[HN Gopher] U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: FreeCAD (2021)
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U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: FreeCAD (2021)
Author : app4soft
Score : 68 points
Date : 2023-02-26 15:04 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.oit.va.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.oit.va.gov)
| bluedino wrote:
| Does it need to be sold by a GSA-approved vendor? Is it CMMC-
| approved?
| boris-ning-usds wrote:
| Interesting to see this popped up here. I used to submit a bunch
| of tools through the internal Technical Reference Model (TRM)
| portal where there's 40 or so questions to answer.
|
| draw.io should be available too.
|
| Back in 2018 when I joined, VA laptops were still running on hard
| disk drives and the laptops were 6.5lbs. Procurement cycles for
| it were likely once per decade, and VA was just going through
| their last batch of shitty laptops; and I wrote all my bash
| scripts on that running on cygwin.
| andychase wrote:
| Just for context, that system lists what might be approved for
| installation on Government Furnished Equipment. It doesn't mean
| anyone will use it.
| themodelplumber wrote:
| I like to think there's somebody watching this announcement
| (based on their own request) and pouring themselves a cold one,
| getting ready to train their whole department on some niche
| aspect of FreeCAD that will save millions, with this approval
| out of the way.
|
| (Millions of dollars maybe, but also maybe just millions of
| seconds, you never know)
|
| Then step 2 of the plan is to direct some grant money toward
| development of some $picky_CAD_folks_features[] which will also
| prove beneficial for some kids somewhere,
|
| ...who will go on to help create the next generation of really
| awesome CAD tools and designs that benefit all kinds of people.
|
| But, that's just one version that seems like it could happen,
| to be sure.
| Evidlo wrote:
| I wonder what they use CAD for?
| killjoywashere wrote:
| The page cannot be displayed because an internal server error has
| occurred.
|
| So here's the way back link
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20210928110831/https://www.oit.v...
| app4soft wrote:
| > _The page cannot be displayed because an internal server
| error has occurred._
|
| HN effect.
| sco1 wrote:
| Am I missing something particularly exciting about this?
| hadlock wrote:
| Government employees can design basic stuff (and some not-so-
| basic stuff) and 3d print it in their machine shop, or send the
| design to a machine shop to be made, rather than sending in a
| requisition for purchasing commercial CAD software, waiting
| 6-12 months for purchasing and legal approval etc. to design
| basic stuff. There are a million things that need pretty basic
| brackets or adapters that break or rust and you could get a
| machine up and running in a day or two by designing it
| yourself, rather than going through a bidding process, purchase
| order, invoice etc. Maybe the ABS 3D printed part will only
| last a week, but at least your million dollar machine is up and
| running while the metal part is on order. You can cut out a ton
| of bureaucracy.
|
| There are a lot of groups named "F*ck that, I'll just print it"
| showing how they fixed or modify one simple part that doesn't
| have a lot of stress (less than 100lbs) but they'd have to
| throw out or stop using otherwise.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| Not really. It appears to be a database of approved (and
| disapproved) software people can use for various activities.
| The constraint on this one (and it seems to be on most of them,
| doing a brief browse through) is that you have to inform/get
| approval from the supervisor and others before downloading and
| perform a virus scan on it before executing.
|
| I guess the good thing is that it shows the VA has a central
| repository of approved and disapproved software instead of
| making every team go out and figure it out themselves.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| That obviously depends on what excites you. I think it's cool
| that more free software gaining acceptance and traction
| sco1 wrote:
| This is just a bureaucratic checkbox though. IT approvals are
| "an employee asked if they could use this" not some kind of
| broader endorsement.
| pxmpxm wrote:
| Yeah, also more to the point does the VA actually use any
| sort cad at all?
| kube-system wrote:
| Any organization the size of the VA is going to have
| people using CAD as a matter of just maintaining their
| property.
|
| Example: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/708941600
| hadlock wrote:
| Every government org has a building, and any larger
| facility (20,000 sq ft) will have a "physical plant" with
| various machinery. Any large facility will have a machine
| shop of sorts to maintain HVAC equipment, utility
| vehicles, repair things.
|
| The VA maintains something like 30 hospitals nationwide,
| in addition to various amphatheaters and storage depots,
| it's a huge org. Someone somewhere will be designing
| stuff with FreeCAD and 3D printing stuff within a week to
| solve some problem, even if it's something as simple as a
| shim to keep some HVAC flashing from vibrating.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| Sure, I think that is clear. It is still better to be on
| the list with a check than not!
| thrwawy74 wrote:
| At my corner, they license out Creative Suite and moan
| about the cost every year. So many folks using it for basic
| video cutting/transitions. I've recommended Blender - which
| is approved - over and over, but it falls on deaf ears.
| This is the same thing. Great open-source application that
| does what people want. We don't just need "enterprise
| support" for open-source applications, we also need
| enterprise training. I wish a part of the gov were
| dedicated to supporting open-source and acting as good
| sumaritan liaisons to these projects.
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| It's a good thing. So what if there is not also a parade?
| 1MachineElf wrote:
| I used to work there and was delighted they had Vim listed.
| I was allowed to install Vim on my workstation.
|
| Emacs is not approved unfortunately. Not sure why. I wonder
| if it has to do with that exploitable bug from decades ago
| from Cliff Stoll's _The Cuckoo 's Egg_. Rationale for other
| technology choices they make go back even farther in
| history.
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