The Revit Rat Rod—Who Says Revit Is Just for Buildings!

JUSTIN JAMES: We're going to explain why we chose something like a 1961 F-100-- very, very rare vehicle-- to explain how to go from a scan, through to software, to design change, and then we built it once. So what we're going to do is actually show you absolutely every single technological part of how you do it. And we're giving away all the tips and tricks.

So this isn't a chest-thumping exercise, where we just say, hey, we did this, and look how cool it looks! We're just going to give you all of the information that you need in the handout, as well. So, if you wanted to go and buy yourself or hire a scanner, you can actually do exactly the same process as what we did and have fun with this stuff.

There isn't a rule book that says you're not allowed to have fun with this Autodesk software. You can actually have fun with this. This is actually great. Ah, look at you, star. Thank you very much, Arthur. [LAUGHS]

So this is a bit of a little bit about ourselves and about the truck itself. I'm going to introduce the star, first-- is the truck. So, 1961 F-100 unibody. Who knows their cars? A few guys in the room, a few ladies in the room. Excellent.

This is the 8-foot extended flatbed, so it meant that we could actually roll this out into other people's sites and use this as a rolling virtual collaboration space. So we got Arthur K. Sorry-- Arthur C. So we got collaboration from Revit, or Revit for collaboration, whichever way you want to use it.

And we put it on the back of the flatbed, with a TV. And we have eight computers, and we roll this out to sites. And the guys on the site, manufacturers, the people that are actually doing the other side of the design, which is actually fitting all of our stuff, actually come along.

They get a huge interest in the truck. It draws them in, and we actually decipher all of the tech and show them how simple it is. We give them iPads, and they go and they play, and they have some fun with this stuff. And it breaks down the barriers that this is just a technical solution.

This is a communication solution. All of this software that we have, within Autodesk, outstanding products, Autodesk or different products that you want to use, out of their entire portfolio, are communication tools. 89% of the information that our brains retain is through sight. So all we do is we put another communication tool in the hands of the people on site and within offices, to be able to share their visual designs. And we do this by breaking down the technology and looking at it in simplistic form.

And it's just basically an extension of an iPhone, or an iPad, or your laptop. You're using this as an actual communication tool. So we wanted to go a step further. So we wanted to prove that, with our actual rolling virtual collaboration space, and actually use that as a test case, as well.

So, first of all, this is a very goofy picture of me, picking up the truck, around six months ago. And I have to say that the entire team, including Bryce, and the REACH team-- you can meet them all downstairs-- actually built this truck. It was actually our team that built this. We didn't go off and get specialists to come in. We actually had to go through, painfully, how to use the software. Where did we go wrong?

And the whole point of this is that we're going to share absolutely every fail that we did, so you don't have to. Now, I want to be clear-- we're not here to say, go and do it our way. We're just saying, this is a way, and this does work. If you would like to do it your way or you have other feedback, we'd love to hear from you. So this definitely isn't the REACH way of doing scan to technology and back into building. So we want you guys to have a little bit of fun.

So, our story. REACH-Consulting has been around for four years. My name is Justin James, and I'm from England-- not Australia. I don't understand why you guys keep on calling me Australian.

[LAUGHTER]

Guy came up to me, yesterday-- hey, stick another shrimp on the barbie! And I went-- what? [LAUGHS]

[LAUGHTER]

So we've had some fun with that guy. He's been back a few times. And he looks very sheepish, and we just give him some beer. [LAUGHS]

[LAUGHTER]

And Titan is our partner with 3D printing. And, of course, we have Autodesk in the middle. So we have R, A, and T. So we have the RAT Rod. So, when you look at the back of the RAT Rod, you're going to see it says R-A-T on the back, because it's our rat. Because we're in partnership together.

So-- engineer from the UK. Been in this game since I was 16, which is 20-something years ago. And I've just watched technology gradually integrate, as it's gone further and further.

So I was on a drawing board. And we didn't have the internet, when I was in my apprenticeship. I remember a guy coming in and saying, you're going to have a computer on your wrist and in your pocket. And you'll have four or five computers. And we laughed him out of the office-- said, you're crazy.

Yeah. Turns out it was the guy from Mac. So, yeah. [LAUGHS]

[LAUGHTER]

That was a bit embarrassing. So we should have collaborated with him a bit sooner. That was Andrew's [INAUDIBLE] where I did my modern apprenticeship in England.

And now I live in Canada. I've been in Canada for 10 years. And I'm in the US every other month, with my partner, Katrina. Say hi. [LAUGHS] Katrina just arrived today. So get her alcohol. She's very tired. [LAUGHS]

And we've been here-- yeah, been in Canada for about 10 years. We're here every other month. And we now call the US and Canada home. You've really given us a very welcome reception. It's been very, very warming. And, for some reason, you've found my accent hilarious. Dunno why.

So that's me, that's REACH, and the truck. And we have Bryce. You on?

BRYCE BORGEL: Hello?

JUSTIN JAMES: There you go.

BRYCE BORGEL: There we go. My name's Bryce Borgel. My background-- I'm a journeyman machinist, a mechanical engineer technologist.

I wanted to come at this as an operator, as well as a designer. There's a lot of-- who's been involved with 3D printing, right now? OK, so there's a number of you.

So you guys already know the premise about 3D printing. The other half, you guys, have you heard of it? And are you aware of it?

Well, my presentation part of with REACH, it's going to be more technical. I'll give you a more brief overlay of what 3D printing is. But I want to get into the nuts and bolts of how I performed the 3D printing, how I operate.

As an operator or a machinist in the manufacturing world, we like to push the machines beyond their capabilities. Employers want to invest in a machine, and then they want to go then some. They want to keep pushing and pushing, until the point where you turn the knob-- the machine's going to just drop because it weighs too much. But, at the end of the day, if you're careful, the machine's going to outperform all your competitors.

So that's what I like to do with my printers, my machines. I want to be able to work in an open-source environment, I want to be able to control all the parameters, and I want to push them beyond their capabilities. So part of my presentation-- and, at the end of the day, if you want to bounce some ideas off me, grab my business card. We'll work together, see how we can push your machines, collaborate, and help you with your prints or your projects. So I'll Justin take it forward.

JUSTIN JAMES: Thanks, Bryce.

BRYCE BORGEL: No problem.

JUSTIN JAMES: So our learning objectives today-- who actually read all of them? I didn't think so. OK. You just saw, hey, it's a cool truck. Let's go to that one.

OK. "Learn how to apply Revit in a nontraditional setting." So we kind have really wanted to take something completely different. We just said, well, why not a truck? We're both car guys, so we just basically amalgamated both of our passions, really.

And when we spoke to Autodesk, it was like, you're going to do what? And then they really pricked their ears up and really had some major interest. So we've had a lot of fun with them, at this AU.

So we're going to learn how to break down files into multiple printed parts. So I'm going to cover these first two for you. And, again, the handout's going to give all the secrets away.

This is a bit of fun. We're giving you the overview, here, but you're going to get absolutely everything from Bryce. This is like gold-dust information. You can literally take the handout and replicate what we did. So-- pretty exciting.

"Understand 3D printing workflows." Bryce is going to cover this. And "learn how to prepare files for 3D printing." That's the tricky one. And loads of you are nodding your heads. Bryce is going to tell you all the secrets.

Whatever we can't cover today-- we're both incredibly nervous, so if we skip over it really quickly, just trust me, it's all in the handout. OK? So you actually have all the information you need. So we'll try and be as clear as possible.

So how did we use technology on the truck? Well, first of all, we scanned the truck. We used actually [INAUDIBLE]. Made a point cloud. This is all terminology you're all aware of. If you're not, at any point just please stop me and I'll talk you through any of the terminology, or anything like that, or definitions.

We had to format the model into 3dS Max. And then we took, from 3ds Max, we imported into Revit. And then we did the model changes in Revit itself.

So one of the key questions is, why did you go from 3ds Max to Revit? Anybody have the answer? It's because of the mesh. Go from 3--

I love the fact that you're all nodding. This is wonderful. Because it's like, yeah, we had to do that. So, if you go from 3ds Max and you post-process and you actually clean it up, you've got a lot of large data from a point cloud. So clean it up in 3ds Max. OK? And then push it out as a DWG. I'm kind of a couple of slides ahead. I told you I was nervous. [LAUGHS]

Push it out into a DWG file, which opens in your Revit. And now you can actually open and literally create a mesh, a perfect mesh, directly in Revit, from your 3ds Max file. So cool. [LAUGHS]

So, again, we had to learn this. We had to break this. We didn't really know how to do this entire process. And now clients have come up to us-- do that with this. Can you do it with this? [INAUDIBLE] So we've had great fun with it.

But it's a huge learning curve. This is about a year and a half in the making. So.

So, we had to start thinking in 3D. So what's the best way to get an accurate 3D representation of the truck? What 3D information is the most important? In other words, how can I break this truck down into the parts that are in real life?

So Jad, who's one of our guys in our head office in Edmonton, is absolutely phenomenal. He started with a ton of data, as you can imagine. And then he started to break it down into pieces. And I said, come see the truck. All the team are in there, evenings and weekends.

And, as he started to look-- he's not a car guy. So he said, oh, the tailgate drops down! That's Jad.

[LAUGHTER]

Jad's a real techie. 3ds Max guys. Loves his stuff. He's a geek, like me. I like cars, too.

So he came up, and he went, oh, I see why you wanted me to make that a different piece, now. OK. So he had to physically see it.

So the scan itself was almost like a photograph, so it just looked like it was just one piece. So we had to talk him through all the moving parts.

So what were we going to use the data for? We had to try and figure out, you know, what are we trying to achieve from scanning the truck? This is what it was delivered like. And we had a vision of what we wanted to do.

So we wanted to do brushed steel-- very hard to achieve. We wanted to see what that would look like. But then we also had to try and break it down, to see what moving parts would actually work.

So we later found out that it was a matching-numbers vehicle, so it has the original engine, which is a 302 block, in line 6. So I said to Jad, well, I'd like to be able to model the entire engine, at some point, as well.

Due to time constraints, I'm sorry we couldn't model the engine for this presentation. Trust me, we're back here, next year, with two trucks--

AUDIENCE: Ooh!

JUSTIN JAMES: One with a Tesla engine. I'll talk to you about that, guys after, if you want to come and speak to me. But the guys at rloop that are over here, that want to test the competition, are speaking to us at the moment. So we're just collaborating with those guys. That's happened today. So, lots of interest.

And the other thing was, OK, why are we doing a scan of the truck, in the first place? Why are we putting it into Revit? Well, we wanted to lower it, and we wanted to do some really, really funky stuff on the back of the flatbed. Because we wanted to be able to roll this out to sites as a collaboration space.

This entire thing had to be networked. We had to make an incredibly intricate scissor lift-- which we've made look really simple on the truck, but, to design it, we couldn't go out and work with some engineering-modifying company that modifies trucks for a living and spend $100,000 for them to design our flatbed that folded down and ran all off gears. We had to design that in Revit and break it ourselves.

So we got it completely working in Revit, first, and then we built everything once, even down to the correct gear ratio on how that flatbed drops down. So who's seen the flatbed, the way it folds down and then drops? OK, you guys can come after. So.

So we started with a point cloud. Now, this is in 3ds Max. How many of you have dealt with point clouds before? How many have looked at the size of the point cloud and said, I'm not sure if my computer's going to run that?

[MURMURING LAUGHTER]

OK. Now, this is huge data. So one of the first things we had to do is we had to go from a structured full scan-- a terminology within point clouds. I'm sure most of you are familiar. If you're not, we've put a full definition in the handout. OK?

Then we had to go to unstructured. We had to edit and get rid of all the rest of the data dust, as we like to call it. We use really basic terms. I'm sure that there's some technical term out there.

But this is what we started with. You can see me and our scanning, which is David [INAUDIBLE], who couldn't make it here. He's on the side of the truck. He came and spent and did, I think-- how many scans did we have? I think we had 17 scans, in total, inside and outside of the truck, underneath the hood, underneath the wheel wells. We wanted it complete.

So this is what Jad had finished with. And you can see this rust is real. This is exactly the same hub that's on the vehicle at the moment. And I'll show you some pictures of it finished.

Now, the format in 3ds Max point cloud that we brought into 3ds Max, it had to be recreated as a Max file. So, more nodding heads, which is wonderful. Each part had to be saved separately. So, if it's a separate part in real life, it has to be a separate part that we can then export as a DWG into Revit. That's a process within itself, and it just takes time.

So I'm not going to stand up here and say, this is super-easy! Took us a day. It doesn't. It takes some time. So this is something where you're going to spend some significant time and attention to detail.

So then we began and brung it into Revit. And then we started having some fun, because Revit was where we could really start to play. So we brought all of the important files in. Each was brought in with the same xyz coordinates.

So you can now begin to start thinking about what we do with buildings and project points. We did the same thing. And, again, we put it in the PowerPoint, for you. If you have any troubles about coordinating your models together, use the truck as an example. They're all separate parts, which is the same as multiple, different disciplined models that you have in the industry.

So truck parts can fit into any Revit project or family. We had some fun with the families. So, what we did-- we had a family hierarchy, and then we started piecing them together, to animate them, and then we pushed them back out into 3ds Max and animated all of the moving parts on the truck, too.

So we had some real fun with that. And, uh, [LAUGHS] the guys in the office-- this was about a team of four guys in the-- I say "guys"-- girls and guys. My English.

And they were basically sat there, saying, uh, are we getting paid to do this? Because they were-- [LAUGHS] they were just having loads of fun. So it was really good.

Lisa's at the back, here. So, hi, Lisa. [LAUGHS] She's the lady in the polka dots. She was running the team.

We had to apply our materials, to nest into the truck family, and then create parameters for the movement. So, the lowering of the truck bed, we've just kept this quite simple. When you go and see it, you'll see absolutely all the moving parts. But, for the purpose of the presentation, we just used a simple graphic.

There was about a day's work in measuring. We went and cross-referenced everything from the point cloud that we got, back to the truck. It was pinpoint-accurate. David did an incredible job.

If you ever doubt scans, they're amazing. They're literally millimeter-accurate. It's brilliant. We wanted to prove that I was skeptical. So it was very interesting, to see that.

We created the table and the mechanism. And this was an unrendered, finished, nested family. You can open the hood. You can lower it.

We had to design in how much we were going to lower the vehicle. It has a 1 and 1/2 inch rake, from front to back, which is the traditional rat-rod stance for some models. And then we loaded it into the project and sat it next to the free downloaded truck that you get with Revit.

And we put that up on our screen, on our stand, and Revit came over. The RPS guys came over, and they said, can we put this in Revit, instead, as a free one? And I went, uh, yes? [LAUGHS] Will it have our R on the back? And he went, why not? [LAUGHS]

So, if you can imagine, I am absolutely on cloud 9 at the moment. [LAUGHS] So, when you buy your Revit products, in the future, you'll actually have a pretty fun truck to play around with.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] negotiated them to pay [INAUDIBLE]?

JUSTIN JAMES: No. Absolutely not. [LAUGHS] No. They can just use it. [LAUGHS] Why not have fun?

Randall came over and just said, why did you put it next to our other ones? And I said, well, I, uh, kind of wanted to show that ours was a bit more detailed. And, uh, he said, OK, fair enough. It's kind of lots of fun.

So the 3D-printed parts that we did-- and this is the point where I'm going to head over-- we wanted to take this a bit of a step further, where we kind of lent on Bryce quite a lot. And then we wanted Bryce to really show us what he was doing, through the entire process.

So we didn't know this side. And, when you see the finished product, its Bryce's hard work, where you can actually see-- he actually used the scan and a ton of other techie stuff. I'm only understanding some of it. But he's going to talk you through the second portion. OK?

BRYCE BORGEL: Oh. Thank you, Justin. So here's this is going to be the 3D-printed parts. Just so you know, since everybody came in and I spoke to you, the earlier crew that came in, who's heard of 3D hubs? One? Couple, handful?

OK, a friend of mine, Klaus, he had mentioned-- he talked to me earlier, a couple days ago. And they're actually giving out books on 3D printing, for free. So everything that I'm discussing in this presentation is in their book, much more detailed. It's like a bible of 3D printing.

So we will provide the slides. I will provide support, if you want to talk on [INAUDIBLE] your projects about 3D printing. I'll definitely hand out my cards, and we can discuss your projects.

But, just so you know, we are going to be asking for questions and giving out these books for free. And, just so you know, they are being handed out for free downstairs, but, due to time, I don't know if you'll be able to meet them or not.

So we will start the presentation. So-- oh, [SIGH] wrong one.

JUSTIN JAMES: Oh-- no, that was fine.

BRYCE BORGEL: That's right. Up? What--?

JUSTIN JAMES: Down.

BRYCE BORGEL: There we go. So the parts that were 3D-printed for this truck were the gear shift, the hood ornaments, decorative bumper stickers-- the bumper stickers, we'll show you in the next-- and mirror details. And then, from there, in order to do the medallion sitting on the hood, Justin was kind enough to provide me the 3D model that he created. And then I used Autodesk Fusion 360, to help create the medallions themselves.

So we referenced the 3D model, to do the curvature for the medallion to sit with on, on the metal. We wanted to show that we can reduce the number of prototype iterations by using a 3D scan that was provided and then have it mount and sit relatively flush to the truck itself.

And so these are the models that we created. We wanted to stay within the same unique theme as the F-100. So, if you take these badges right now, this is the exact, relatively exact, same profile and curvature of the badge, the ornaments, along the side of the hood, as well as the Ford emblem that sits on the hood. We wanted to promote REACH. This is a REACH truck.

But we also wanted to show that, when it's standing, it's still moving. So that's why we sort of had the Rs-- there's sort of lifted up and raised, so that aerodynamic look-- more like sexy effect on the truck.

So these are just the 3D-printed parts. They're just sitting mounted on the truck themselves. They're still in their rough stage. Our next stage that we are going to look at doing is we're going to be doing a copper plating on top of it.

There is a process and a company where we can overlay it with an electroplated paint. And then you take a brush, and you actually brush on the copper. And you can actually chrome plastic parts.

And so this is me. My name's Bryce Borgel, as you know. I'm a mechanical engineer technologist, as well as a journeyman machinist. I've been in the industry for about 10 years.

But I'm coming in as an operator working as a designer. I like to push my machines to their full capabilities. The processes I'm going to be showing you work for me. It's like baking a cake-- there's 100 different recipes. This might not work for you, but there's going to be a bunch of other tips that could help you guys, as well.

So, before I start, I wanted to just go over some definitions for 3D printing, such as layer height. Layer height dictates how fast you're going to print, how much detail you want to show. And, with that--

So I chose the FDM method, to do these 3D prints. There's close to a half-dozen different 3D printing methods. But, for this project, the size of the parts, and in order to show decent quality, for the truck, I decided to use FDM.

So, with the FDM, you can print a layer height of 0.1 to 3 mLs. Your shell density will dictate the surface strength of your part. With the software that I was running, you can go from five shells to six shells, and that makes it completely solid. And then you'll have a honeycomb structure, on the inside.

The internal density, when we 3D-print parts, on FDM, rarely do you ever go to 100% density. I always find I'm always running 30%, 40%, never running fully functional FDM parts. If you switch to an SLA or an SLS, that's when you're going full, 100%-density parts.

And then your material selections for an FDM that I had available was PLA, ABS, and nylon, and some decorative materials. For these parts themselves, I used a wood PLA. So it has some mechanical properties where, once you finish the part, you can give it a nice sand, blend in some edges. And it actually shows the detail of your parts.

And so, during this presentation, this is the workflow that I'm going to go over. So, if you aren't too familiar with 3D printing, I'll just quickly discuss what an STL or OBJ file is. We'll discuss some standard 3D-printing processes, some slicing engines that you have available, as well as 3D-printing processes versus post processing.

So, every 3D printer, you always do a post process. So, an SLA, you're using a UV curing system. FDM, you're giving on a light sand. And an SLM, SLM is a metal 3D printing which requires heat treatment.

So, if you're looking to invest in a machine, you have to understand you're going to have to do some post processing. Either you acquire a new machine, a new process--

I ended up buying a Formlabs printer-- think, OK, it's going to work great! Well, you start reading the blogs and everything. All of a sudden, I've got to shell out another $2,000-- or $600, now-- for a curing system that I didn't know about. Or else you can make your own.

So then the next thing is, what are your driving factors when you're 3D printing? As an employer, money's always the object. You want a high-end product, but you don't want to pay that much.

Then we do a budget cost comparison versus some printing methods. And then I'm going to show you the Rat Rod 3D-printing assessment, on-- so, why I chose what I chose, the slicing engine that I used, and even the numbers and the settings that I used. And then, at the end of the thing, the presentation, I'll show you some valuable tools and tips that will work for you. If not, that you should just keep them on the back burner. You never know how it's going to help you.

So, for the standard, we get into 3D printing, you need a 3D file, and you need a-- which is an STL. So what an STL is, it's normally just a 3D image. The STL holds no engineering data.

So all it is is, we take the STL out of the program and take the file out of the program to create the STL. And then we're going to import that into our slicing engine. And then--

So, from some softwares that I've used are AutoCAD, Inventor, 3ds Max, Maya, and Rhino. You can still edit a 3D file, but, as a designer or a product designer, I'm numbers-based. I cannot attach any dimensions or worry about limits or fits. However, on the artistic side I can take this 3D file into Inventor or 3ds Max and actually just play with some-- or ZBrush-- and I can add some organic shapes and curves and manipulate it in such a way where I can make a perfect object not perfect.

And so, right now, I'm going to just go over some standard 3D-printing processes. So FDM is Fused Deposition Modeling. It's taking liquid, molten plastic, printing it in layers, and then basically I can take a spool plastic, similar to weed or wire-- not the same material, but that just comes in spools and sits on the machine.

This machine was actually part of the Autodesk project. And it's four FDM printers, printing all simultaneously, networked, and working together to print one solid part. However, with FDM you do have limitations. You do require support material for large overhangs, as well as there is, the part strength isn't as great, and you have to worry about minor gaps between the layers.

I was designing a product for a client. It was a caulking applicator, and we were using the FDM method. We were fighting, for about two months, tweaking the design, tweaking the design.

It wasn't till we switched to an SLA method, all our problems went away. We were able to hold pressure, we were able to push the material, and we had no leakage, just by switching our printing method. And then, so, SLA.

So what SLA is is a stereo lithography printing. And it uses a laser, and you put your part in-- your table-- in a liquid bath, and the laser's going to cure a pattern, and the table's going to come up. A wiper will come across, the table will come down, the laser will cure the material.

Then you also have a DLP, which uses a Digital Light Projector. And that does the same method. The only downside of a DLP method, the projector's part of the machine. So it becomes big and cumbersome, and it's hard and awkward to move around if you need be.

With both these methods, you still need a support material. And removing support material-- and when you're working with clients, and you want a high-end product, you don't want to show that you had support material. It always leaves marks. And so, either you take in account for the marks in post process, or you're going to have to look at a different method on how to create your product.

The next method, SLS, is quite advantageous, but it is costly. SLS parts, the only downside is, your parts are more porous, which means you can't hold-- it can't have a clean, a smooth surface. However, you don't need support material. It actually prints in the layer of powder, cures the material, lays over another layer of powder, cures the material. So now you can actually nest your parts inside of one another.

So think of a ball bearing, where you have the race and a couple of steel balls inside. If you take in account, and you centralize all your parts and add clearances, you can actually use the SLS method, print your part as is, and then, with some time and some light post processing, you have a functional ball-bearing system.

And then the CLIP technology. Who's heard of the CLIP technology? One person? No problem. Or two people-- three?

So what CLIP just came out with, in the last two years, or three years, and it's the next advanced technology in SLA printing. With this printer, with a standard part in SLA on a form line, so it's going to take me about six hours, eight hours to print a part. We can actually print a part with CLIP in a matter of minutes, with their technology. The material is quite proprietary. It's a higher-end 3D-printed part, which means your budget's going to have to account for the cost of the material and the machine.

The only limitation, besides the print volume on the part, is the layer height. Layer height's always our problem, with 3D printing, because you want to show the maximum amount of detail for the least amount of time. So, with FDM, there's some large-scale printers-- I think it was Phoenix-- there's a printer, here, a company, institution, that did the printed a school-- uh, not a school-- a car that was actually working. And they were actually doing a layer height of about 3 millimeters with their machine. Where this is--

And, printing large volumes, you can do mass material for least amount of time. But the weight's going to be a factor. Where this is-- we're stuck at using just a minimum of 75-micron layer height.

And so, slicing engines. So there's a number of slicing engines on the market. They help, as an operator, dictate how you want the printer to operate. So, when you specify layer heights, your part orientation, your nesting procedures, your print speeds and temperatures.

And some of the printers, like the [INAUDIBLE], the Stratasys printers, their slicing engines, they're all proprietary to their systems. However, when you get to the FDM machines like the MakerBots, FlashForges, [INAUDIBLE], you can use the Netfabb Simplify3D or the slicer engines. The one I prefer is the Simplify3D. For an easy $150, as an operator, I can push my printers to maximize the capabilities, and I only need one slicer. And I'll show you--

And I actually have a MakerBot Replicator 2, as well as a Machina Corp. printer that locally builds in our town. And just by using this one slicing engine, I can flip between two printers and only use one software, to maximize my prints.

And so, just, this is going to go for the 3D-printing processes versus our post processing. Like I mentioned earlier, every printing process has a post processing. So, if you're looking to buy a machine, or you're looking to get into 3D printing, make sure you're aware of the setup costs in order to prepare for your 3D printing, then the 3D print itself, and then how are you going to post process? Do you want to sandblast? Do you want to paint? Do you need any plating? Do you need any UV curing?

Do you need a heat treatment process? There is some plastic parts that do require heat treatment. There's also, like I mentioned before, when you go 3D-printing metal, you will need to heat-treat that, because it's in its green stage. But, if you're 3D-printing metal, you'll also need a machine shop, because you've got to machine your metal surface that the print's printing on flat, so now you need a surface grinder.

And so, this is just some of the stages where the-- SLS, you also need to have compressed air, to clean your parts with. And FDM, you can do some light sanding, some light touch-ups.

And so some of the common driving factors, when you're 3D printing-- as an employer or business owner, you're always looking at cost but you're also looking at the largest part to print. So some of the driving factors we're looking at is, what's your budget? What's your desired result?

Do you want this to be a functional part? Do you want to be this an artistic part, or even a prototype, or can you scale everything back? What type of material will be required?

So, some printers, you can print with wood, plastic, ABS, nylon. You can go with 3D-print various metals. With some of the metal printers in town, we can print-- and back home in Edmonton-- we can put with stainless steel, aluminum, and ink canal.

And then you've got to figure out what's your desired finish of your part. And if none of those are worried about, but you're worried about the overall finish, and you need-- is support mature required? So which machines require support material?

If you look at the SLM, some of them, they actually do, with 3D-printing metal, they do require support material for the heat transfer. When it gets so hot, they need to be able to dissipate the heat away from your part. So they've got to place support materials in various parts of your part. And so you've got to take that into account, as a designer. And then, if you're looking for print volume, are you going to a single print, or are you going to do a multi print? And then--

So this is just a cost comparison. So, if budget's just an issue, the most cost-effective right now is FDM. And then you've got to figure out if you're going to go for the print size, and then your print finish. The next one will be SLA or DLP. And then SLS. And then, at the end, for just these examples, CLIP.

There is higher-end printers out there. I just didn't have time to show them, for this presentation. This is just to give an example.

And then I just found this on-- this cost comparison. And this will be shared with the presentation, after the fact, but we're comparing FDM to SLS, SLA, and CLIP. And so this just shows what type of materials we can print with, your type of quality, layer thickness, wall thickness, surface texture, different colors, support material if it's required. Like I mentioned before, SLS, it's not required.

How mechanical can you print your parts? What's a mechanical failure? Abrasion resistance? As a designer and engineer, this is quite the advantageous tool to have, just in your book, just to take care of. If anyone wants to take a picture, you're welcome to right now.

And then it just comes down to overall cost of these, the print jobs that you're going to use for these methods. So, by going off this chart, as a designer, these are the two options that were most advantageous for me-- is either FDM or SLA. I ended up choosing FDM, just because the parts were quite large. The SLA, the print volume is quite small. So it's trying to find the balance between the two.

And then, so, this is the 3D-printing assessment that I went through. So the process I chose is FDM. My slicer was Simplify3D. The print planning was, we'd have to manually place the parts and then you can orientate them.

Support material is required. I can adjust the shell density within three to four shells. With a part density of-- I printed at 40%. You can print a little less, depending on your comfortability.

And then I chose a wood PLA, so I could actually stand and provide a higher finish. And honestly, with a 3D printer that's FDM, printing with a wood PLA, if you think about printing a wood-- like, a sphere, and with wood material, it actually shows wood grain. So, if you have a part that you're looking to trick your clients, or you want to give that next edge on a part, with a round surface or a curvature to it, print with a wood PLA. And then actually, when the layers stack up, it looks like a nice wood grain that just came out of a tree.

And then just your desired finish. And for this project we're doing promotional replicas. We're going to paint it, but we're going to go to a copper finish. And then it's going to have strong-- it's fairly strong and rigid.

And so, just to show you-- who's heard of Simplify3D? A couple of people? With Simplify3D, I can actually-- support placement is a huge factor with 3D printing. Right now, you can just do a click of a button. It's going to apply all your support material, and then you can just go off to the races and print it.

As an operator, I want to be able to keep as much material and cut down the print time. And so, just by removing some of the material between this, you can play with a concept called "bridging." So, when, you understand your temperatures and your speeds, you can actually almost take off another row of support material, right down the middle. And then it'll still support itself, but then now you're playing with the concept of bridging. And that means we're printing between one column and another and spacing it apart. And, due to the hot temperature, it's going to cool relatively fast. And there is some tips out there on how to maximize your bridge distance without needing support material.

And then the next step that was advantageous with this printer-- this slicer-- that I mentioned before is, this setup is meant for a Replicator 2. There's about a library about 30, 40 different printers, built in Simplify. And then, just by changing the printer control, I was able to change to a custom print setting for the printer that's not in their list.

So, with a click of a button, I changed the print volume, up here. There is a heat bed. And now, with the same control system, I can control my other printer that was built locally.

And so then here's just some standard print settings. So here you can control your print density. Up here is your solid layers. So you want, on the top layer, you can adjust it to be how thick-- if you want it six layers thick or four layers thick, you can do that with the bottom, as well.

This Shell command, that means, when you have your overall part sitting on the print bed, you're actually-- the overall profile. And you bring it-- if it's three shells, the overall profile's three shells deep-- so, three profiles of that coming in. You can make it even 3, 6, 10, depending on the complexity of your part. So, if you play with this, you can actually play with the flexibility of your part. And then, by adjusting the density-- and when you're working with nylons or rubbers, this could help you with your parts.

So now we're at the end of the presentation. These are some valuable tools. Like I mentioned, if you haven't heard of 3D hubs, I'd recommend to start working with them. Over the world, right now, there's a bunch of 3D printing hubs and companies that are starting to go on the marketplace. And they're actually marketing their printing capabilities on this website, right here.

As a designer, all I need now is just to use the slicing engine. I can see how my part's going to work with that slicing engine. And now I can tell the operator-- say, well, these are the settings I want. This is how I want my part. And then you understand what they're working with. They'll still make the tweaks, to fit their machine, but now if you have a better understanding of what's available that's how they'll be able to help you.