Re: rhino + 3d printer

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "afogassa" <afogassa@...> wrote:

>
> HI All,
> I've downloaded rhino 4 and it looks that the tools to make a 3d
> printer is there, just need a little to make it work.
> I draw a part then saved as .Slc file then opened and hatch one
> slice then saved as a windows metafile.
> now, one could make a script to put each slc slice on a diferent
> layer and hatch it up then print it.
> Too bad it has only 25 savings.
> How about that?
>
> Fogassa
>

I'm afraid it may be more complicated than that, in order to fill you
need to know which parts should be filled, you can't just fill all
contours as some may represent an interior wall of a tube for example.

The slc file format contains the information about whether a contour
is an interior or exterior one but when imported it just becomes a
line. You would need to write a script that would move from left
carefully filling just the right sections (if a contour loops it can
cause confusion). Rhino script is pretty nice to use with lots of
automated versions of the commands but it would still be fairly tricky
I think.

If you work in academia or know someone who does you will find the
academic pricing of Rhino very reasonable. Its just such a shame it
is not possible to have a hobby price on this software at the same
level. I have a similar problem to you, I have version 3, it exports
slc but will not import it.

I've just had a play with povray, the website I linked to has the
povray file they used for the toroidal item they printed. It shows
how the object can be sliced by using a camera view looking straight
down with no perspective and making the object transparent but the
intersection of the object with a box black. The animation feature
can then make a stack of images at differing levels. Rhino 3.0 will
export pov meshes but I suspect it will all be rather cumbersome and
slow overall.

Graham