Blogs

Let's break a few things down to basics.

A .stl file format is the standard file type accepted in the world of 3d printing. Yes, there are others, but more often than not a 3D file that you submit to a printer will be a .stl file.

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The New York Times had an online article called
Frank Gehry’s Software Keeps Buildings on Budget
It discusses the use of Gehry Technology's Dtigital Project as well as Audtodesk Revit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/business/11gehry.html?em

As a provider of 3D printing services we print a lot of scale models (maquette) for architects, real estate companies, product developers and inventors. We like to encourage others to use 3D printing to develop conceptual models to discuss with future clients and users. During these hard (financial) times it is very important to let them participate in the design process. By visualizing your concepts and ideas through physical models it is easier for a person to give feedback and co-create a solutions he is happy to use.

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I have always found that interactive 3D digital data yields a greater wealth of information than static 2D images. For instance a digital 3D model allows the user to orbit, pan, and zoom around the model. Where as a single 2D elevation is very specific to one portion of the project. In the AEC we use these drawing qualities for different but equally important uses. The full 3D digital model can show the overall design intent of a project. Where as a detialed section can show how a staircase interacts with its supports.

This entry is about drawing for flat colors and not texture maps etc. There are ways of producing color mapped SketchUp prints, but I will have to address that as a separate subject, though many of the underlying drafting principals will be the same.

I thought I would let you folks know what the LGM team has been playing with recently.
For those of you that want a STM (Solid Terrain Model) product or traditional terrain sales model, but really and truly don't need the price tag or museum quality piece.

The model is milled out of high density urethane foam with a true color, high resolution, surface image.

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The original data for this project was submitted by Gary Hartman at Sunlit Architecture. The data was good, but had many of the typical problems that i see when trying to convert architecture CAD into 3D printable CAD.

Typical issues:

The major hurdles of trying to convert architectural CAD into 3D printable CAD are detail tolerances and the generation of a water tight model before export. With this particular project the detail tolerances were mainly too small on the handrails (balcony and stairs). This is usually an intuitive fix because the elements are in plain view and easily fattened so as not to break during fabrication in the 3D printer.

I haven't been on here in a bit, but my recent use of the new Free plugin prompted me to get back in to the swing of things.

The following was a file I was asked to process for a great firm in NY. The gentleman that sent the file to me was unable to process the file themselves using the new plugin from CADspan because their firm was running Internet Explorer 6 and the Plugin requires IE 7 or higher. I think the rest of the world is on IE 8 so this may be a limited problem.

I recently had issues working on a SketchUp file from a client. My snaps were not snapping to the edges of the model, consequently any new faces I created were floating just off the surface of the model. The view would also "jitter" as I orbited around the model.

I thought I would just muddle through it, but my CADSpan output was negatively affected so I needed to solve the problem.