Whoohoo! Just got accepted: SketchUp Pro Non-profit program!
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Let people say what they want, but Sketchup and Trimble are a great combination. Trimble has graciously allowed us to use Sketchup 2015 Pro through their Non-profit program for the development of our latest efforts to benefit the homeless, the poor and the disenfranchised. I'm not that great with Sketchup. But with your help, I am improving. This will be my main platform for developing our new project.
Mainly, my wife Shirley and I minister to the homeless; in food, clothing, blankets, whatever we have. The neighbors also give us things when they clean out their closets and we distribute it in the homeless camps that surround us. I've been building 1 and 2 person shelters out of donated Coroplast to sleep in so at least a few won't freeze (here I used Sketchup for the cut-out dimensions).
Life in the street is really hard. But it is really hardest on single moms that find themselves with no place to go. That's where I came up with our latest idea. A vehicle that doubles as a shelter. Most of these people need to be able to get to court, the clinic, the soup kitchen and various community based ministries that attempt to help them. Most of them have no transportation and no place to keep their 'stuff' when they need to make an appointment. I would like to change that.
It is a tragic situation that in more and more municipalities, homelessness is being criminalized. The city of Houston (where we live) has even gone to great lengths to criminalize even feeding the hungry. Currently, the city requires that you run a commercial kitchen with all the licensing, permits and inspections and all the overhead a brick and mortar operation entails, to feed a homeless or poor person. Not only that, you must apply for a 'location' from which to distribute. One guy drew the steps of the city library, as if the homeless were allowed to congregate there. They know better. They get arrested, then pardoned, then dumped outside the city limits with nothing and no place to go. If you get caught feeding them, the city will write you a very expensive ticket. http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Proposed-rules-safer-food-or-criminalizing-3387193.php
I have included a concept drawing for our latest project. It is a utility version of a weather-tight Velomobile, (see https://www.facebook.com/groups/15644592486/) based on donated bicycles, recycled Coroplast, converted weed-eater and leaf-blower engines for power assist and salvaged aluminum ladders. I wanted to design something that could be assembled with zip-ties, minimal hardware and only using hand tools. No cutting or welding required. We calculate we can get about 150 miles per gallon and a cruising speed comparable to street level traffic; about 30-40 miles per hour.
We are in communication with a number of local ministers to acquire donated bikes and recruit youth ministries to assemble the Velomobiles. Meanwhile, I have been trying to get the local cycling community involved. There have been 23 cycling fatalities in Houston (mostly hit and run) over the last five years. There has been only one prosecution and hardly a ticket written, I think they might have a vested interest in getting a larger Human Powered Vehicle on the road and I could certainly use their support and expertise. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/dying-to-ride/
This is only the concept drawing. I borrowed the bike and the articulated dummies from the 3D Warehouse as a starting point. The individual models for power transfer, power assist, steering, ventilation, controls systems, electrical, lighting, etc., are still in development, with different drawings based on donated equipment and materials. There will need to be different drawings for each different set of matched bikes too, according to their size and dimensions. I intend to use 3D printing to custom produce the latches, hinges and various other custom parts; something I could not do without the Pro license.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank Trimble, the Sketchup Pro Support Team for their largess and all the people here at SketchUcation for the helpful tips and how-to articles. This entire project will be developed and modeled in Sketchup and with your valuable assistance. So again, thanks!
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That's great Philip... Way to make a difference.
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I've been playing with the basics. I need a triangulated support strategy to rigidly attach the bike frames to a floor frame made up of aluminum ladder segments that are bolted together. Because the idea is to keep as much floor accessible as possible (for sleeping), I need something like a space frame arraignment to keep everything rigid.
I know that this doesn't have much to do with modeling, but there are some engineers and designers that visit these pages. I hope this isn't too far off topic.
I found some plumbing patches that bolt onto water pipes. They are rubber-lined and come in a variety of sizes and configurations. Not too difficult to model. So I have been playing with this idea, but I wondered if anyone had any suggestions.
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