engineering
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🔩 Generating Mechanical Models with Claude Code
We recently needed a mechanical model of a USB coupler. On a whim, I suggested that the designer try using Claude Code to create it in FreeCAD from a 2D drawing - it worked! No MCP or complex setup needed. (Although there is an MCP availabl…
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🛠️ Tools or Processes?
What matters more – having better tools or better processes? One tends to enable, the other to restrict. Companies often split into tool-builder cultures (optimized for enabling engineers and teams) and process cultures (optimized for contr…
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🛩️ Why did the Wright Brothers succeed?
While Samuel Langley had $100,000 (equivalent to $3.5 million today) in funding, a team of engineers, and Washington connections, the Wrights were bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio with a fraction of those resources. Langley’s approach wa…
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📦 The bare minimum to call something a release
What is the bare minimum to call something a release? Consider the following: A version that increments with every release. A changelog that describes what has changed for every version and why it matters. A clear identification of any ass…
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⚖️ Reliability, Cost, and Value
Everything has a cost and value to the customer. How much value does the customer put on 99.999% reliability vs the value of other features they need? If one system out of a thousand fails every 3 years (0.033% failure rate per year), what …
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📦 What do we release?
Everything! Documentation Hardware Software Prototypes Products Lunch Engineering is fundamentally the act of creating something new. And that something new needs to be useful to someone or something. And the way we deliver “useful” is th…
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🤝 A release is what unifies Engineering and Business
Some feedback on yesterday’s post (What is a release): What specifically flows into the two points? Value? Effort? Perhaps a better way to phrase this is these are the two points of focus that unify the development team with the rest of t…
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📝 DDPD - 🧪 TDPD - 🚀 RDPD
We have been discussing document, test, and release-driven development (doing these things first before implementing features). This ensures the product: Meets the customer’s needs (DDPD). Is quality (TDPD). Can be modified any time and re…
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🧪 TDPD - Test Driven Product Development
We’re familiar with TDD (test-driven development) in the software world. Basically the idea is to create unit tests before implementing a feature. What if we extend this to systems, hardware, and even mechanical? Write end-to-end system te…
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📚 Without docs
Design files (mechanical, electrical, or software) contain the technical details that allow us to manufacture something in the moment, but they often don’t contain the “why”. Why is this mechanical feature present? Why is this circuit nece…