I work for a small mining company looking to develop a North American asset/s.
I previously worked for SKM (now Jacobs) and they did laser scanning on transfer stations etc for BHPB projects I was involved in. Surprisingly, they had some internal 3D laser scanner resources and personnel. The equipment and scope would be similar to what you mentioned above i.e <120m radius.
Trav.
Technical drawings
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Re: Technical drawings
You guys are obviously a lot more advanced in this stuff than I am
I didn't fully realise the complexity of the task initially although after doing a little digging on line and looking at a few projects being released for 3d printing through kickstarter and other places, all open source stuff based at developers.I get the feeling that within a year or two scanning your own car for exact dimensions might not be too much of an ask for the average person. I'll start working on my cad skills and see what develops but there's some pretty cool stuff filtering down into the affordable price range. It starts giving me all kinds of crazy wild ideas for things I could build most of them pointless but all fun.
I didn't fully realise the complexity of the task initially although after doing a little digging on line and looking at a few projects being released for 3d printing through kickstarter and other places, all open source stuff based at developers.I get the feeling that within a year or two scanning your own car for exact dimensions might not be too much of an ask for the average person. I'll start working on my cad skills and see what develops but there's some pretty cool stuff filtering down into the affordable price range. It starts giving me all kinds of crazy wild ideas for things I could build most of them pointless but all fun.
Re: Technical drawings
Don't ever listen to the naysayers ! I like Solidworks for 3D drafting but that is just me as I have some desk time at it. There are definitely illegal versions floating around so maybe see what you can find online on torrents etc. A boxed version is quite expensive.
It is very powerful and great for doing complex automotive assemblies for example.
Regards,
Trav
It is very powerful and great for doing complex automotive assemblies for example.
Regards,
Trav
Re: Technical drawings
Solidworks is good, Rhinocerous 3D is also very powerful and would probably be my go to for something like this (it's not thaaat expensive too if you wanted to be legit).
If you are planning on scanning things you will end up with a point cloud and rhino has tools that are designed to get useful info out of clouds. Trust me when I say that collecting data is the easy part...turning the data into something useful is borderline more art than science. 3d printing structural metal parts is still a long way off for the mainstream unless you are "printing" (you'd more likely be laser sintering which is a very different process to typical 3d printing) a part that would normally be cast. The printing process produces parts that are brittle like cast parts but only with around 80% of the strength. Obviously there are extremely expensive methods for "printing" strong and flexible metal parts with properties closer to sheet or extruded metal but that is more in NASAs budget. There is also the size issue since most printers wouldn't be able to print that large. I guess you could print a plastic version to check fit but that would be more expensive than just fabricating a metal version using traditional methods. For the mechanical properties of printed parts check out http://www.shapeways.com/materials/material-options
I say go for it but use a manufacturing process that can compensate for any inaccuracy from the measuring/design phase. 3d printing has to be perfect because the materials are unforgiving. An export brace would need a small amount of flex so you'd be ruling out brittle cast parts anyway.
If you are planning on scanning things you will end up with a point cloud and rhino has tools that are designed to get useful info out of clouds. Trust me when I say that collecting data is the easy part...turning the data into something useful is borderline more art than science. 3d printing structural metal parts is still a long way off for the mainstream unless you are "printing" (you'd more likely be laser sintering which is a very different process to typical 3d printing) a part that would normally be cast. The printing process produces parts that are brittle like cast parts but only with around 80% of the strength. Obviously there are extremely expensive methods for "printing" strong and flexible metal parts with properties closer to sheet or extruded metal but that is more in NASAs budget. There is also the size issue since most printers wouldn't be able to print that large. I guess you could print a plastic version to check fit but that would be more expensive than just fabricating a metal version using traditional methods. For the mechanical properties of printed parts check out http://www.shapeways.com/materials/material-options
I say go for it but use a manufacturing process that can compensate for any inaccuracy from the measuring/design phase. 3d printing has to be perfect because the materials are unforgiving. An export brace would need a small amount of flex so you'd be ruling out brittle cast parts anyway.
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tim_morrison82
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Re: Technical drawings
I have seen a few things in solid works and its pretty good. I havent seen rhino but heard of it.
I am structural based, so 3d is more revit based than anything good with mechanical drafting.
My concern with the scanner was the range. If i was going to build a brace i would either cnc or manually cut and weld. There would be no benefit to printing one to put on an actual car. Mabe a model car.
I like acad for general drafting because it is so easy to manipulate. Other programs are a little more seperated between programming and interface. But nothing a little upskilling wouldnt fix.
I am structural based, so 3d is more revit based than anything good with mechanical drafting.
My concern with the scanner was the range. If i was going to build a brace i would either cnc or manually cut and weld. There would be no benefit to printing one to put on an actual car. Mabe a model car.
I like acad for general drafting because it is so easy to manipulate. Other programs are a little more seperated between programming and interface. But nothing a little upskilling wouldnt fix.
Dreaming the dream... Living the reality...
Re: Technical drawings
My initial plan was to measure up a brace and build it manually but then I measured the engine bay and realised how out of square it was. Thats what got me onto the whole Cad path, I wanted to design something a little more solid possibly with the ability to slowly adjust so that I could slowly wrestle things back into shape. I also have RRS suspension and the shock tower plates they provided are flat and don't sit properly on the top of the shock towers, I thought forming the plates to the existing metal would help to spread the load properly which started making the design complex. Which is why I figured a proper design can be easily checked by an engineer and precision cut in whatever material I required, as was stated above it needs to flex and still hold things straight spread shock load etc. That was when I decided not to backyard it and started looking for scale drawings. I'll investigate rhino I definitely agree that software to interpret whatever data I can eventually capture will be the deciding factor in how well things go. Engineers are a dime a dozen In Kalgoorlie. I just have to get close to what I want and Il be able to find people to look over and finalise my design.