Hello everyone!

I was drawn to SketchUp while looking for an inexpensive, yet powerful CAD program to improve the productivity of an independent Patent-Pending venture of mine. As I'm sure everyone here knows, SketchUp is amazing, and what it's done for me from general component design, to 3D visualization, has made my time with this project infinitely more effective and efficient.
To give a little more background about myself I am currently a Mechanical Engineering major at ODU in Norfolk Va. I am originally from upstate NY where I took classes in engineering and design in high school through a program called Project Lead the Way, a University in the Schools-like program through RIT.
My company, Ottonomous Solutions LLC, and the patent pending project project associated with it, is one I have been working on both legally protecting and bringing to prototype since late 2006. In short, it is an idea for a clutch-less manual transmission that still retains the H-pattern of a traditional manual, while also keeping the components of the transmission and shifting systems traditionally simple. The theory that I hope to prove with the prototype I've designed using SketchUp is that low speed maneuvers can be accomplished by the position of the shifter lever between neutral and first (ie: clutch slip), and that all other shifts can be done without the coordination between the shift lever and floor (engine) clutch, but purely by traversing the H-pattern.
Admittedly, I have joined this forum to gain access to some of the more powerful plugins like super-push/pull and loft, but I will also do whatever I can to offer insight and support the community of this amazing software.

Thanks everyone!

-John Otto
Inventor
Owner- Ottonomous Solutions LLC