How's this for a tailpiece?

[hokenpoke]

Barrels on the end of bass strings are 0.25" diameter, no?

I love SolidWorks.

[krfoss]

its freakin' rad. i'd put one those on my bass.

[wkbryan]

Not sure I can give a good opinion until I see it on my 1978 Precision!

Looks great, would like to see photos of a finished product.

[barnaclebeau]

That tailpiec is rad. Solidworks looks awesome, too. I only know Rhino, and get good results with it, but I hear that Solidworks is better for machinery-like stuff. Is it expensive?

[hokenpoke]

Originally Posted by barnaclebeau

Solidworks looks awesome . . . Is it expensive?

I'm afraid I don't really know. The academic pricing which I can (legitimately) use is excellent ~$140 with a Finite Element Analysis package, ~$90 without.

If I had to guess, I would say that regular licenses are pretty darn expensive.

It does rock pretty hard though.

[asad137]

Originally Posted by barnaclebeau

That tailpiec is rad. Solidworks looks awesome, too. I only know Rhino, and get good results with it, but I hear that Solidworks is better for machinery-like stuff. Is it expensive?

Solidworks is expensive. Probably not as much as something like Pro/E or IDEAS, but out of reach of the typical hobbyist.

I get to play with SolidWorks academic as well, but the license restricts you to not making commercial parts.

Asad

[T2W]

definitely a nice piece. Not on any bass, but on certain instruments it would look killer.

well... Solidworks seems to be a lot better than any CAD program ive ever used.

[theshadow2001]

I think it looks plain. Maybe if you put staff lines on it and then attached the two dots on the lines some way. A little more detail would improve it a lot.

[pilotjones]

I really like the idea. Kicks ***. Only thing in my case is I don't think I'd ever build a bass with enough space behind the saddles to fit that. But I like it a lot.

SWX (solidworks) also kicks ***. I say that having used it for seven years for machine design engineering. I'm now with a different company, and using Inventor 2008, which I approached with an open mind--but I am disappointed and frustrated with it on a daily basis. IMO it has two or three features that should be added to SWX, and it's missing, without exaggeration, a few hundred features that SWX had in the 2003 or 2004 or 2005 editions. The UI was better on SolidWorks 98plus.

SWX goes for $5k a seat (or did two years ago, the last time I was responsible for licensure) for the standard package, plus it's $1200 a year for the support and upgrades contract. But I always got great support/service from my VAR, and SWXcorp does continually support and improve the product. Bugs in new releases get fixed very quickly, and they expand the feature set all the time.

I recently found out Inventor is going for $7k. It used to be a cheaper alternative to SWX and SolidEdge and "baby pro/e", but no longer I guess.

[barnaclebeau]

If you're either a) a rhino user, or b) a mac user, check out

http://community.irhino3d.com/

Rhino is developing an OSX version, and if you've got a little CAD experience you can request a copy (free!) to help evaluate and find bugs. (my experience is only as a hobbyist.) The version that's out right now is pretty awesome, and mostly bug-free, I designed the bass I'm building right now on it. I put a screenshot at Build alpha: Rob Allen inspired

[Suburban]

Solidworks is good and expensive - and the company Dassault Systèmes is a real, big, fat PIA. I have to work with them all the time, and they make me...sad, eventually.
I much prefer Solid Edge, which is about as compentent and UGS are much easier to live with than DS.

But when it comes to paying...I still haven't found any useful "hobby"-CAD. There are a few low-prized but they are strictly incompetent.

IME.

[alexei]

I wonder if you could get this tailpiece done in real life.
Did you make a tension analisys on this design? I presume 2nd and 3rd strings will put too much tension in a way you are not supporting with axile action in the tailpiece. All tension from 2nd and 3rd will most likely cause flectioning stress, gathering (acumulating?) in the corners.
I'm sorry for my poor technical english, but, besides it's a really cool design (I digg it!) It looks to me that strings tension will not be your friend in this. I doubt any wood will make it.
Nice art!

[pilotjones]

Originally Posted by alexei

I wonder if you could get this tailpiece done in real life. . . I doubt any wood will make it.
Nice art!

Umm... I agree wood would not likely be up to the job, but I'm thinking the intention was to use brass, which should not be a problem.

Nice dig up of an old thread. This was a nice idea.

[Zombbg4]

nice. I always enjoy a good piece of tail...uhh i mean tail piece.

[Nokay]

Looks like Catia V4...