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Danny,
Sorry the project zipped is greater than the 50k the posting will allow.
The project has been output for .750" material, but can be output for any other thickness. Email me with your material thickness dimension and I can output it for your material. Or download the free Alibre Design software www.alibre.com and open the project and change the parameter MATERIAL_THICK to match the thickness of your material. Open the Drawing and then Export a new DXF file with your material thickness.
I just finished the model this morning and have not produced it yet. You will need to square the bottom of the slots to make it fit as I just ran them to the center of the piece.
The shelf is sized so that the nesting fits on a single sheet of 4x8 material (47.5" x 95.5" with 1/4" waste all round). It is just over 61" across. I am currently working on a nesting for a version that can be manufactured on a 4x4' ShopBot for Theresa.
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Kirk,I read your post and you are very generous to spend your time on this.
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thanks Kirk
got the email and the DXF is great.. I can make any changes I need from there.. might try and run one after the weekend...
mitch
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Hi Kirk....
I'm also interested in looking at your file.
Please forward a copy.
Thanks
Paul
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Kirk,
I am interested also in looking at your file.
Thanks,
Dick
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Kirk,
Does Alibre do the toolpathing as well as the design? What does your work-flow look like using Alibre?
-Dave
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heres something that might help with the assembly..
\newurl{http://www.untothislast.co.uk/Shelving/CD%20Racks.html,http://www.untothislast.co.uk/Shelving/CD%20Racks.html}
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Alibre Design is an affordable parametric CAD program, with a free version with limited part count. It is very similar to SolidWorks.
You model a "part" by drawing an outline and then you create a solid, in this case with extrusion. You have dimensions and constraints to define the lines and tell them where to be located.
You create an assembly from the Parts, and then can create drawings from the assembly. I created an assembly for the nesting, and created the drawing of the nesting for output to a DXF file.
You can toolpath in Alibre, but the software is designed more for metalworking and not as affordable as the design portion of the software. I prefer just to output a DXF file or layered DXF file and toolpath it in VCarve/PartWorks or MasterCAM.
I am glad the design was so well received as I put the shelves design together because the design intrigued me. Thought I would share it as it was a spec piece and only took a couple of hours (including nesting).
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To use the Alibre model:
1. Open the SphereShelves.AD_PRT Part file and go into the Equation Editor using the f(x) icon on the right side, or Ctrl+E.
2. Modify the MATERIAL_THICK parameter to suit the thickness of the material you are using. Click OK to close the Equation Editor and then save and close the Alibre Part file.
3. Open the SphereShelves Nesting.AD_DRW drawing and FILE > EXPORT to save an AutoCAD (Rev14?) DXF file for toolpathing in the software of your choice.
4. If you are using PartWorks, you may need to JOIN open vectors.
Had I know there was so much interest in this project I would have spent a little more time on the model. The model can change the material thickness quite easily, but it is a little harder to change the overall size. You will need more than the free version of the software, and need to Suppress the individual parts while resizing the model itself. However, the free version of Alibre should allow you to output a DXF with the custom material thicknesses. I had to make the shelves a bit shallower than I would have liked to get the nesting to fit all on one 4x8 sheet.
I would be interested in feedback on the design as I just whipped it out in a few hours and have not had time to have it manufactured (that is to make sure it really works). Enjoy.
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Hi guys,
We're pretty excited that our newest column on the ShopBot website will be from Kirk on using Alibre to design for the ShopBot. Unfortunately as usual I'm the bottleneck for getting them posted, but as soon as I get settled in in Austin I'll work on getting Kirk's (and some new ones from Gary Campbell) posted.
Bill
