From: Charles Overy (cwho@lgmmodel.com)
Date: Fri Oct 04 2002 - 23:09:23 EEST
Hello all,
whoosh -- hear that flame comming at you....
Nice article except for the factual errors! I caught at least two.
"who has so far outperformed a stereolithography (STL) machine. Have you
ever seen one of these? It can take a virtual 3-D image from a software
package such as Catia and put out a colored 3-D model made of plastic. The
STL machine divides the 3-D image into thin layers and makes the model by
laser printing layer after layer of plastic"
- Not a very accurate description of any RP process that I have seen. It
seems to be an amalgam of the Z Corp process (color), Stratasys (layers of
plastic) , and 3D Systems SLA. Also, since when was the class of machines
abbreviated with the file extension? This laxity maybe OK for casual
journalism but it makes me treat the rest of the article as just that. Not
very well researched or thought out.
"AutoCad and its myriad competitors were surely being used on all those Macs
over in design. "
Again, to my knowledge, no AutoCad product has ever run on a Mac and not
many direct competitors in 3D product design are there either.
Next, can you really, "feed 2-D images into Catia and get an exact rendering
without too much manual tweaking" and if so what does a "rendering" have to
do with a watertight 3D polygon mesh export. If Catia can really create a
good 3D model from 2D hand sketches without "too much" human intervention,
then this is an achievement that I have not heard about. Personally I doubt
it, and it is this sort of statement that is particularly irritating. It
over promises the integration of technology in the design process as a
whole. Further it implies that the RP process get blamed when things break
down. If the authors statement is supposed to be that good people are
needed in the design process, there is no debate bu there are more accurate
ways to convey this obvious truth.
Finally, I think that the RP sales people need to find out who this shoe
company is and leave their card. As the article points out, John Henry DIED
in the process of trying to beat the steam drill. I thought shoe companies
already had enough bad press for inspiring that sort of work environment in
their subcontractors.
This article would have been OK if it had been in "People" or perhaps even
"Gardening News" but in a zine presumably directed at Chief Information
Officers of big companies is should try to get the technology parts close to
correct. I have included the editor and writer in this email, perhaps they
would care to respond to the list. It certainly was an amusing read but I
have more than enough anti-technology drivel from neo-luddites in the
architectural community to last me to the end of this year. Next year,
we'll see...
Best wishes to all
Charles
Dir of Eng.
LGM
www.lgmmodel.com,
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi [mailto:owner-rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi]On
Behalf Of Todd Grimm
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 12:21 PM
To: rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi
Subject: Article in CIO magazine
Sometimes it takes an outsider to clearly see what the RP industry faces
as competitive pressures. In a slightly humorous article, CIO magazine
illustrates the challenges that RP and collaboration tools face. Hope
you enjoy it.
http://www.cio.com/archive/100102/worldview.html
Todd Grimm
3028 Beth Ct.
Edgewood, KY 41017
Phone: (859) 331-5340
Fax: (859) 331-5342
Cell: (859) 240-0574
Email: tgrimm1@insightbb.com
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://rapid.lpt.fi/rp-ml/
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://rapid.lpt.fi/rp-ml/
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