Large Composited Form-Z Model - Vail, CO

I thought it might be worthwhile to post some recent pictures of a model where much of the 3-D CAD work was done in Form-Z.

My company was commisioned to develop a 1"=50' scale model of the Lionshead Base area located in Vail Colorado. The model was to be used by a local Real Estate company for selling purposes. The point was to create a model that sold location and proximity to ammenities. The client was not concerend with individual buildign finishes or details. For that reason and the scale, we decided to go with a milled terrain form with a basic finish and buildings built on the Z-corp 510.

Much of the 3-D geometry that needed for this was already in existance and archived with my company due to other projects. Surrounding context buildings that were not archived were created using GIS building footprints and site photographs. All of these surrounding buildings were created in Form-Z using solid modeling. The output scale was kept in mind when generating geometry. We usually shoot for a minimum thickness of around .05" when drawing for Z-corp, at least on details like columns, roof overhangs, and decks. That meant that no part in real worlkd could be less than 2.5' thick.

Some of the geometry was drawn in ADT, but was imported to Form-Z for compositing purposes. We have found it best to export ADT to a 2000 dxf if planning to import to Form-Z. Imoprt options used inlcuded "Create 3d Solids" and "Join Coplanar faces." Doing so gives you 3-d parts that are not triagulated meshes and can be manipulated in Form-Z.

After the composite was complete and reviewd by the cleint, the individual buildings were prepped for printing on Z-Corp machines. The buildings were exported as .stl files if the geomotry would allow for it. I have found that even when using the Object Doctor Tool, and the option of exporting all geometry, the newer versions of Form-Z will not always export all the parts if it finds and issue with it. For buildings that had .stl export issues, I exported as .3ds files. The .3ds files were all wrapped using www.cadpsan.com. The Form-Z generated .stl files were imported into Magics and unioned. All the buildings were shelled, and due to the small fianl scale I was able to use a slightly thinner shell thickness.

It took about 6 prints to get all the buildings run. We do not stack parts in the Z-axis to avoid slumping. The printed parts were then finished and integrated into the milled urethane terrain piece.

Below are a few pictures of the rendered composited Form-Z model and the final physical model (prior to final details being applied). There is also a few pictures of the induvidual rendered buildings that help illustrate acceptable geometry in this case.

antlers.jpg

arrabelle.jpg

Lionshead-overall.jpg

DSCF0005-00.jpg

DSCF0006-01.jpg