From: Scott Tilton (stilton@protoprod.com)
Date: Fri Dec 13 2002 - 19:53:58 EET
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey Everett [mailto:jeffery@iowatelecom.net]
I may be way off, but here's an idea no one presented. Ask the designer to
fix the part so there are no overlapping edges...
Jeffrey Everett
-------------------------------------
Unfortunately things aren't always that simple I'm afraid.
In the full sized assembly (as opposed to this 1:18 model that I'm going to
make) the parts don't overlap.
There are all sorts of detailed bits of components and hardware and things
of that nature in the actual assembly model.
Funny things happen when you shrink things to 1/18th original size though.
Sometimes you need to stick in a few extra supports here and there or beef a
few things up because they are too small to be made on an RP machine. Or
even delete some of the detail that when it is shrunk down so small,
essentially be comes noise to the laser trying to scan them.
The engineer's time is obviously not inexpensive . . . and the more time he
has to spend adapting the model to make it RP'able in small scale . . .the
more expensive the model becomes and the less likely that they will use RP
as part of their design and review process.
While I appreciate the flood of helpful suggestions and even offers to help
fix the file and make it one truly merged part, what it turns out that I
really need is "been there done that" type of advice for saving STL files
(or joined assemblies) specifically in I-DEAS.
I can see how MAGICS, or DeskArtes or any number of other products would be
an invaluable tool for dealing with such issues on regular basis.
Unfortunately (or maybe I should say fortunately?) These types of problems
don't crop up often enough for me to justify buying such a software package
right now.
Thanks for all the help and ideas.
Keep them coming.
Scott Tilton
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