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Rhino Blogs

MecSoft announces RhinoCAM 2015

March 5, 2015 By Jennifer Calhoon Leave a Comment

MecSoftMecSoft Corporation has announced the availability of RhinoCAM 2015, a major version release for MecSoft’s integrated CAM solution for Rhino. RhinoCAM 2015 includes four CAM modules MILL, TURN, NEST, and ART, each of which run completely integrated inside the Rhino 5 CAD program.

All CAM modules were significantly enhanced and improved in this 2015 release to provide customers with a powerful and complete manufacturing platform. Highlight of the release include the Hole Feature Detection and Automatic Machining of Hole Features functionality. Please click on the buttons below to learn more.

MecSoft
www.mecsoft.com

Filed Under: CAD Hardware, CAD Package, CAM, Rhino Blogs Tagged With: mecsoft

Giant sculpture created in 3D CAD

January 18, 2012 By Laura Carrabine Leave a Comment

Whether they need a reminder that they’re late or welcome a distraction from the hassle of modern travel, visitors to Sacramento’s International Airport will not miss Denver-based artist Lawrence Argent’s Leap sculpture. Completed recently in the new Corgan Associates-designed Terminal B, the 56-foot-long red rabbit is suspended mid-jump in the building’s three-story central atrium. An oversize “vortical suitcase” placed in the baggage claim below completes the piece. Argent worked with California-based Kreysler & Associates, a specialist in the design, engineering, and fabrication of large-scale sculptural and architectural objects, to build his vision while meeting the airport’s safety requirements.

The team originally planned to build the sculpture with glass fiber composite, but fire codes would have required additional engineering studies to prove it was flame retardant. Additionally, the building was going to be largely enclosed by the time the sculpture was ready for installation, making it impossible to bring the sculpture, which is 14-ft wide and more than 16-ft high, into the building in one piece.

Argent had designed the sculpture as a form composed of hundreds of flat triangles. “The piece lent itself to aluminum as long as we could figure out how to fabricate the pieces,” said Bill Kreysler, who founded the fabrication company in 1982. Working with Argent’s digital renderings, Kreysler’s team translated the design into Rhino software, creating what he calls a semi-monocoque structure with a double-skin of thin aluminum on a thin-ribbed interior aluminum frame. The decorative surface is composed of 1,446 CNC-cut triangles with side dimensions ranging from one in. to three ft. Etched with a numbering system, the triangles were placed using laser-projected grid lines.

“I think that one of the things that is often overlooked in this digital fabrication world is that there’s a sense that because computers are controlling the process, the human element is reduced, but in many ways it’s increased,” said Kreysler, who limited the number of people working on the piece to ensure consistency.

The rabbit’s interior structure was assembled into 14 pieces of varying diameters in the shop, then transported to the airport for assembly. The exterior aluminum triangles are textured with crushed glass to create a velvet-matte surface and float 1½ in. above the interior shell with aluminum standoffs.

Even in the light-filled atrium space the sculpture’s suspension system appears minimal. The concentrated loads coming from seven custom wire rope suspension cables with swage fittings are received by the rabbit’s internal steel armature. Aluminum transverse members then distribute these loads from the steel armature to the monocoque aluminum shell.

Unveiled on October 6, 2011, the new $1.3 billion airport addition is the largest construction project in Sacramento’s history. The rabbit is the centerpiece of the 14 art installations—more than $6 million worth—commissioned by the city’s Metropolitan Arts Commission and planned for completion in the coming years.

Rhino

www.rhino3d.com

Filed Under: 3D CAD Package Tips, CAD Blogs, CAD Package, Design World, Featured, Make Parts Fast, Rhino Blogs Tagged With: 3D CAD, CNC, digital fabrication, Rhino, Sacramento

Guitar maker uses software for slick designs

January 29, 2011 By Laura Carrabine Leave a Comment

JEH Guitars is a one-man company in Denmark. Owner, Jens Hvidberg, has been designing and manufacturing custom instruments since 2000. Most of his guitars are unique individual pieces. A design and manufacturing process that is fast, easy to use, and responsive to the exacting demands of his customers is critical.

In the past, Hvidberg created many of the guitar bodies by hand while searching for an inexpensive set of CAD and CAM tools to make the process faster and more efficient. Rhino provided him with CAD software with all the capabilities of more expensive commercial applications. T-Splines and RhinoCAM software were the plug-ins he needed to support the art-to-part process.

A recent project included a redesign of a four-string bass into a five-string version with the body cut from a single piece of wood. Using T-Splines, Hvidberg could build a guitar body that could be easily modified. With reference pictures, he moved and changed control points on the T-Splines surface until he obtained the right shape. Final details were added with standard Rhino features.

Using RhinoCAM, it was easy to generate 3D tool paths for CNC machining. First he made the paths for the outline with the profiling feature and the paths for pocketing. Throughout the process, he kept the shape as regular as possible to maintain good fixture points. Actual machining was done with a 3D roughing operation and a finishing operation with a ball end mill. The final finish was created with sandpaper by hand.

Hvidberg said, “These tools make it possible for my customers to go from their own design ideas to the finished product without investing a lot of money. My templates are not hanging on the wall cut out in plywood but are in CAD files. They are easy to change and customize.

JEH Guitars

www.jens-h.dk

T-Splines

www.tsplines.com

Filed Under: 3D CAD Package Tips, Featured, Rhino Blogs Tagged With: cad, CNC, Rhino, RhinoCAM, T-Splines

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