I totally agree, STL is becoming antiquated and does not carry the amount
and types of information that will be needed in RP/RM in the next 10 years,
but....
In order for this software to be truly useful, it will have to be able to
read NATIVE file formats from AutoCAD, Pro/E, I-DEAS, Unigraphics,
Solidworks, Form-Z, SolidEdge, CADDS, CadKey, CADRA, SolidDesigner,
etc...not to mention Alias, 3-D Studio, etc...(i.e. good luck)
If all these packages have to convert to IGES first to be read by a new
software package, you decrease the potential usefulness by an order of
magnitude. Why? Because most CAD vendors' IGES translators aren't 100%
reliable either! If you don't want to spend time fixing IGES models
(instead of fixing STL models), don't plan on translating to IGES first.
Plus, IGES doesn't even carry all the necessary info itself...
Ideally, all of these packages should be able to export some new replacement
format on their own (like they export STL now), which means that each vendor
should write it's own translator internally, which means that.....we're back
to the "bad STL" problem again.
I realize that this over-simplifies the problem somewhat, but you get the
point...I'm not saying it's impossible (far from it), but it's not as simple
as one might hope...
Any ideas?
Justin Kidder
Ph.D Student
University of Pittsburgh
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi [mailto:owner-rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi]On Behalf
> Of aaroflex
> Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 1999 5:41 AM
> To: rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi
> Subject: STL Replacement
>
>
> Dear List,
>
> AAROFLEX, Inc. operation continues to see, on occasion, flaws in STL
> files that produce some undesirable results. Usually, this occurs on a
> most crucial part to be fabricated. Of course, there are software
> packages to clean up the bad files, but this is time consuming and
> costly of which no is willing to pay or appreciate this extra work.
> This is a big hindrance to the growth of the industry in the day of
> automation. Therefore, this firm will be most happy to consider a new
> file format for the AAROFLEX Solid Imager. Just imagine having a simple
> file conversion to this new format that is more accurate, smaller file
> size, faster to manipulate, color sensitive, depth exposure sensitive
> and possess a step function to determine optimal layer thickness as well
> as print through. The software should be able to convert most 3D CAD
> files and be accompanied with a fast slicing algorithm. This appears to
> be very doable.
>
> Well, What do you think?
>
> Albert C. Young
> AAROFLEX, Inc.
>
>
> For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
>
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
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