CS 294-3: RAPID PROTOTYPING
Lecture #10 -- Nov. 3, 2000.

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Experience with WebCAD (cont.)

You did great work last week -- it gave important feedback to WebCAD team.

The Use of WebCAD

Your latest experiences with WebCAD
Your latest experiences with the submission software
New problems discovered ?

Design for Manufacturability

Bad Machining Practices
Operations to avoid:

Drilling into an edge of a pocket
Drilling into a slope
Drilling too close to a void
Milling too close to a void
Milling adjacent pockets without overlap

Tests for Manufacturability
Operations that WebCAD will catch for you:

Pocket depth and tool length
Feature dimensions and tool diameter
Thin-wall problems
Feature adjacencies
"Open-edge" cleanup

Advanced Features in WebCAD

Non-vertical pocket walls
-- to make draft angles for injection molds.
Free-form Pockets
-- to make anything from bowls to faces.

More Details on Microplanning

Optimal tool sequence for pocket milling;
-- (a look behind the scene.)

Preparing for the Z-Corp 3D printer

. . . and its special characteristics:

Needs a water-tight B-rep in VRML
Will color parts according to the surface color on the B-rep.
Does not have explicit support structure; the non-bonded powder serves that role.
The support structure is easy to remove; just use vacuum cleaner, brush.
Smallest feature should probably be about 50 mils.

Homework Assignment:

A#10: Design a colored part for fabrication with the Z-Corp 3D printer

I understand it wants a VRML description, but can handle only eight colors ...
Zcorp Color File Format Example

Watch further postings and e-mail as we learn what is needed.

Start designing your part in SLIDE. (We will work a on a VRML converter).
Stick with bold color designs; since the colors are somewhat pale,
and we don't yet know how good the color resolution is.

Think about what "show-piece" (= course-project) you want to do for CS294-3.