In a message dated 99-12-16 14:11:02 EST, gfadel@ces.clemson.edu writes:
<< One advantage I saw mentioned by Stephen Rock in the exchanges is
that slicing would be much faster - say 2 to 3 times faster on the average.
Would that be good enough a reason to migrate? >>
The major drawback to STL is the FACET. The STL is great for describing
boxes. But really sucks for curved surfaces, small radii, internal
passageways etc. It's ludicrous in the extreme for RP manufacterers to be
claiming .001 in plane accuracies when the file format won't come that close.
Not with a zillion triangles! There have been formats already that did
perform better when used on curved models, things like Cars, Airplanes,
barbie dolls, etc. One is CATSLICE, available for Catia only I believe, I
don't know if it is still supported. The other was the approach as by Fockle
and Schwatrz, and perhaps a few others to use HPGL slices, supported by
Magics etc. The STL is the major impediment for RP's progression/evolvement
into RM (rapid manufacturing). Accuracy, surface finish and utlity all suffer
because STL will never be more than just an approximation. That is OK perhaps
for many models, but totally inadiquate for tooling or production.
Andy Scott
Lockheed Martin Aero Sys
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