I found out recently that the reason we call it “April Fool’s Day” is not quite as funny and whimsical as we all thought. April 1st used to be the first day of the new year in the old lunar calendar, which was in use from the time of the ancient Assyrians all the way up until the sixteenth century. That's many thousands of years of human tradition across cultures and in different parts of the world. The demarcation in the calendar had to do with the Spring Equinox, which I talked about in another video here. That’s the time when the day and night are equal in length, and there is a great big full moon. They had different names for the months too back then, but then Pope Gregory the 13th decided to change the calendar to the one we all use now, called the Gregorian Calendar, maybe you’ve heard that name before. There’s all sorts of weird occult stuff tied into the names of the months too, which have to do with ancient Roman gods & myths, but I won’t get into it. If any of you are into that stuff, let me know what you find out. The main point though is that people were called “April Fools” if they still celebrated the lunar new year, because people thought if they had not gotten word about the new calendar, so they must be foolish. But I think there is something to celebrate in the Spring time, and I definitely pay attention to the moon more than I used to. Spring is a time of change, growth, optimism, and planting seeds. To that end, I went through a journaling exercise with some buddies to set our Spring intentions for the year after a 4 day long fast (that was a challenge, but I felt great after). So call me an April Fool, but I’m celebrating this month, and I hope you have the same sense of enthusiasm that I have. What are your intentions for the year? What has changed since Jan 1st? And if the answer is “not much”, what is likely to change now that we have the energy of Spring driving us?

This is where you ask design and SolidWorks related questions. Be sure to include as much info as possible about the project you are working on, and include screenshots if possible.

I've got annother video posted on the latest Halftrack design. The longform video is in the free section of the Classroom, and you can see it on YT here:

Hey all! I'm curious how does everyone organize their projects or jobs? I feel like organizations of our files is just as important as designing the parts. Especially when it comes time for revisions and manufacturing. In my line of work I design parts for my business and the other half I do job shop work for customers (3d scanning, 3d CAD and help customers find manufactures to produce their parts) For my job shop work, the folder tree starts with the Customer Name. Within their name I have their invoice or quote number of their job. Once inside the invoice or quote number I'll have a folder for engineering and manufacturing. I like to keep the original engineered part separate from the manufactured part so that I always have the original part. (saved as copy) Engineering folder will have everything related to designing that part. Ill have a folder for Hardware, References, Prints and 3mf for 3d printing prototypes. Manufacturing folder stays pretty clear with just the CAD file, STEP file and drawing. For my business, its very similar. I start with the vehicle manufacture first but it gets very much cluttered as there are lots of, vehicle models, type of part (armor, brackets, electrical), revisions, references and months to years of developing parts. I'd like to clean up my business folder so I'm curious to what everyone is doing.

Do you guys think I should have the drive mechanism in the back, like a tank? Or in the front like a Motorcycle chain? VIDEO ATTACHED