Brady Watson
11-12-2004, 11:05 PM
For those of you that didn't attend Bill Palumbo's Camp this year, the afternoon was spent comparing various 3D CAD and CAM packages. I was elected to present DeskProto since I was having fun with the fully functional free demo...and you can too by going to www.deskproto.com (http://www.deskproto.com) It is 100% functional for 30 days...wait until you have something you want to carve before installing it. Also, change your post processor so that it saves it as an NC file instead of CNC. This way you can pull it right in with the G-code converter. Be sure to setup your ShopBot machine opposite of the default table extents...X-extents should be 96" and not 60". Same goes for Y values.
For the money, DeskProto is hard to beat. It is *VERY* easy to use with a good amount of powerful features. It is just about $1300 depending on exchange rates. For $1300 you get One-sided 3D, 2 sided 3D milling (awesome), 4th axis 3D milling (cheapest and best of anything out there for the indexer...don't chime in and tell me about TotemPole or BobCAD...mmmmkay? I like to actually see 3D previews in this day and age) and you can also do N-sided quasi-5th axis milling by indexing a piece on up to 6-sides. I believe the indexer is required for that, but may be able to use by indexing your material manually. Another GREAT feature that MillWizard lacks is the ability for DP to produce a 3D cut-out toolpath that traces the 3D geometry so that you can cut your part out...No more tissue paper left on the spoilboard and wasted time 'cutting air' or part extent ambient moves. Another little goodie is the ability to import 2D text/DXF designs and have DP carve it on the 3D geometry while following it's contours.
I'm at the tail-end of my time-limited demo of DeskProto. I wanted to do something with it before the time was up. A friend of mine asked me to cut out a Maple leaf in foam and I didn't have one in my 3D library...so...Here's what I did:
I took a leaf from the tree in the front yard and placed it on my flatbed scanner (did this in the summer...when it was green). Scanned it in a max resolution...I think it is 300 DPI on my HP scanner. I then brought it into Rhino and created a relief from the picture...doing it Hi-Res, it took a lot of RAM to get the job done. Once I had the relief, I did a rail sweep to redo the stem and carefully trimmed around everything so that I wouldn't have a flat around the extents of the leaf. Scaled up the STL to the desired size to fit on a 31-3/8" disk. The relief looked good at .5" high. Saved it as an STL. Then, using a combination of Rhino and Acme TraceArt, I got the profile of the leaf (from photo) and brought that DXF into Rhino. Then I began laying out the borders. I exported the leaf profile and border vectors as DXF...and then pulled them into PartWizard to do 2D operations.
Once I had my 2D work done in PW, I moved onto DeskProto. I used the Wizard to pull in the LeafSTL and setup a raster 3D toolpath. I didn't save the toolpath because I had some tweaking to do. It is very important that you setup the 3D and the 2D in Rhino in relation to each other. More importantly, when you pull the STL into DeskProto, you'll need to take the outer dimension of your border, in this case 31.375 and subtract what DP tells you the X and Y delta values are for your 3D geometry in the transform window. You must then take that subtracted value and input it in the 'Border' section of the 'Edit Operation Parameters' screen. This will place a border around the geometry that will center your STL in relation to your border. When you change the border, DeskProto will re-calculate the TP so that you now have a TP that rasters all the way across the entire 31.375" of the material...This is not what we want. For this example, I had to go into the Operaton Parameter screen and tell it not to cut the ambient. Otherwise it would ruin where I did my 2D clearing operations in PartWizard. Simply click the radio-button that says 'Ambient None'.
When your material is secured to the spoilboard, run the 2D clearing TPs that were calculated in PartWizard. Next, run the 3D file generated in DP. Then cut out the profile with the Profile TP done in PW. Take your time to think through where the Z-height needs to be for everything before you calculate your toolpaths!
Here's what I got:
Original Leaf
4160
Note Where 0,0 is in this pic...be sure to offset the X and Y when using DP for 3D and PW for 2D in the same material/project. Also take note that Ambient moves (outside of STL extents) have been eliminated. DP does a pretty good job of this, but sometimes goes over. Use the 2D vectors & drop Z depth in PW to clean up with AreaClear TP.
4161
2D Operations in PW
4162
DeskProto 3D Outline Toolpath (not used in this example...just wanted you to see!)
4163
Completed Carving...Note glueline...can see it but not feel it.
4164
Note that I almost always opt to do a 3D applique (the leaf) and then apply that to material that I previously cut in PartWizard. The applique method is much easier to finish than doing it this way for a number of reasons (You are forced to do an applique with MillWizard). I wanted to try this method...I tested it to a smaller scale in cheap pink foam before moving on to 15# $$$ign foam.
Well...that's my latest find. Hope some of you take advantage of the free download and have fun!
-Brady
For the money, DeskProto is hard to beat. It is *VERY* easy to use with a good amount of powerful features. It is just about $1300 depending on exchange rates. For $1300 you get One-sided 3D, 2 sided 3D milling (awesome), 4th axis 3D milling (cheapest and best of anything out there for the indexer...don't chime in and tell me about TotemPole or BobCAD...mmmmkay? I like to actually see 3D previews in this day and age) and you can also do N-sided quasi-5th axis milling by indexing a piece on up to 6-sides. I believe the indexer is required for that, but may be able to use by indexing your material manually. Another GREAT feature that MillWizard lacks is the ability for DP to produce a 3D cut-out toolpath that traces the 3D geometry so that you can cut your part out...No more tissue paper left on the spoilboard and wasted time 'cutting air' or part extent ambient moves. Another little goodie is the ability to import 2D text/DXF designs and have DP carve it on the 3D geometry while following it's contours.
I'm at the tail-end of my time-limited demo of DeskProto. I wanted to do something with it before the time was up. A friend of mine asked me to cut out a Maple leaf in foam and I didn't have one in my 3D library...so...Here's what I did:
I took a leaf from the tree in the front yard and placed it on my flatbed scanner (did this in the summer...when it was green). Scanned it in a max resolution...I think it is 300 DPI on my HP scanner. I then brought it into Rhino and created a relief from the picture...doing it Hi-Res, it took a lot of RAM to get the job done. Once I had the relief, I did a rail sweep to redo the stem and carefully trimmed around everything so that I wouldn't have a flat around the extents of the leaf. Scaled up the STL to the desired size to fit on a 31-3/8" disk. The relief looked good at .5" high. Saved it as an STL. Then, using a combination of Rhino and Acme TraceArt, I got the profile of the leaf (from photo) and brought that DXF into Rhino. Then I began laying out the borders. I exported the leaf profile and border vectors as DXF...and then pulled them into PartWizard to do 2D operations.
Once I had my 2D work done in PW, I moved onto DeskProto. I used the Wizard to pull in the LeafSTL and setup a raster 3D toolpath. I didn't save the toolpath because I had some tweaking to do. It is very important that you setup the 3D and the 2D in Rhino in relation to each other. More importantly, when you pull the STL into DeskProto, you'll need to take the outer dimension of your border, in this case 31.375 and subtract what DP tells you the X and Y delta values are for your 3D geometry in the transform window. You must then take that subtracted value and input it in the 'Border' section of the 'Edit Operation Parameters' screen. This will place a border around the geometry that will center your STL in relation to your border. When you change the border, DeskProto will re-calculate the TP so that you now have a TP that rasters all the way across the entire 31.375" of the material...This is not what we want. For this example, I had to go into the Operaton Parameter screen and tell it not to cut the ambient. Otherwise it would ruin where I did my 2D clearing operations in PartWizard. Simply click the radio-button that says 'Ambient None'.
When your material is secured to the spoilboard, run the 2D clearing TPs that were calculated in PartWizard. Next, run the 3D file generated in DP. Then cut out the profile with the Profile TP done in PW. Take your time to think through where the Z-height needs to be for everything before you calculate your toolpaths!
Here's what I got:
Original Leaf
4160
Note Where 0,0 is in this pic...be sure to offset the X and Y when using DP for 3D and PW for 2D in the same material/project. Also take note that Ambient moves (outside of STL extents) have been eliminated. DP does a pretty good job of this, but sometimes goes over. Use the 2D vectors & drop Z depth in PW to clean up with AreaClear TP.
4161
2D Operations in PW
4162
DeskProto 3D Outline Toolpath (not used in this example...just wanted you to see!)
4163
Completed Carving...Note glueline...can see it but not feel it.
4164
Note that I almost always opt to do a 3D applique (the leaf) and then apply that to material that I previously cut in PartWizard. The applique method is much easier to finish than doing it this way for a number of reasons (You are forced to do an applique with MillWizard). I wanted to try this method...I tested it to a smaller scale in cheap pink foam before moving on to 15# $$$ign foam.
Well...that's my latest find. Hope some of you take advantage of the free download and have fun!
-Brady