RAPID PROTOTYPING - SL goes back to RL

So, I work in a lab where we are building a particular manifold for a high-tech air conditioner. I could not find a piece with the ideal size and type of slit cut, etc. So, I made an Solid Edge file of it and we sent it to our 3D Printer, where, 3 hours later - the exact piece came out later to an accuracy of 0.5 mm!! What is the cost of this, you might ask? Well, its costs our lab $10/cubic inch, which is like nothing. This of course does not include the set-up cost for the machine ($23 000) but the sustained operating cost is $10/cubic inch of material printed. And this isn't brittle stuff too, its hard ABS plastic, and comes in a variety of colours. And soon as I got the piece back in my hands (still hot) that only this morning I had imagined mentally - the modeled in Solid Edge, and now was tangible matter, I immediately thought: shit, we could apply this to SL.

Imagine having a desktop-size model (accurate to 0.5 mm) of your favourite build or even your entire sim!!!!! The maximum dimensions in our machine are 12" x 12" x 12" but there are even bigger machines!

People could have foot-tall models of thier avatars, could paint them to test out ideas for texturing, etc.

Has anyone actually ever tried this before - exporting something from SL and Rapid Prototyping it? AKA 3D Printing? The possibilities are endless!!!!!

How hard is it to export from SL to AutoCad or Solid Edge anyway. The rapid prototyping machine I used took *.stl files.

Exciting!

I have -always- loved watching people get their 3D models made real with that.

The .stl format is very demanding so you woudln't be able to do a direct export of SL prims to a valid .stl. Overlapping solids don't work for stereo lithography. The export script would have to be capable of performing boolean operations in order to turn a build into a single mesh and do it well enough to be valid for stl. Most likely someone would have to create a script that could export prims to another 3d app and create the stl file there. Builds in SL wouldn't make valid stl files without some serious reworking in another app. Not likely to happen but it would be very cool!

Yeah, I thought so too. Unfortunately, Linden Lab disagrees.

I believe I have a workable path. Started coding it. Just haven't felt the urge to continue - now that I'm fairly certain I can do it.

Would you care to, or mind, posting what you have to the Scripting Library or the wiki?

iirc you can find a script for exporting data here on the forum. Interfacing that data (which is what I started doing) with a solid modeler solves the exporting to .stl (or .igs or whatever format the service bureau requests). just take the individual prims into CAD. solid modeling takes care of fusing it into one object.

Interesting - One of the micro AUVs I have designed is intended to be "printed" in this manner (see http://www.huv.com/nanoSeeker/index.html) for details.

- Jon

I recall seeing that. Could shell the fused object. Or shell groups and then fuse groups into a whole.

What I'd like to do is dynamically link from SL to my CAD app so as you mod a prim it updates the individual part file.

I have done some basic stuff with a resin based RPM with some simple sl stuff, but sadly exporting the sl models out of sl is a very long and painfull process

Its much quicker to build it in a CAD program.
But it can be done if we could some how dump objects out, but that still hard, even for LL.

(see note about asking lindens to drump avatar meshes to obj files.)

This is something I've been interested in for some time, and have been experimenting and brainstorming with a few likeminded SL friends.

The export side isnt hard... just needs a little LSL scripting.

I've been playing with making 'meta' prims in 3dsmax... groups of prims controlled by maxscript to replicate SL prims.
For example, for a sphere, I'm tinkering with stacked boolean prims that comprise two spheres, two cones, a cylinder, and on top of that, shear and twist modifiers to replicate everything you can do with a sphere in SL...

The two cones, point to point, mimic the dimple . The 2nd sphere mimics hollow. The cylinder, using its slice value, mimics cut. I've not managed to make shear and twist work satisfactoraly yet though.

I've kinda left it there, after playing with a few prim types, its apparent that its an incredible amount of work, and its difficult to replicate tortured SL prims accurately. (I havent even ATTEMPTED a tortured torus! )

If anyone writes some code that does all this adequately, I'll help with file conversion and producing a 3d printer-ready autocad file.

Meshes, prims or both? And did you do any operations on the geometry afterward? Rounds/fillets... maybe even draft (tho not necessary for resin-based, I know)?

This was originally supposed to be for those who signed up, but it appears to now be "free" for all. It might be useful for some of you: http://www.alibre.com/xpress/

I've not yet downloaded and have no real idea of the functionality. Sorry.

i'm not going to pretend to know the first thing about all of this, BUT i did have an idea that may help in some way or another.

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didn't someone make an object copier? something that would "read" what the prims of something and then recreate it using that data?

what if instead of recreating the object, it sent that data to an email which could in turn be basically pasted into a CAD program of some sort?

i don't know how well this would work, but maybe it will give someone an idea that can be used. hope it helps..

This is what I've played with. Most high-end CAD applications have interfaces to the internet such that someone can plug in parameters remotely. The real trick for me is to convert those fields into instructions for my application (similar to how I assume Eddie is using MaxScript perhaps). Since most 3D solid modelers use 2D profiles to begin a "feature" which they then Extrude or Revolve or whatever, relations can be written into the 3D app to take an input and associate it with that feature. So for example, a Cube that tapers and twists and has a circular hole in the center, can be converted into a swept blend using the prim information to set the variables of the feature - including the 2D sections and the twisting.