Sculpture, Inventor and Rapid Prototyping

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know of a company out there that uses rapid prototyping, laser
scanning for artwork and sculpture? I would really be interested in getting
into this field and could use some advice. Thanks

Jerry Chasek

[Anonymous]

Try this site.

http://www.becausewecan.org/

These guys do some stuff like you are taking about and might know of others.

--
Jeff Hanson
Autodesk - AEC Technical Publications
Manchester, NH
_______________________________________
"JCMMSI" wrote in message
news:5731071@discussion.autodesk.com...
Does anyone know of a company out there that uses rapid prototyping, laser
scanning for artwork and sculpture? I would really be interested in getting
into this field and could use some advice. Thanks

Jerry Chasek

[JeffreyMcGrew]

Thanks for bringing us up!

Fact is that many folks are using CNC and 3D printing for more creative endeavors these days. We're only one of many. We use Revit along with a bunch of other tools to do what we do.

What sort of work and/or tools are you thinking about?

Jeffrey McGrew
www.becausewecan.org

[Anonymous]

I would like to get a laser scanner to scan people and use the rapid
prototying to "print" the 3d out. I would edit the 3D scan for details and
cleanup etc. but I think it would be a nice clean way to do custom work in a
small space. With the right faux finish you could make it look like marble,
wood, metal or whatever. Or if the client wnted to get a sand cast done and
have it made out of bronze you could do that too.
The thing is I live in Nebraska and no one does anything like that
around here, so it could be a good thing. But I also don't have anyone to
bounce ideas off of. Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate it! Nice work
by the way.

Jerry Chasek

wrote in message news:5731892@discussion.autodesk.com...
Thanks for bringing us up!

Fact is that many folks are using CNC and 3D printing for more creative
endeavors these days. We're only one of many. We use Revit along with a
bunch of other tools to do what we do.

What sort of work and/or tools are you thinking about?

Jeffrey McGrew
www.becausewecan.org

[JDMather]

The output from 3D scanners (point clouds) is not particularly easy to work with in Inventor. There are better software products for that use.
You might check http://www.sensable.com/
I would suggest checking out the various 3D printing machines available as you might be disappointed with the output. The technology isn't cheap. Unfortunately just viewing a machine in operation isn't enough experience. We have a Stratasys machine that prints in ABS plastic and two Zcorp machines that bind corn starch (one monochrome, one does color). You really need to make a bunch of parts to get a feel for the capabilities and drawbacks of the machines. We used to have a 360K sla machine but you really need to run that 24/365 so that didn't work out to well for us.
If you go to AU this year there will probably be several vendors set up. Look me up if you want to discuss my experience with the technology.

[dgorsman]

Iron Wind Metals have had various levels of success with rapid prototyping. Their work is on the small side.

[JeffreyMcGrew]

I agree on both counts. For what you're looking to do, size will be an issue as well, for most 3D printers can't make big things.

Inventor, while great, isn't a good option for organic surfaces (such as point clouds and faces). I'd recommend a more mesh-based modeler, such as Max or Maya. Some folks also use Rhino to good success for such things. We use Blender for that kind of stuff, which I love, but I'm crazy so you shouldn't listen to me. 😉

I'd go with a larger CNC table like what we've got, or better, so that you could do very large sculptures. There is some cheap CAM software we use that will 'slice' up models into layers that you can stack to make whole life-sized sculptures and such. I've seen some folks with the same machine we have make some 12' Egyptian statues and such for nightclubs, where they carve them out of foam, stack and glue the layers, sand it down nice, then either fiberglass or plaster over that and paint to finish. Kind of what you're talking about. Get on some CNC forums, like CNCzone or the talkshopbot.com one and ask around, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Hope this helps,

Jeffrey

[Anonymous]

The work I am thinking of would be small too. I know the price of the laser
scanner and the 3d printing machine is very high and when I priced them
Rhino was suggested to me as well. I like the idea of the cheaper larger cnc
machine also but I really want to keep things small. That of course is more
up to the clients than up to me I guess. Thanks for the good info. I went to
AU last year in Vegas, I'll miss it this year, too bad, It was a great
experience. I had a class with JD Mather, nice class by the way! I will keep
searching...

Thanks again

Jerry Chasek


wrote in message news:5732727@discussion.autodesk.com...
Iron Wind Metals have had various levels of success with rapid prototyping.
Their work is on the small side.