Laser cutting experiment 1 in the workshop

The first experiment of laser cutting didn't work to plan. I had my pages oriented incorrectly (should be LANDSCAPE 812.8mm TALL, 475.2mm WIDE).

To use the machine, I opened my corel file, made sure everything was rgb red (the corel red), barcode numbers only had a blue outline (no black anywhere!!!), each line was a single line, and hairline thickness. Then grouped it and window selected the image (CNTRL + G)/ File/ Print/ Selection/ Properties: MDF 3mm... this is what I used) ok/ Print.

Then I opened the laser program, made sure it was on my slide, then pressed PLAY BUTTON to print.

Couple of issues with the machine, but I just had to clean up my file.

Unfortunately in my first attempt I had miscalculated the site's contour heights and somehow did not scale them accordingly with my other site objects (ie - the sheds were too large).

Laser Cutting the Site Model - Process

The next thing on my weekly 'To Do' list is to laser cut a site model (roughly to the same scale as my bar web 3D prototype).

It was a long and involved process going from Blender, to Revit, to AutoCad, to Corel Draw.

Steps:
1. Cut sections in BLENDER at 3 meter intervals (using 3mm ply sheets). I imported the model into Revit, measured the distance between the cliff and river (was approximately 30 meters) then worked backwards (needed 10 sections cuts horizontally etc.)

The same principle was applied to the story bridge (vertical sections), and my important shed buildings on site.

To cut a section in Blender: join the object all together first (p)/ make a plane/ select the object/ cursor to selection (shift+S)/ and move the plane into the position where I want it cut for a section..... then Scripts/ Object/ Cross Section/ Yes: fill objects...... then export this.... Scripts/ Export/ Autodesk.DXF


2. Import sections into AUTOCAD (open the .dxf file). These are to be scaled up in CAD or REVIT to the size I want cut. I then had 2 options: 1/ keep all of the lines on layer 0 so that they could be changed colour in Corel... or 2/ change the lines to be cut: RED, slightly etched: BLUE, large blocks of text and images: BLACK. (NOTE: COULD ALSO USE GREEN AS GUIDELINES AS THEY DON'T PRINT).

In AUTOCAD I also drew up a mock laser template for the machine and made sure my objects fit on those pages (400mm x 800mm) before saving them as the oldest possible Autocad file (AUTOCAD 2000.dwg).


3. Open the Autocad file in COREL DRAW, checked all lines were hairlines (pen nib tool, select hairline)/ fit all of the puzzle pieces onto my pages (leaving 5mm margins, 390mm x 790mm)/ made sure each piece was code labeled in blue/ then grouped the number to the piece (select both/ Cntrl+G)... then saved it.

Hardening the 3D Rapid Prototype

Once the models had been baked and dried slowly in the oven, they had to be hardened with a fixing agent.

The thicker concert shell was fine just apply 1 layer of the glue to (making sure not to go over any area twice or else it smudged). However, considering the web model was a lot finer, it had to be firstly drenched in glue hardener, quickly dried with the cool air gun, then resprayed with a sea salt water base mix to make it more rigid.

3D Prototype in Oven

Here is the update of the 3D prototypes live from the drying oven! They ran out of hardener but hopefully by next week it'll all be applied and they'll be right for me to take home.

The web worked nowhere near as well as the shell which is ironic considering I applied the same thickness of 5mm to both... yet the web came out at about 2mm?

The shells are great and look really sturdy which I think is a product of it being one plane (I saw many other models similar to my web thrown in the bin as they broke)

3D Models in REVIT, SOLID WORKS, Z PRINT & 3D RAPID PROTOTYPER

This week was a huge experimentation one trying out Revit, Solid Works, Z Print and the 3D rapid prototypes in the industrial workshop.

REVIT
Steps of how to bring blender model into revit and scale it up to be able to cut sections through etc. below:
1 - Bring model into revit (import)
2 - Look on google maps to gauge the scale of the site and measure something (I measured the story bridge was 30m wide).
3 - Back in Revit, draw a ML (model line) on the floor plan at 30 000 (as have set it up in mm)
4 - Scale up the model according to this by: select model/ modify/ scale/ click the 3 following points (1. edge of bridge., 2. other edge of bridge that I want to stretch to the 30 000 mark., 3. point where I want the model scaled up to which is the 30 000 mark).
This made for some interesting sections, but they were cluttered with trees etc.

SOLID WORKS
The workshop informed me that I had to pass the blender file through solid works before it would successfully print in the rapid prototyper (powder)... which didn't turn out to be the case! But I learnt a lot in the process.

I started by fixing up the faces of my imported STL file in Solid works so that it would print the 3D form properly. I spent ages and was told that I wasn't allowed to use the whole cone shape for my stage shell, but had to shell it to waste less powder before sending to print. This defeated me stitching it up in Blender in the first place (!!!!!!) but at least I got to practice my facing skills in Blender so wasn't a waste of time.

The way to thicken the shell in solid works was to 1/ select the outside faces of the shell I wanted to form together (as an outside surface) and then thicken them. I selected feature recognition from the top tool bars/ thicken/ thick outwards 0.05 so that it would print to be 5mm thick. Then save as stl unit in meters.

For the intricate web, I spent hours trying to heal all to close up all the faces but I couldn't get them all healed. Then simon walked in and said I didn't need to do that anyway and could have just copied and pasted the shape straight into Z Print by literally dragging it straight in!

So that was that! And I'll go to pick up my models tomorrow to see if they work. For the record, the lady next to me just modeled up a sketchup model and saved it as 3DS which was perfectly fine to once again COPY and PASTE straight into the Z Print file without converting it at all! This then fills up a box on the screen with all the models to print in the overnight session.


Below is a picture of the 3D rapid prototyper:

The white powder that forms our models looks like this: