Hello all. This has been on my mind for a while. I have the plans for the LE. Like anyone else, you get the plans and you start studying them. The plans leave quite a bit of room for 'experimentation' and 'interpretation', which is fine for some, more difficult for others, depending on your makeup. My makeup is such that I really like to visualize and understand every step fully before I undertake it. I'm sure there are plenty like me. Spending time experimenting or "finding out when you get there" is difficult for me, my personality and my time-frame.
I still work a full-time job and if I can avoid hours "figuring out" what to do, that's a plus. I prefer to study in the house and then hit the ground running in the garage. Now of course one can say we have the forums here and everything has been worked out, one just needs to search. The problem with that is the information is spread out and not everybody communicates clearly or the same, or even does things the same way. One could spend dozens of hours digesting the info here. Centralizing the info is not really a bad thing and what I'm after. Capturing the experience and knowledge of the forums into a singular set of plans is appealing to me.
So I am in the process of "re-drawing" the LE, like so many here probably have; however, there is a difference between drawing/modeling CAD details, versus drawing/managing a full set of plans, which is a much bigger endeavor, and a task which I have experience with.
What I am wondering, is if there is a consortium here that would be interested in contributing to such a set for the LE?...and consider whether such a thing would be a good thing if expanded beyond my computer screen. I would do the drawings, but need very regular input and communication, review and/or photos from folks who have actually built and completed one, so as to work through the minutia. The benefit to me, is I get the mental exercise of working through the design before I begin the work...as well as passive mentorship...the benefit for others is for future / current builders. Better plans = more completions in my experience. It doesn't hurt that I enjoy creating these drawings either as a hobby...it scratches an 'art' itch.
Of course it goes without saying that Leonard holds the rights and such Work in progress certainly should be kept private and safe and not be available in the public domain. I'd offer up the plans (should they be completed) to Leonard, should he have any interest in them. Of course he can review them along the way if he likes. There are a multitude of options for securing the work and distributing it amongst any contributors...and if Leonard liked the idea and wanted the master file so as to produce printed drawings only, then that's fine also. I'm highly respectful and protective of Intellectual property, I'm in that line of work myself.
My drawings tend to be a little old-school as shown in the attached images. I have some experience and tools at my disposable beyond the normal repetoire of most MCAD / CAD users, and can integrate CAD details with 'clarifying illustrations' on the same page, but with much more flexibility than can be done with MCAD 'exploded views', which usually show irrelevant info along with the relevant info. I enjoy the older hand-drawn style of plans.
...and as an added benefit, these drawings are pure 2D DXF only, generated using QCAD Pro (QCAD free / LibreCAD not sufficient for authorting, but certainly for viewing). Anyone who can create DXFs can contribute. The 3D and isometric views I generate with Blender 3d, but have a proprietary method for getting those lines out into 2D DXF form. My drawings are authored using Fusion 360, Blender 3D and QCAD Pro, each tool being used for whatever its best for. QCAD pro is my final "presentation layer", allowing me to manage the "drawing set" as a whole.
Now I've been down this road before with the KR2 Freebird project and you can see some examples of my work on that site at the following link:
http://freebirdplans.orgThe challenge with such an effort is "agreement" on the design. If all contributors agree on the design implementation, then documenting it is somewhat trivial. If; however, like the KR2, everybody wants to do things their own way and have you draw every conceivable option....well...I'm not doing that. That group was difficult to work with as no-one could draw, everybody wanted something different, and nobody could really articulate design details well, so I'd end up "guessing" and redrawing over and over, stalling progress. This offer is for "documenting", not designing. Fortunately, the LE is well established in its design and a good candidate for such a documentation effort IMO.
I'll be doing this work privately myself regardless, with an eye on starting the build later in the year, I'll take any "mentorship" I can get...and collaborative drawings are a way to achieve that and hence this post. So yea, I'm being somewhat selfish here.
Having contributors (essentially mentors) makes it easier on me and speeds things along, and the second even one person begins to actively contribute, then the project automatically becomes "community" in my mind. Ultimately, for this to work, I'm quite sure folks would want Leonard to know about it and put his stamp of approval on it....but I don't currently have the street cred to present such an offer as I'm coming out of left-field on this one. So if any old-timers here think the idea has some merit, then perhaps you can put it past Leonard and get his take. This community is somewhat tight and I'd think that something like this is better put past the community as a whole, rather than just Leonard. He's getting up there in age, and I'm not sure what the future holds for the design, but I know he has a lot of friends here whose opinions he'd respect I'm guessing. I'm in San Antonio, TX, right down the road from Leonard, so that's a plus possibly.
What I'm offering is my skill set, time, and inclination to attempt to produce a nice, cohesive set of plans for the LE. What I need is experienced builder folks who can communicate very clear, finite build details to me for documentation. I'll have plenty of questions. The communication of such details should be either photos, CAD drawings, 3D, or hand-sketches. Working with "words" doesn't really work in this configuration. On the Freebird project, I'd get 500 word 'descriptions' of design details. That kind of thing I cannot work with. I also am available to fly out to meet anyone to talk details as well. That REALLY speeds things along.
So just throwing this out there. I'm working the drawings already on my own. I'd be interested in any thoughts folks may have. I will be at Oshkosh also, so if anybody will be there to answer questions and let me take photos, that would helop as well.
-TomK
