The Gravesend Model Marine &  Engineering Society

Model Engineer's companion

'Model Engineer's Companion' is a conversion calculator for Imperial/Metric etc., plus data sheets for popular threads, tables of standard Imperial, Metric, number and letter drill sizes, plus Imperial and Metric sheetmetal and wire gauges etc.

If you are anything like me, you don't just use your computer for the Internet. Maybe you do some design work using CAD applications. I often draw the part or assembly current being worked on ... we all know how unreliable some of the published drawings can be. The computer is a wonderful tool and using it to drawing parts to check clearances, alignments etc, is a very valuable method of saving time and materials.

Designing pipe dreams is another favourite pastime for some people. Whether any of these projects ever get of the ground, is another matter all together.

While working in this way, it is often the case that, for example, you need to convert say 3.145mm to inches, or 0.119sq in. to sq.mm. Maybe you need to know the tapping drill size for 11BA., or the next larger number drill size to 5/32in.

'Model Engineer's Companion', will run on any PC running Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 or XP using a screen resolution of 800x600, or greater. Memory usage is minimal, so it will comfortably run alongside other applications.



If you are not experienced in downloading files and applications from the internet, you may find the notes below useful. Otherwise you may...

Download ... “Model Engineer's Companion” ... now (176KB).



Instructions for downloading

  • Create a new folder; I would suggest calling it 'MEComp', but the name is not important.

  • Click the “Download ... 'Model Engineer's Companion'... now” link above.

  • After a moment, a box will appear asking whether to 'run from current location' or to 'save to disc'. It is important that the 'Save to disc' option is selected!

  • You will then be asked to which folder the file is to be saved. So navigate to your newly created folder ('MEComp') folder and click save.

  • The download process will now start. Even with an older modem this will only take a few minutes.

  • The download file is an archived file called 'mec2.zip'. Before it can be used, it must un-archived using a suitable utility. If you do not already have such a utility, 'Winzip' can be highly recommended and can be downloaded free for evaluation from www.winzip.co.uk.

  • Un-archive 'mec2.zip' to the new folder ('MEComp') using the instructions supplied with your un-archiving utility. This will create two files 'Companion.exe' and 'Readme.txt'.

  • Open 'Readme.txt' and follow the instructions for getting started.