Hi Brent
In the design archives are a number of interesting non-traditional frames. Folders, penny-farthings, curved seat tubes, an X-frame, Notably several by cronjewv. When I try to open these in bikecad, the java applet just hangs.
Are these only available for the pro version? If so, what are the limitations on geometry supported by the pro version? I have some rather eccentric ideas for bikes, and if the pro version could handle them, it would be worth the money rather than spending the time it takes to draw them in Draftsight.
There are indeed some interesting designs posted in the Design Archive. Like you, I am particularly impressed with the creativity exhibited by Cronjewv. Believe it or not, all these designs were done using functionality available in the free online version of BikeCAD.
If you are having trouble loading these designs from the Design Archive, I doubt it would be because of the complexity of the models. Are you able to load any of the designs? There has been some speculation that if people have trouble launching the free version of BikeCAD that the issue has to do with the time required for the applet to load. In an effort to make the applet load as quickly as possible, I've set up another menu option called Quick Start. Quick Start launches BikeCAD with fewer standard components to choose from like wheels, pedals, handlebars etc. I'd be curious to know if you have any better luck using that option.
While BikeCAD Pro may not be required to model bikes like the ones you see in the Design Archive, it would be a solution to the troubles you may be having in getting the free version to run. Because BikeCAD Pro is a standalone application, it does not require an Internet connection to run. In addition, it has a number of added features as described here.
That would explain it. My internet connection (3G tethering) isn't blinding fast, but it isn't THAT slow. There is something peculiar about your site that is very slow. Just this forum page has timed out twice and taken over a minute to load the third time...yet I can stream Youtube video and other sites are not noticeably slow at all. I was awake in the middle of the night ant thought I would try again, because I was unable to load the forum page at all earlier. I even tried via the pub's DSL connection. Do the Mounties have a border checkpoint for data? Interestingly, while I couldn't get the forum to work, I was able to open some of those funky bikes with the faster connection at the pub...not that I could do much with them on my iPhone!
I suspect it is not really a pure speed/bandwidth issue, but rather something timing out due to latency. Like maybe your server sends a packet and doesn't get an ack soon enough, so assumes I have moved on. A board I frequent had similar performance for several years. It was based in Chicago...I wonder if it was hosted by the same provider? Users in the midwest and east coast seemingly had no problems, yet I and others suffered frequent timeouts. I don't think they ever discovered the real cause. Not that they were looking very hard...it seemed like since performance was fine locally they never really believed the reports of problems. Eventually they installed a new server and the problems went away.
I don't know how motivated you are to improve the performance of your site, but when you get reports of slooooow performance, you might ask where the user is located. My bet would be that at some number of hops performance degrades suddenly. I am in Albuquerqe,NM...Southwest USA BTW.
Thanks for the great feedback. BikeCAD.ca is currently hosted by Netfirms.com and uses Drupal 7 as a content management system. I say this, not to suggest that I think there is anything deficient with either the web host or the content management system. Thus far, I have received great service from Netfirms and am constantly amazed by the powerful functionality available in Drupal. I'm just stating it in case anyone has any knowledge that might improve the site based on this information.
Meanwhile, if anyone else has any issues with the site, any details including your location and the specifics of what you are trying to do would be helpful.