T-Splines Webinar: Transitioning from NURBS to T-Splines

Well let’s get some of the dust off this blog, it’s been far too long. I’ve been busy with a variety of projects and distractions, unfortunately very little of which can be shared here. I did however do a nice one hour webinar hosted by Autodesk on the very basics of T-Splines. Especially for those who are coming from a NURBS surface modeling background (as I did), T-Splines can be a fairly daunting piece of software to wrap your head around. The way you work in T-Splines is often very different from your standard workflow where you start with your big macro shapes, and then trim them and blend them together. So, with that in mind, we created what will be the first in a series of webinars aimed at helping people make the conceptual leap. At the end of the webinar there is a preview of T-Splines running on an Autodesk platform, which is very exciting to see, since there has not been a ton of information forthcoming about how T-Splines will be integrated into Autodesk products.

The folks at Autodesk took the “Egg Man” demo I did at the end of the presentation and put it to some music, which I thought was really cool. So, dim the lights, crank the speakers, and enjoy!

Published with permission from Better Living Through CNC.

Ten Tips For Working With Precision Board Plus HDU

1. Carbide cutters are not mandatory when cutting Precision Board Plus. Because it is non-abrasive, Precision Board Plus can be cut with anything that cuts wood, but much easier.

2. To maximize CNC efficiency and cutting time, and to minimize dust and increase chips, the Onsrud Router Bit Selector Guide provides guidelines for proper router bits, speeds and feeds.

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3. After you have primed Precision Board Plus using FSC-88WB Primer/Filler, it is best to dry using a large shop fan. Do not place in the sun, as this will cause it to dry too fast resulting in blisters. The FSC-88WB Primer/Filler training video can be seen here.

4. Be sure to prime and paint all sides of your Precision Board Plus sign. Because it does not have grain, it has no beam strength and can be pulled in the direction of the drying paint.

5. When sandblasting Precision Board Plus, use a larger grit for larger texture. Similarly, a finer grit allows for finer texture. Aluminum oxide is used most often.

6. If something happens to your sign during the build process, it is possible to fix the damaged surface. FSC-360WB Crack Filling & Repair Putty dries quickly and sands easily, and can really save the day in the event of a mistake.

7. Optimize your Precision Board Plus purchase by bonding and laminating the excess using PB Fast Set or PB Bond-240 adhesive.

8. PB Resin can provide an eye-catching, ultra-smooth protective finish to your sign. Be sure to only add enough lettering enamel to the clear PB Resin that will hide text on a printed page.

9. If you do not have time to route in wood grain, or to sandblast, TSF-45 or PB Hardcoat are excellent time saving alternatives for simulating wood grain. Apply both directly to raw Precision Board Plus, eliminating the priming step.

10. If you have a question, call us! We offer free technical support and are happy to assist in any way we can.

Assembling all those pieces

The contractor and his team of carpenters are making great progress on the new house. Our crew has been busy assembling all the pieces we cut so they could install them on the house. Today they started building our cut and laminated pieces into the dormer walls and then hand cut rafters to form the curved roofs. I bought it might be a good idea to post it here so everyone could see how things are fitting together.

We cut the six layers of 3/4″ plywood to form the header over the window. The eyebrow facia is formed with two layers of 3/4 plywood.

The back dormer is similar but with a much more spectacular view!

Tomorrow the balance of the framing should be done and the window assembly should be sheeted as well.

Stay tuned for more pictures as we finish,

-dan

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.

Designing and Building a Race Car – What Does It Take?

Just what goes into the design of a race car? For the many people who have had the pleasure of driving or watching a sports car or professional race car, its quite apparent that some talented minds were involved in the engineering of such a masterpiece.

Nick Roberts is one of those talented minds and is currently a graduate engineering student in his sixth year as a member of the Formula SAE Team at the University of Kansas. These are the people who will be designing the race cars and sports cars of tomorrow. Unlike many of the other schools, the University of Kansas will actually be building 2 cars: a traditional combustion car, and a fully electric SAE car. While the combustion engine car will be competing in the traditional Formula SAE tournament, the electric car competes in the Formula Hybrid.

Coastal Enterprises donated Precision Board Plus HDU, which was used to make plugs for a variety of parts.

Here is a picture of the electric car, the JMS12e, with arrows indicating parts that were made from Precision Board Plus HDU plugs:

The combustion car, the JMS12c, also with arrows indicating parts that were made using Precision Board Plus HDU plugs:

One of the first things I asked Nick was how does the electric SAE car compare with the combustion car? Surprisingly, he responded that the lap times are as fast or faster. Nick claims this is because the rules allow for such a high power electric motor. Weighing in at only 450 lbs., the electric car is the fastest car they have ever built.

The University of Kansas SAE team, known as the “Jayhawks,” typically has anywhere from 20-30 student engineers that contribute to the design and build of the car. They are known for being skilled at composites work, and used Precision Board Plus HDU for 95% of all the composite tooling.

All of this practice building and designing formula SAE cars is a fast track towards entry-level positions in the automotive design field by promoting hands on skill in all aspects of design, testing, marketing, management and financing.

A video of the electric car in action:

Also check out a video of Nick Roberts winning first place in the combustion car.

You can see more info on their Facebook page.

creating woodgrain form liners

I received an email this morning from Jim in Minnesota. While I could easily create and sell a file to him that would work I think it makes for a great tutorial and learning piece.

‘Currently, we are restoring a 1941 English Country stone house for my wife Pat and me. The garage will be Spancrete with a workshop below. I want to pour the walls with a pattern. I want to make form liners on my CNC machine… unless you have a better idea??

I want distressed, aged, barn siding as the look for the form liners. Probably random V Grooved planks, so that I can make the vertical seams between form liners blend in on V-Grooves.

Can I buy this type of pattern from you? I just don’t have the Enroute experience to create some all on my own.

I have some old sheets of 1/4″ acrylic that I think might make great form liners… but also looking for ideas as to another material… just in case the 1/4″ is too thin or I don’t have enough. I’m an old wood guy, but your blogs speak of foam products… possibly a 3/8″ or 1/2″ something??’

1/4″ acrylic might be a little thin to create textured panels. They would certainly be very fragile to handle as they would be 1/8″ thick and possible thinner in places when you were done. The textures you ended up with would be very shallow as well and perhaps not what you are looking for. HDU would most likely be a little too rich for this project. If you could keep the forms dry during construction or put the liners on at the very last moment MDF might work. It would certainly be reasonable. They would only be good for one use however. Creating one pattern and then creating molds by casting might be another alternative but in my experience molding rubbers are pricey as well.

Anyway here’s a tutorial of how I would tackle this project.

I first created a rectangular vector. Mine measures 48″ wide by 96″ tall. If you were routing the panels from 4′ x 8′ stock you might want to make the file slightly oversize so the pattern went all the way to the edges.

I then created a flat relief that was 0.25″ (1/4″) thick.

I imported the bitmap from my TEXTURE MAGIC collection. This bitmap was created by modifying and tweaking a photograph of a laminated and sandblasted redwood panel. The bitmap file is 12″ x 8.5″ at 300 DPI which allows it to be enlarged many times to get a good routing file of woodgrain. EnRoute opens the file to the width of the bounding box by default.

I then stretched it vertically to cover my 4′ x 8′ panel.

I then selected both the relief and bitmap which allows me to open the apply textures tab. I selected the ADD TO function and then put in a value of 0.2″ This means that the white areas of the bitmap will rise 0.2″ The black will do nothing and the greys will do something in-between depending on their color value.

When I hit apply the program generates the texture automatically. This is a pretty good sized file and it may take a while depending on the age and speed of your computer.

To create the V-grooves I created four narrow (0.3″ wide) rectangle vectors and positioned them on top of the joints in the board patterns,

Then I used the V-goove tool to carve then into the relief by subtracting them from the base relief. This keeps the woodgrain pattern in the grooves.

In the front view you can see the grooves more clearly.

I would tool path the file using a 1/8″ ball nose bit with a 75 – 80 % overlap. You could use a larger bit but you would loose some detail in the process.Being this large it certainly wouldn’t be a quick file to run, most likely in the 12 – 16 hour range on my MultiCam which I have tuned to run pretty quick on this kind of file. Turning out enough panels to create molds for an entire workshop would keep the machine busy for quite some time. The good news is that you could be elsewhere doing something else in that time.