U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: FreeCAD (2021) | Hacker News Reader

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: FreeCAD (2021)

oit.va.gov

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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...

> The page cannot be displayed because an internal server error has occurred.

HN effect.

UPD: Site is back to work.

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.

Just for context, that system lists what might be approved for installation on Government Furnished Equipment. It doesn't mean anyone will use it.

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.

Am I missing something particularly exciting about this?

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.

That obviously depends on what excites you. I think it's cool that more free software gaining acceptance and traction

This is just a bureaucratic checkbox though. IT approvals are "an employee asked if they could use this" not some kind of broader endorsement.

Sure, I think that is clear. It is still better to be on the list with a check than not!

It's a good thing. So what if there is not also a parade?

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.

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.

Yeah, also more to the point does the VA actually use any sort cad at all?

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

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.

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.

Does it need to be sold by a GSA-approved vendor? Is it CMMC-approved?

I wonder what they use CAD for?

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