC) readily accessible to power soldering equipment, power supplies, and any test equipment. Inexpensive desks intended for computer use function very well for this purpose. Avoid a metal-surface desk, as the electrical conductivity of a metal surface creates both a shock hazard and the very distinct possibility of unintentional “short circuits” developing from circuit components touching the metal tabletop. Vinyl and plastic bench surfaces are to be avoided for their ability to generate and store large static-electric charges, which may damage sensitive electronic components. Also, these materials melt easily when exposed to hot soldering irons and molten solder droplets.

If you cannot obtain a wooden-surface workbench, you may turn any form of table or desk into one by laying a piece of plywood on top. If you are reasonably skilled with woodworking tools, you may construct your own desk using plywood and 2×4 boards.

The work area should be well-lit and comfortable. I have a small radio set up on my own workbench for listening to music or news as I experiment. My own workbench has a “power strip” receptacle and switch assembly mounted to the underside, into which I plug all 120 volt devices. It is convenient to have a single switch for shutting off all power in case of an accidental short-circuit!

Tools :

A few tools are required for basic electronics work. Most of these tools are inexpensive and easy to obtain. If you desire to keep the cost as low as possible, you might want to search for them at thrift stores and pawn shops before buying them new.

Multimeter :

First and foremost in your tool collection is a multimeter. This is an electrical instrument designed to measure voltage, current, resistance, and often other variables as well. Multimeters are manufactured in both digital and analog form. A digital multimeter is preferred for precision work, but analog meters are also useful for gaining an intuitive understanding of instrument sensitivity and range.

Digital multimeter :

Most analog multimeters sold today are quite inexpensive, and not necessarily precision test instruments. I recommend having both digital and analog meter types in your tool collection, spending as little money as possible on the analog multimeter and investing in a good-quality digital multimeter.

A test instrument I have found indispensable in my home work is a sensitive voltage detector, or sensitive audio detector. It is nothing more than a sensitized set of audio headphones, equipped with an attenuator (volume control) and limiting diodes to limit sound intensity from strong signals. Its purpose is to audibly indicate the presence of low-intensity voltage signals, DC or AC. In the absence of an oscilloscope, this is a most valuable tool, because it allows you to listen to an electronic signal, and thereby determine something of its nature.

Breadboard :

Also essential is a solderless breadboard, sometimes called a prototyping board, or proto-board. This device allows you to quickly join electronic components to one another without having to solder component terminals and wires together.

Wire stripping pliers :

When working with wire, you need a tool to “strip” the plastic insulation off the ends so that bare copper metal is exposed. This tool is called a wire stripper, and it is a special form of plier with several knife-edged holes in the jaw area sized just right for cutting through the plastic insulation and not the copper, for a multitude of wire sizes, or gauges.

Jumper Wires : 

In order to make quick, temporary connections between some electronic components, you need jumper wires with small “alligator-jaw” clips at each end. These may be purchased complete, or assembled from clips and wires.

Jumper wires (home-made) :

The home-made jumper wires with large, uninsulated (bare metal) alligator clips are okay to use so long as care is taken to avoid any unintentional contact between the bare clips and any other wires or components. For use in crowded breadboard circuits, jumper wires with insulated (rubber-covered) clips like the jumper are much preferred.

Needle-nose pliers :

Needle-nose pliers are designed to grasp small objects, and are especially useful for pushing wires into stubborn breadboard holes.

Screwdrivers :

No tool set would be complete without screwdrivers, and I recommend a complementary pair (3/16 inch slotted and #2 Phillips) as the starting point for your collection. You may later find it useful to invest in a set of jeweler’s screwdrivers for work with very small screws and screw-head adjustments.

Soldering iron and solder (“rosin core”) :

For projects involving printed-circuit board assembly or repair, a small soldering iron and a spool of “rosin-core” solder are essential tools. I recommend a 25 watt soldering iron, no larger for printed circuit board work, and the thinnest solder you can find. Do not use “acid-core” solder! Acid-core solder is intended for the soldering of copper tubes (plumbing), where a small amount of acid helps to clean the copper of surface impurities and provide a stronger bond. If used for electrical work, the residual acid will cause wires to corrode. Also, you should avoid solder containing the metal lead, opting instead for silver-alloy solder. If you do not already wear glasses, a pair of safety glasses is highly recommended while soldering, to prevent bits of molten solder from accidently landing in your eye should a wire release from the joint during the soldering process and fling bits of solder toward you.

Soldering gun :

Projects requiring the joining of large wires by soldering will necessitate a more powerful heat source than a 25 watt soldering iron. A soldering gun is a practical option.

Utility knife :

Knives, like screwdrivers, are essential tools for all kinds of work. For safety’s sake, I recommend a “utility” knife with retracting blade. These knives are also advantageous to have for their ability to accept replacement blades.

Slip-joint pliers/Adjustable-joint pliers :

Pliers other than the needle-nose type are useful for the assembly and disassembly of electronic device chassis. Two types I recommend are slip-joint and adjustable-joint (“Channel-lock”).

Hand drill :

Drilling may be required for the assembly of large projects. Although power drills work well, I have found that a simple hand-crank drill does a remarkable job drilling through plastic, wood, and most metals. It is certainly safer and quieter than a power drill, and costs quite a bit less.

Supplies :

Some experiments will require a source of audio-frequency voltage signals. Normally, this type of signal is generated in an electronics laboratory by a device called a signal generator or function generator. While building such a device is not impossible (nor difficult!), it often requires the use of an oscilloscope to fine-tune, and oscilloscopes are usually outside the budgetary range of the home experimenter. A relatively inexpensive alternative to a commercial signal generator is an electronic keyboard of the musical type. You need not be a musician to operate one for the purposes of generating an audio signal (just press any key on the board!), and they may be obtained quite readily at second-hand stores for substantially less than new price. The electronic signal generated by the keyboard is conducted to your circuit via a headphone cable plugged into the “headphones” jack.

Spool of 22-gauge, solid copper wire :

Wire used in solderless breadboards must be 22-gauge, solid copper. Spools of this wire are available from electronic supply stores and some hardware stores, in different insulation colors. Insulation color has no bearing on the wire’s performance, but different colors are sometimes useful for “color-coding” wire functions in a complex circuit.

Wire-wrap wire and wrapping tool :

An alternative to solderless breadboard circuit construction is wire-wrap, where 30-gauge (very thin!) solid copper wire is tightly wrapped around the terminals of components inserted through the holes of a fiberglass board. No soldering is required, and the connections made are at least as durable as soldered connections, perhaps more. Wire-wrapping requires a spool of this very thin wire, and a special wrapping tool, the simplest kind resembling a small screwdriver.

Component box :

During the course of building many circuits, you will accumulate a large number of small components. One technique for keeping these components organized is to keep them in a plastic “organizer” box like the type used for fishing tackle.

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The tool should also generate Class Diagrams.But the main requirement is that the tool should be free and should be able to reverse engineer java code to generate “Sequence Diagrams”

I was wondering what tools developers out there use for prototyping/wireframing, something that is quick and easy and good for getting client agreement. I had a look at jumpchart.com, but it was a little too time consuming for my purposes.

I want to become a video game designer and I am soon going into college. I wanted to get as much of a head start as possible and I have used and gotten pretty good at Blender, though I don’t think that it is used for professional game design often if at all. So I was wondering, which program is?

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