Slicing File Format Issues

[Flite-Metal]

Our Boeing B-47 projects have come to that fork in the road to success as do many projects.



I have image files for the to be CNC milled components in multiple formats as a result of the output from the Ashlar-Vellum Cobalt software. However, the individual who created these image files created skins and not solid geometry.

We have access to two Alphas in the TechShop facility in Round Rock, TX with the fine assistance of a close friend experienced in the CAD-CAM with these mills.

Because the individual creating the original files created skins so far when we have gone to slice into 1.5" high Z axis depth per mill section the software in use does not see the surfaces. Not a surprise after all the failures we have seen in the past.



However... I do have the original .ar Ashlar-Vellum native file formats which I can export in multiple formats which I hope someone here has experience in dealing with to get this done.

The emoticons don't have an image of down on the knees begging for help

We have bled all the way past the root of our fingernails folks. I made it clear to the person drawing the images that we needed solid geometry and not just skins...... ah, he knew so much different because a yacht builder in New Port News, Va permitted him to provide them files this way and they milled the foam for him...so I am left with this issue of excellent designs I can not mill...

Looking For Experience Help

[Flite-Metal]

Here are the image formats I can export to from the Ashlar-Vellum .ar native software format.

Not being familiar with what can be sliced with the software accompanying the ShopBot mills I have to
depend on your experience to know if one of these can be sliced in 1.5" z thickness to permit us to do
our milling.



What will Cut3d import? We think that is where we need to go to slice the files and obtain the proper
cut format for the image I have.

[tomwillis]

Ed - I have Graphite and can open *.vlm & *.vc6 files. Additionally - I have Rhino and RhinoCAM and a demo version of Cut3d. With that being said - I believe you will still need a solid to machine/slice in 1.5" increments. Cut3d will import a variety of files - but I've had the best luck with *.stl files. It may be one of those deals - where someone has to recreate them. I am willing to view and import them and give you some feedback. Are these proprietary?
Tom

[Brady Watson]

Cut3D & PartWorks3D (same thing) will machine STL files, as well as a number of other 3D MESH formats. It will not machine a solid. However, this should not be of concern. Cut3D *should* fill in that skin/shell so that wherever you sliced it will be flat and level, rather than a thin skin. The skin will become the outside geometrical boundary and everything on the inside will be filled, or 'solid' - so you should be good. I just tried this with a hollow sphere that I sliced in PartWorks3D & it worked as I described.

A word to the wise when exporting from your Solid program to any mesh format - if there is a tolerance option upon export, make sure that it is small enough to resolve the shape of your part without introducing large faceted polygon faces. These will telegraph into your finished surface. Make the triangles/quads smaller if you find your model looking a bit faceted when you view it in Cut3D. Good surface quality in your foam starts with good surface quality on your exported model. Play around with different settings. If you make the tolerance too small, then the model can get too large on disk, and you may not have enough RAM to work with it. Experiment with this.

-B

[Flite-Metal]

Ed - I have Graphite and can open *.vlm & *.vc6 files. Additionally - I have Rhino and RhinoCAM and a demo
version of Cut3d. With that being said - I believe you will still need a solid to machine/slice in 1.5" increments. Cut3d will import a variety
of files - but I've had the best luck with *.stl files. It may be one of those deals - where someone has to recreate them. I am willing to
view and import them and give you some feedback. Are these proprietary? Tom

Hello Tom,

Thank you for your feedback and I believe there is a way to overcome my issue.

In the Ashlar-Vellum .ar solid drawing/surfaces editing tools, under surfaces to solids... It would appear the original .ar file can be edited
"into" a soilid following the prescribed convention.

I will quickly explain what happened. A project partner in Va. used Ashlar-Vellum to create the .ar in Zenon. His specific B-47 is to be
smaller than ours. The original .ar file dims are those of the 1:1 Boeing B-47 after he, I and two others combined our data with that
obtained from the Smithsonian and very, very little from Boeing.

Cold war mandated Boeing's archives be purged and all but a few of its engineering contents burnt immediately upon rollout of Boeing
B-52's, the replacement for the B-47.

We homologated eight multiple view drawings to derive a single drawing which matched Boeing engineered dim declarations. We had
two hand drawn (1946) marked up Boeing B-47 drawings to use as tie breakers when contradictions were discovered.

The above process took in excess of two years. Earlier this year, I discovered an aviation rag illustrator's excellent B-47 drawings.
After two months looking for Chris Davey, he surfaced after an inquiry through Osprey Publishing.

Chris offered his original 1/48th original drawings for sale, along with a copy of the Sept. 12-25, 1980 Aviation News, a newsprint
aviation rag published in England. After less than 1/10th of a second... I said yes, and three weeks later I received everything.
I had determined Chris' drawings were the most accurate drawings compared to the 1:100th Boeing drawings.

I now had decent comparison points, and perfect documentation to compete in FAI F4C competition. From all these I created
cross sections which led to CAD then audited for accuracy and finalized as Ashlar-Vellum .ar files.

Yes, I own the intelligent property these files were created from. As for use, the person in Va. who drew in AV did so in surfaces
rather than solids as the CNC miller in Newport News he used for milling accepted files as is.

In reading the Solids and Surfaces editing documentation for Graphite and in knowing all the editing tools are identical between
all AV software, I feel you may be able to help us by expanding these back to back symetrical surface files into a solid ar.

To prevent undercuts we are milling at 1.5" slice thickness. A friend sent me sliced sections of the .vlm he had run through Cut3d.
They were clean, but yes they were surfaces with a declared thickness.

The AV Graphite solids tools state there is a filler for a circumstance as this. It is under solid tools, thickening of a surface. There
is a trigger to fill to a solid

Tom,

If I send you a test file of our inboard nacelle in its native .ar format, would you see if this surface image can be thickened to a
solid as documentation states? It is symetrical and therefore can be parted down its centerline front to rear, thickened then
mirrored for the second half.

Ed Clayman
Houston, TX.
wmclayman@comcast.net

[Flite-Metal]

Ed - I have Graphite and can open *.vlm & *.vc6 files. Additionally - I have Rhino and RhinoCAM and a demo version of Cut3d. With that being said - I believe you will still need a solid to machine/slice in 1.5" increments. Cut3d will import a variety of files - but I've had the best luck with *.stl files. It may be one of those deals - where someone has to recreate them. I am willing to view and import them and give you some feedback. Are these proprietary?
Tom

Tom,

Tried to telephone you at your listed address...but no luck with a foundation answering machine greeting me...left no message. 713-291-1923

[tomwillis]

Ed - I sent you an e-mail.
Tom

[Flite-Metal]

Ed - I sent you an e-mail.
Tom

wmclayman@comcast.net
Try her again...

[tomwillis]

Ed - sent another e-mail. Subject is Boeing B-47 Project....maybe check spam.
Tom

[Flite-Metal]

Thomas and Brady,

Called Sean in Austin and told him regardless of how Cut3d showed image for the file you said it is really going to cut as a solid. He
had appointment this afternoon which might have him returning too late to test today.

I'll report back immediately after he has a chance to mill the nacelle. Would be exellent to hear back that everything was fine... Boy
would it ;^)