Drawings are critical to the development of scientific instruments. Before today's age of extensive computer use, design of objects like the ISUAL and IMAGE instruments involved a messy and complicated system of drawing, blueprinting and maintaining hard copies of pictures. The advent of programs like AutoCAD and OrCAD enables scientists to design and draw components directly on a computer, sometimes even in three dimensions. Computer generated drawings are much more easily organized than blueprints and can be accessible through a network control system to all scientists involved in a project.
The ISUAL/IMAGE groups have their own drawing control system which exists as a directory structure stored on a central computer. This directory contains a drawing list, a drawing tree, folders for new and controlled drawings, and a folder where engineers may save their preliminary drawings and works-in-progress if they wish to share them in read-only format with other scientists on the project. This subdirectory is accessible to anyone in the lab who is designated part of the ISUAL or IMAGE groups.
When a team member decides to make a drawing, he or she chooses the next available drawing number from the drawing list. The drawing list is a text file containing all of the drawing numbers and the date, title and engineer associated with each drawing. The number in the list claimed by the engineer becomes the drawing's file name. The designer then chooses a program and creates the drawing directly on his or her personal computer. Once satisfied with the product, the engineer saves the drawing to a "new drawings" folder. Note that the first 436 drawings in the drawing list are for the IMAGE FUV instrument while those following are for the ISUAL imager.
The contents of the new drawings folder are reviewed periodically by the configuration manager, who ensures that each picture looks correct and that the parts fit with previously approved drawings. If a new design is approved, the manager moves the drawing to a "controlled drawings" folder. The controlled drawings folder contains the latest version of each design, listed in numerical order. Engineers can access these drawings and reference them in drawing adjacent or interrelated components. An indented "drawing tree" serves as an index so that designs can be found according to their function and placement in the instrument.
Once the drawings are complete, the configuration manager will provide copies of released drawings to various assembly units. Examples of drawing recipients include the Space Sciences Laboratory machine shop, similar outside vendors, and printed wiring board houses. These organizations will assemble the components of the instrument and prepare them for spaceflight.
Navigating This Website