Autodesk has released a free solid modeling design app that's aimed at the maker community, called 123D. It interchanges .sat and .stp and outputs .stl when you're done. It doesn't have to phone home and isn't time limited. Tagging along after Sketchup in some ways, but isn't restricted to facet representations, and has a limited (so far) amount of its own "warehouse" content for download.by murrayd - 3D Design tools
I meant to highlight the reduced-price opportunity, though IMO it's a good deal at the regular price. I'm a user, not the seller, so think of it more as a very brief review if that's more kosher!by murrayd - 3D Design tools
PunchCAD have just introduced V7 of their ViaCAD Pro program, and they're selling it at an introductory price of $99. I've spent a lot of money on various CAD apps over the years, and I beta tested this one. It does solid and surface modeling, apart or together, including things like untrimming surfaces, tangency and continuity. Reorderable history, associative modeling and feature recognitioby murrayd - 3D Design tools
CAD professional/enthusiast/evangelist, product designer and homebrew CNC/CAM systems builder. Open source proves that intelligence and ingenuity aren't proprietary or exclusive.by murrayd - General
Not using HeeksCAD entirely, but still open-source. An .stl imported in FreeCAD can be treated part|create shape from mesh, the result then part|convert to solid, THAT result exported as .step for HeeksCAD. Original curved surface definitions are lost though, so editing a facet solid is realistically limited to boolean actions. *edit* just had a look at Heeks 0.16.x and there's provision on rby murrayd - 3D Design tools
SebastienBailard Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Should we be taking this license seriously or not? No! It's a misrepresentation of the CC license terms to imply that it, or his stipulations, are applicable to the device, or carry any weight when used so.by murrayd - General
Treating a copyright license as a de facto patent won't make it so. Without a patent, a mechanism designer has no way of enforcing a monopoly on a device. If it were copyrighted as an isolated coffee table knick knack, perhaps. But offering the documentation on the reprap wiki takes all of the wind out of that sail.by murrayd - General
I did some electrodeposition near thirty years ago with copper. I used graphite powder dusted onto wet laquer to form the initial conductive coating. The pieces were immersed in a sulphuric acid/hydrochloric acid/copper sulphate bath and current passed between electrodes contacting the graphite. The result was a copper skin that could be used in its own right or plated over with chrome or nickby murrayd - General
One thing that hasn't been taken into account in any of this "STEP is more accurate than .stl" debate is location. Because .stls are predicated on production, part of the .stl format is location. All valid .stls are translated to be located in the positive coordinate octant. Every user, even if he or she is using the same application as the user sitting next to them, can have their STEP objectby murrayd - General
There's a function to eliminate edges, consolidating faces, in FreeCAD. Convert mesh to object, then object to solid, then It's the blue "up arrow" on selected faces. Not as to-the-point as the function in TurboCAD. Trying it out, it's a bit shaky, ie, sometimes doesn't like to attempt too many faces conjoined at once, or the weather, or the way I'm holding my tongue, or the way I'm looking atby murrayd - General
We really are spoiled for choice. I was thinking on it last night, and I realised that when I started using CAD, around twenty years ago, .stl was the only universal model format for manifold objects, IGES was at version 4, and STEP didn't exist... But STEP has made inroads into free and open-source CAD, mainly because of the solids kernel that Matra Datavision abandoned and open-sourced, Open Cby murrayd - General
All I can say to you is that standing about stamping your foot because you don't like the format isn't likely to change anything. The people who got there before you made it work.by murrayd - General
The frame vertex wasn't "reverse engineered to create a BREP" in any way. .stls are manifold objects, like BREPs. The only considerable difference is curved surface definition. Alibre doesn't produce STEP objects unless you export them, and then your parametrisation is gone. STEP is then only advantageous if your receiving application is capable of feature recognition, and if your file has cuby murrayd - General
So although my applications can import .stls and edit them as easily as .stp or .igs files, I'm not working with CAD because you can't? The picture is a Mendel frame vertex imported as original, solidified, then facet consolidated and filleted.by murrayd - General
An .stl IS a CAD file. Your design program might be advantageous because it recognises curved features, but you only need that facility if your design needs to be edited, right? The reprap developers have signed off on Mendel or Huxley designs and presented you with something that you can make and use. You're sniffing "It isn't a CAD file because I can't bash it up easily!" I use TurboCAD, Pby murrayd - General
Weedeater line is made from nylon. Vinyl isn't very tough.by murrayd - General
Autodesk is offering a "technology trial" of a product they're calling Inventor Fusion, which is a Direct Edit/modeler. It's pretty good, it's exciting to have things like shelling of a body happening while you push or pull a face, or push or pull to determine the radius of a fillet. It's also got an impressive range of import and export formats, STEP and IGES of course, but also higher-end stuby murrayd - 3D Design tools
I also gave some consideration to approaching it the other way, with some sort of quantum escapement for a DC motor, or a hydraulic or pneumatic servo.by murrayd - General
I found that Tamiya model TL01 radio control cars have 24 11mm outer Ø, 5mm inner ball bearings, and bought two sets for $40 locally. VXB also offers them at that price.by murrayd - General
One way of doing it might be to cut off the necks and bottoms of bottles and slit the resulting cylinder into a continuous strip that can be fed directly to the extruder, instead of double-handling via filament processing. The next problem would be how to change source strips automatically.by murrayd - General
Maybe try www.abc.net.au/tv, Ben. They've got online catchup replays, but it might be regional.by murrayd - General
I wish that HeeksCAD had provision to produce more sophisticated surfacing. Recent HeeksCAD has provision to offset/extrude surfaces into functional solids, which is useful, but its own lofting is restricted to ruled surfaces. This surface was parametrised in PolyCAD, imported into Heeks as IGES, then extruded.by murrayd - General
I'm a 32-bit windows Philistine but it works in there. Still crashes on occasion, doesn't like large assemblies and when booleans have coincident faces it tends to disappear those faces, but it's fun to use. The HeeksCAD user group is very active, Dan and other developer/users always seem to be offering useful advice. The G-code CNC version has a nice, simple graphical toolpath representationby murrayd - 3D Design tools
Sebastion mooted meta-molds some time ago. It got me thinking that vacforms that builders could pour their own favourite/easily accessible polyurethane/epoxy/polyester/plaster/cement concoctions into would be a fast, cheap efficient way of manufacturing and distributing. Some user finishing necessary, but simple, like rubbing on emery paper and reaming holes. Use the vacform as the surface finby murrayd - General
I happened to catch a excellent movie called "Addicted to Plastic" on TV tonight. It started out as an exposé of the amount of plastic in the most remote parts of the oceans (a huge amount of that in the Pacific, maybe 10%, is nurdles, never-processed granules of raw stock. Just from "not worth caring" handling), moved on to the places where recycling is most effectively done, then went on toby murrayd - General
Post your ideas somewhere public. Then they're prior art, no longer novel and can't be patented subsequently. In that case, the intellectual property can't be appropriated.by murrayd - General
I'm not obliged to believe you or otherwise, despite your expansive patronising tone. I've had my own experience. You get along to the patent office and establish that your prior art means that a patent shouldn't have been awarded in the first instance. If you're right, as I have been, the patent is revoked. If you're half-smart, you don't fight a suit for patent infringement, you establisby murrayd - General
trebuchet, I'm not saying that the "poor man's patent" is a patent. That's why I didn't use the expression. What I'm saying is that prior art is grounds for a patent not being awarded. If one is awarded, and the awardee litigates against you for using "their" IP, the "poor man's patent" is protection from that situation, because when prior art attaches, the patent can not be awarded, or must beby murrayd - General
Richard Stallman points out how the corporate legal tarts are at pains to try and have copyright, patent and trademark law all sheltering under the same IP umbrella when they're distinctly different things, and in fact try to convince the world that "intellectual property" is something material that should be enshrined as corporate property for perpetuity. Rather than being scared that we mightby murrayd - General
@Capo. If the blades aren't separated, it would work better if the teeth were staggered, less propensity to jam than with a single throat.by murrayd - General