Charles Gallup

This is a drawing made in two hours depicting a method to carefully guide multi-million dollar cable out of the cable tub, down the new Capra boom and then onto the barge deck. As these Capras are new, new problems presented themselves. There was in-house squabbling over how this arrangement should look. We knew the boom angle should be about 45 to 60 degrees. We are accustomed to working with a 2.5 meter bend restriction in the cable, but 2.5 meter bends do not work well in this application because of the changing boom angles causing too much bend in the cable. We all had different visions in our minds. Using PowerCADD, I was able to show quite easily there was a point in space at which the cable could care less about boom angle.

Further, I showed we needed roughly a 20' radius cableway. Granted, this is not a complicated drawing. The important point in my opinion is converting talk into action. Once drawn, arguments were made and a plan adopted... boom... done! The steel was ordered last Thursday and construction begins this Tuesday!

This is a simple roller assembly also designed using PowerCADD. These new rollers will attach to the box tube outlined above. We have lots of rollers... none that will fit this cable properly! The cable surges at times and will jump out of this roller way if not contained. So... PowerCADD... I have about four hours into this one. (Three hours thinking and one hour drawing:) Some of the parts are being laser cut as you read this. We usually build whatever we need when we need it. We try to buy parts off the shelf and "Standardize!!" but the next job comes along with a new criteria.

The point being, the above two drawings were done so quickly it put all the arguments to rest. By utilizing the speed and accuracy of PowerCADD to our advantage I gained a few days for construction and eliminated a few days of gabbing. I gotta tell you... I am just enjoying the hell out of this program! I can't wait for a reason to sit down and start drawing because it is simply fun!

This wheeled trencher is typical of the kind of stuff I work around. We just finished modifying this machine by extending the stinger an extra foot. In about eight days we will be dragging this machine in 360' of water across Kachemack Bay in Homer, Alaska in November. We are replacing the existing power cable for Homer Electric. We built this machine before extensive use of PC's. Now, I as-built each piece as time permits. Seldom do we build anything without a drawing first. Chuck Gallup

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