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People building or using RepRaps.
Re: "CAD" files vs CAM files - a designer's plea - 13 years ago
Having a look at FreeCAD this evening. It appears that it may have been passed over by developers because it is still in early development. Even so, it appears to be nearly as capable as OpenScad already wrt solid modeling. Very promising, but still a long way to go. It's too full of holes right now.by Dale Dunn - General
Re: "CAD" files vs CAM files - a designer's plea - 13 years ago
Nonono. You're working with a CAD system that can import the CAM file and do useful things to it. Basically reverse engineer the faceted .stl file to create a BREP model. It doesn't save it as .stl though, unless you export. Right? On the other hand, Alibre's file structure is based on STEP! I need to remember to look into this capability of Alibre. At the very least, I might be able to use it tby Dale Dunn - General
Re: "CAD" files vs CAM files - a designer's plea - 13 years ago
Another problem with .stl is the loss of precision due to faceting curved faces. When the author only publishes the .stl file, part of the manufacturing process has already been determined, That is, at the time of export, the precision of the faceted approximation for curved faces is set in stone. Everybody else has to live with that, even if they would like to print with finer settings. It's inby Dale Dunn - General
Re: Patents and legal issues with FDM - 13 years ago
My guess is that the open source RP community hasn't yet become a monetary threat to commercial systems. Until that becomes the case, none of the commercial entities can afford the black eye of suing organizations that have a very positive public image. That is, if there are in fact specific patents being infringed. I haven't looked into it. Was this examined in any of the academic research?by Dale Dunn - General
Re: "CAD" files vs CAM files - a designer's plea - 13 years ago
Indeed, I would like to see STEP files published with any design. It is an accepted standard file format that almost any BREP modeler can handle. I'm not sure what tool chain can make that happen right now. I found .scad files for Prusa Mendel, but I didn't find a way to export to STEP! OpenScad may be FOSS, but it's not suitable for design work. What can be done, other than model them over fromby Dale Dunn - General