DrPhibes Posted June 24, 2012 Posted June 24, 2012 It's been awhile since I have posted in the forums, but robcat2075 informed me that some of you might find these current projects of interest. Last year I bought myself a Thing-O-Matic from Makerbot.com, and have designed most of the things I have printed on it with A:M. This is a photo of a Lightcycle model I originally modeled in A:M about 12 years ago, then updated into a model kit you can download and print from Thingivers.com. Lightcycle at Thingivers.com Today I have finished one of my steam engine models, fully designed in A:M and them printed on my Makerbot in ABS. The only non-printed parts are one spring and a few machine screws. I have not been using A:M much for full rendered animation or images for awhile, but I use it almost everyday for projects like these. Both at home and at work. Charles Babbage Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 24, 2012 Hash Fellow Posted June 24, 2012 Thanks Charles! I was stunned when I saw that steam engine spin up. Extra cool to find out you modeled it with A:M! Quote
Fuchur Posted June 24, 2012 Posted June 24, 2012 Extremly cool Charles! Keep us updated about that other steamengine in the back! I'll buy a 3d-printer myself in the near future and I am always amazed on what is possible to be done with these! See you *Fuchur* Quote
John Bigboote Posted June 25, 2012 Posted June 25, 2012 HOO RAY! thats is truly incredible, Charles. Welcome back... babbage-patch! Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 25, 2012 Hash Fellow Posted June 25, 2012 Hey, Charles... can you talk about what extra you had to do to get that to work? The 3D-printed models I've actually touched seemed very gritty. You must have done some sanding or smoothing after it came out of the printer? And what version of A:M are you using? Quote
DrPhibes Posted June 26, 2012 Author Posted June 26, 2012 Hey, Charles... can you talk about what extra you had to do to get that to work? The 3D-printed models I've actually touched seemed very gritty. You must have done some sanding or smoothing after it came out of the printer? And what version of A:M are you using? I have a current subscription and did all this on v16. I just installed 17 but have had no time to start it up. Because A:M is not really designed for mechanical modeling, there are the typical challenges with precision. I'm printing with extruded ABS plastic, so it is pretty smooth when printed, and durable. I did not sand any of the surfaces of the objects shown here. These are straight out of the printer with just a little clean up some flashing. Quote
MMZ_TimeLord Posted June 27, 2012 Posted June 27, 2012 Excellent work Charles! I especially like the model kit. VERY nice! Quote
Gorf Posted August 16, 2012 Posted August 16, 2012 Hi, Charles - forgive the late response, this is my first time back on the forum for almost a year... Did you need to convert your model to STL format (or similar) before printing, and if so - how? Quote
Admin Rodney Posted August 16, 2012 Admin Posted August 16, 2012 Charles, Wow! That's amazing work. I especially like the instructions you created to go with the STL models. Another excellent use of A:M! http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws...nstructions.pdf Nice touch! Did you need to convert your model to STL format (or similar) before printing, and if so - how? Not answering for Charles here but want to make sure everyone knows... A:M now exports to STL format. (See image below) P.S. Welcome back Gorf! Quote
DrPhibes Posted November 2, 2012 Author Posted November 2, 2012 Did you need to convert your model to STL format (or similar) before printing, and if so - how? Not answering for Charles here but want to make sure everyone knows... A:M now exports to STL format. (See image below) Yes, an STL is exactly what I exported as. The STL exporter works very well from A:M and I have had no trouble printing directly from them. The main issue is scaling. A:M does not allow you to set your working units to millimeters. As such, when I import the STL into anything else, the scaling is always off by a factor of 10. Not hard to work around, but it would be nice if A:M would just include MM as a units option. Charles Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted November 2, 2012 Hash Fellow Posted November 2, 2012 The main issue is scaling. A:M does not allow you to set your working units to millimeters. As such, when I import the STL into anything else, the scaling is always off by a factor of 10. Not hard to work around, but it would be nice if A:M would just include MM as a units option. I notice that the OBJ plugin includes a "scale" factor. You might make a feature suggestion at AMReports to have that added to the STL plugin and that would probably happen. Quote
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