? New Completed Forum catagory, 3D prints?

I was thinking of adding a new category for the Completed Projects Forum.

Not all of it would be about electronics, but it should be the main focus. If someone comes up with a print pattern they would like to share this would be the place.

I would come up with a introduction explaining the standards if this is done. For example, a good drawing program is SketchUp, but you would have to add a plug in to output .stl (stereo lithography) files, which is the standard for 3D printers.

Discuss.

Hey, interesting topic and growing rapidly. I recently gave a talk at an AutoDesk conference in LA on affordable 3D printing for prototyping. It was based on a "UP Plus" 3D printer. It cost us around $300AU. Sketchup is probably the quickest/cheapest software to use to create the STL file, however I've used AutoCAD and Revit and Solidworks.

At Uni we've been building a 3D printer and it has alot of interest with the students.

There's already alot of people out there with alot of know-how in this area. It could make for an interesting forum.

Like I said, this would be for completed projects. Sketch Up is free for non commercial use, though for business use their is a licensing fee, around $300 I think.

I don't expect this to be a booming category, not many people have access to a printer. Yet. For specialty parts (such as project boxes) it is a God send, no drilling or measuring, except when drawing.

I 'm still waiting for 3D printers prices to drop... sigh...

I 'm not sure that such a category would be useful. Other than ornaments, I can't imagine universally useful items. A board case I build is useless to anyone else that hasn't got the same board.

Do you have something else in mind?

Actually I have some ideas I've already drawn up. You can send out and have businesses commercially print objects, which means it is not totally out of reach of everyone. Plus MakerSpaces, which are popping up all over, seem to usually have one.

I'll put one project up when it is well and truely finished, and then we'll decide.

Can we show and tell of our AR-15 components?

For me, the more interesting aspect of 3D printing is the 3D printer itself. I want to build one; actually I want to build a multipurpose gantry CNC table which can be used as 3D printer among other things.

In my opinion if there's to be 3D printing subforum, it should be about 3D printing, which includes 3D prints, but not limited to 3D prints.

It will not be a printing subforum, it will be completed projects. We can discuss 3D printers to our hearts content elsewhere.

This is pretty well explained in the 3D Printer Introduction I have already typed up.

A typo: In the second paragraph of the related Off-topic thread, the correct spelling is hobbyists.

I would also like to see the phrase

A screenshot of the 3D drawing package display for the item is required in the post

Click to expand...

a bit more explained. I can't quite understand its meaning.

I 'm still waiting to see what you want to make of this item category.

Thanks. Still working on it, the first prototype was a dude (well, not perfect). When I get er done I'll post it.

Remember this?

http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=12878&page=3



I'm making a better version.

Bill_Marsden said:

Thanks. Still working on it, the first prototype was a dude (well, not perfect).

Click to expand...

So the second one will be a gal?

Bill_Marsden said:

It will not be a printing subforum, it will be completed projects. We can discuss 3D printers to our hearts content elsewhere.

This is pretty well explained in the 3D Printer Introduction I have already typed up.

Click to expand...

I'm having a hard time understanding why, if 3D completed projects are worthy of their own forum separate from the normal completed projects forum, that a separate forum for 3D-printed related discussions is not similarly worthy.

Or, for that matter, why 3D completed projects should get their own forum when more directly electronic-related projects don't deserve to be similarly set off. For example, someone that does a project for an inductor winding machine or a CNC PCB routing table, that just has to go in the same forum as all the digital clocks and other circuit projects.

A subforum is not the same thing. You have seen the index, where projects are segregated, I assume. That is what I am talking about. A new category of some probable odd ducks.

In the Completed Projects Forum, there is an index thread, where a fine categorization of the submissions is done. This is deep enough and only serves as an index. No actual categorization in the forum structure is made.

On the other hand, as you said, if we dedicated a whole subforum to 3d printing, then we would have to do the same for numerous other facets of electronics.

Agreed....

Could it also include other CNC machines? ie PCB engravers, front panel engravers, CNC milling/routing etc?

3D printing is just one corner of the CNC fabrication world. Personally I think 3D printing is crude, slow and stinky. (I have a pretty accurate CNC machine that does fine engraving, detailed machining etc).

Have you used a 3D printer? No tooling, just drawings, and most of it is completely automatic, with no in between setups. There is a steep learning curve in judging what you can get by with.

I'm still working on the project I have in mind. I don't have to know how to program a CNC machine, just how to draw, and understand the limitations of the process.

Still, this idea is looking increasingly like a non starter.

I joined this forum a few years ago:


http://forums.reprap.org/index.php


Tons of good info about problems associated with 3-D printing.

If we are talking about just a new category in an index, then I don't see a problem with that. In fact, I would recommend a general policy that goes something like this:

A given project is either suitable for inclusion in the Completed Projects forum or not. If it IS suitable, then it gets included in one (or more, if appropriate) index categories. If it doesn't fall into any existing categories, it gets put into a catch all Other Projects (or similarly named) category. The moderators can occasionally review the projects in the Other Projects category and if there are enough projects that could be grouped together into a new category, then they just decide amongst themselves to add the new category to the index and move those projects out of the Other Projects category. The goal is to keep the Other Projects category as small as possible and truly populated by oddball/orphan project types.

Similarly, index categories that end up with more than some number of projects in them should probably be broken into two or more new categories that reflect a finer degree of resolution. For instance, there might initially have been a Power Supplies category that then became Power Supplies - Switched Mode and Power Supplies - Linear. Then one or both of those those might have gotten broken into supplies less than 20V and supplies more than 20V. The addition of finer grained index entries can just be allowed to evolve as the number and types of projects grows.

Yeah, if it's got schematics and documentation it can be included in the Completed Projects Forum.

What Bill is trying to do is make a nudge towards the 3D printing direction.