CNN Report on how Objet 3D Printers are Changing the Design Process

CNN Money published a compelling report showing how Architecture and Design professionals are using Objet 3DPrinters to transform their design process. The report showcases Rietveld Architects. Using their Objet Printer, they have shaved months off of their model building time.

It's Just Time to....Level with Tech Support

    So the “It’s just time to” topic for this week comes from straight from the tech support “pit”.   We don’t call it the pit do to elevation or the cleanliness of the area.  In fact I don’t know why we call it the pit.  Maybe it is a throw back from the movie “PCU”.   Maybe it is due to the amount of stuff piled on Joshs’ desk (see pic).

Where was I?  Oh, yeah, the pit.  The fact is that generally a techs life in the pit is not simple or easy.  Sometime the questions are very easy, many of them the techs have heard before.  Some of those we have either a direct fix, or a series of steps that we typically take to isolate the issue.  At that point we have a pretty direct road map to call resolution.  The road to resolution could be short and flat, a easy walk in the park, but on the other hand…   It could be treacherous and winding with a free fall at the end.  Most times the keys to easy call resolution are in the hands of the customer calling in.

Information from the beginning is critical.  The techs will ask a lot of questions some of which may seem really off the wall, but many times the tech on the phone is slowing eliminating possible causes.  Here is where the customer comes in.  Volunteering as much information as possible is a good thing.  It will make the road much faster and smoother.  Not mentioning changes to the system or environment on the other hand is going to make this very bumpy and drawn out. 

If you have been working on your machine or your network and have changed something that you think may have caused the issue you need to come out with it.  The license manager working all morning and all of the sudden just stopping is not normal.  Something happened to it , something changed.  Just level with me, tell me what changed, and let’s work together to try to fix it.  Telling me that nothing changed is not going to help.  I am going to solve the issue, which will most likely show me the changes, so you might as well just come with it.  Oh, and yes, odds are we have seen it before.

Keith Schaefer

Save as Exterior Faces…….

There are certain times that you just do not want all the information shown. Only certain people need to see certain things at certain times. For instance: You have a customer or vendor that has requested a footprint of a specific machine, assembly or what have you. They need this in a 3D environment to use in a layout or some other application. Your company has invested countless hours developing this product or products and there is proprietary information contained within this model(s). Or your assembly is very large and you just want to cut down on the overhead that you are sending out. The ability to save out your assembly as a part can help you out.

From the “Save As” dialog box choose your Save as Type to part:

 

At this point you will have to make a choice to what you want to save out.

 

The “exterior faces” checkbox will save just that. No solids, a collection of surfaces of just the exterior faces.  The Exterior components will save out a Multibody solid with no feature history and only the parts on the outside. In other words- “No Guts”. All components will save as a multibody part with no feature history.

    So this begs the question, what if I have a single part file with proprietary information inside and I do not want my competition getting a hold of it? How about starting a new assembly with your one part in it and doing the save as part option. This way you could leave the “guts” out and accomplish your task of keeping your information yours.

Todd Werginz

CATI