Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing made practical for inventors. The five concepts that matter, the mistakes that cost money, and how to get drawings that machinists actually love.
Author Archives: Shelle Parsons
A practical engineer’s guide to using topology optimization with additive manufacturing — when it pays off, where it fails, and the workflow that delivers 30-60% weight savings without losing structural performance.
A provisional patent application costs $160-$320 to file and buys you 12 months of Patent Pending status. Here is exactly what goes into a strong provisional filing and the step-by-step process.
Hand calculations cover 80% of engineering problems. FEA handles the other 20% — complex geometry, stress concentrations, combined loading, and code compliance. Learn when you need FEA and what a licensed P.E. brings to the analysis.
What Does a Licensed Professional Engineer Actually Do for Your Project? You’ve probably seen “P.E.” after someone’s name and understood it meant something official. But what does a licensed Professional Engineer actually bring to a project that an unlicensed engineer or designer doesn’t? And when does it matter? The short answer: a P.E. license means […]
How 3D Printed Bone Models Are Changing Veterinary Surgery When a veterinary surgeon faces a complex fracture repair or tumor removal, they’re often working from 2D images — X-rays and CT scans that flatten three-dimensional problems into flat pictures. That’s like trying to navigate a city using only satellite photos. You can get there, but […]
A prior art search can save you thousands before you file a patent. Learn what it involves, common mistakes inventors make, and how a licensed P.E. firm approaches it differently. PartSnap offers patent prior art searches starting at $200.
One of the most common — and most dangerous — misunderstandings in the patent world is confusing inventorship with ownership. They’re not the same thing. And getting this wrong can invalidate your entire patent. Inventorship vs. Ownership: The Basics An inventor is the person (or persons) who conceived of the invention. Under U.S. patent law, […]
Every week, inventors spend thousands of dollars filing patents for ideas that already exist. Not “sort of” exist. Not “vaguely similar.” Already patented — sometimes word for word, mechanism for mechanism. And they don’t find out until a patent examiner rejects their application 18 months later, after they’ve already paid $8,000-15,000 in attorney fees. This […]
You’ve been working on your invention for months — maybe years. You’ve sketched it out, maybe built a prototype, and you’re pretty sure nobody’s done this before. But when you Google “how to patent my invention,” the numbers hit hard: Patent attorney consultation: $300-600/hour Prior art search: $1,000-2,500 Provisional patent application: $3,000-5,000 Non-provisional patent: $8,000-15,000+ […]