Furthermore, it is nontoxic and easy to work with. It is a material made from renewable resources (such as corn starch), and is also bio-degradable. Of the several available I chose PLA ( polylactide). Now my model was ready to print I had to choose the material to print with. A slicer program takes a model and breaks it down to a series of horizontal layers (hence the name slicer) so that the printer can build it up from the bottom to the top, layer by layer. So I take my model and export it to stl (stereolithography) format ready for the slicer program to do its magic. This printer has been used with courses held at the V&A and with an artist in residence, Silvia Weidenbach, who produced jewellery that fuses traditional approaches with 3D printing. I had the first and the learning department had the two others.I got in touch with them and booked some time with the Makerbot Replicator. When you print a model you need three things: a 3D model, a slicer program and a 3D printer. After this I had a model ready to print: Clip design in sketchup Step 2: Printing Due to some of the limitations of Sketchup, I had to do some tweaks on my virtual model as some of the curves of the object were impossible to re-create. Using SketchUp, the original clip, and a ruler, I set out to painstakingly replicate the dimensions of the original clip in a virtual model. Building a model from scratch is slower, but when it’s finished you can adjust the model more easily. Scanning can be done quickly, if you have the right scanner – but the process can struggle with small objects. I could attempt to scan it in some form, or I could make a model of it on a 3D CAD application. Step 1: Design An unbroken clip in place An unbroken clipįirst I obtained an undamaged clip and worked out the best way to make a copy of its design. As we didn’t have any spares, I offered to design and make a replacement. One of them had a clip at the back of the device that had snapped and broken. The backgroundĪt the V&A we use several chip and pin devices. A major part of my job is to problem solve issues across the museum – so when an issue with a broken component came across my desk I thought that there might be an opportunity to create a bespoke solution. At home I own and run a 3D printer that I made from a kit (an Anet A8), and while it requires a lot of tinkering to run smoothly, it’s helped me gain a solid understanding of the technology. In this post I wanted to describe a real-world issue that I have used 3D printing to solve, and what this might mean for the future.Īs someone who works in the IT department at the V&A I like to hear about new technologies. Indeed, the Museum has acquired several objects based on 3D replicas, and has a Gallery devoted to the subject. The models I design (woodworking) are relatively small and simple compared to what some people create, and for them I have found the performance under Parallels to be quite adequate on my 2012 MacBook Pro Retina - though I run that way only when I need to teach someone about the UI on Windows and the differences on Mac would be confusing.Over the past few years there have been many exciting developments in a technology that promises to be revolutionary for everyone – 3D printing. Every virtual machine environment introduces some overhead, and when the software makes heavy use of system calls, the difference can become evident. The answer to number 4) will depend on the sort of models you want to work with. I believe the answer to 2) is no, at least not the same way as under Windows, though I use Layout so rarely that I wouldn’t claim expertise. The complaints about these items have been frequent and loud enough that we can hope Trimble is listening, but that’s about it. You won’t get answers to questions 1 or 3 because as employees of a publicly traded company Trimble staff are prohibited from discussing plans or future releases.
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