Really, I'd of thought your old profession would have used trig a few times, to calculate the angle or length of cross bracing or like.
I used to think it was pointless until I was in the middle of Leeds Uni one day fitting a good lift, the diagonal cross beam that the ropes attach to was too long to even fit in the shaft and they have to be an exact length and sit at the correct angle so the ropes can pull straight up and down over the pully, needless to say this was the days before smart phones so I was racking my brain trying to figure out what length to cut it to make it fit the lift shaft, eventually my brain realised I was working in a University.... "Oi pal, do you know trig.... good, come here and figure this out for me please." They felt smug for "teaching" a spanner monkey something, I was just happy to be able to continue with the job, still don't know how to do trig though.