Ahhh, the old name game comes round again. Anyone able to resolve it yet? I
didn't think so. Incidentally, speaking of names, is Bob Cratchet your real
name? Have you got enough coal for the fire yet? You certainly seem to have
stoked up a roaring one.
Rapid prototyping came first, and as such staked its claim. I think most
people actually use RP, rather than the full name. RP has, like IBM (no
longer famous for just adding machines), taken on new meaning. Most people
concede that other names are more descriptively appropriate and/or less
confusing (don't forget that rapid prototyping is also a term used by
managers, electronics engineers and software engineers for totally
different things) but for 15 years now the name seems to have stuck.
The discussion on dimension is not a new one either. We have discussed the
BPM machine before. It had the capability and should have been given a
chance to fight it out. We should be concerned that it was strangled at
birth. We also have tended to overlook the fact that 5-axis machining gives
us the same result, shouldn't we be looking a little further in that
direction?
Gosh, we are also discussing triangles again (is this something to do with
Christmas coming? Seems a bit early to me). I don't understand - it's been
a long time since I saw facets on any RP models thet we have made. There
are many reasons for getting rid of stl, but I don't see facetting as one
of them. Am I missing the point here?
IG
Dr. Ian Gibson
Associate Professor
Dept. Mechanical Engineering
The University of Hong Kong
tel: +852 28597901
fax: +852 28585415
email: igibson@hkucc.hku.hk
I've been here and I've been there and I've been in between.
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
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