Print 30% Faster with MakerBot MinFill
Now you can bring your ideas to life faster for less with this major breakthrough in MakerBot Print. Introducing MakerBot MinFill, a dynamic new Print Mode that is the first of its kind in 3D printing. Short for “Minimum Infill,” MinFill uses an intelligent algorithm to determine the absolute minimum amount of support needed for the inside of any 3D print. Not all prints need to be durable, dense, or heavy. When surface quality and print speed are more important, MinFill is a far more efficient option — especially for prints with a large internal volume. MinFill typically prints 30% faster using 30% less filament. With especially voluminous models, like spheres, MinFill has printed up to 80% faster. For professionals, that means faster early concept modeling, faster form studies, and more iterations in less time. MinFill’s Benefits at a Glance Professionals can accelerate early concept modeling, form studies, and iterations. Educators can serve more students and classrooms while saving time and money. Based on testing, MinFill typically prints 30% faster using 30% less filament.* The greater the internal volume of your print, the more time and money you save. Compatible with MakerBot Replicator+, Replicator (5th Gen), and the Replicator Z18. * MinFill’s [...]
The Evolution of PolyJet 3D Printing Materials
Stratasys has been continually evolving and improving its range of PolyJet 3D printing materials for over 13 years. Today, PolyJet materials cover the widest scope of Rapid Prototyping and Design Verification requirements. No other technology is able to achieve the true product and final part realism that PolyJet technology today enables. The video below illustrates the progression of the 3D printed materials. For more information on our Stratasys line of 3D printers, please click the button below. [button link="https://cimquest-inc.com/products/stratasys-3d-printing-solutions/" color="default" size="" stretch="" type="" shape="" target="_self" title="" gradient_colors="|" gradient_hover_colors="|" accent_color="" accent_hover_color="" bevel_color="" border_width="1px" icon="" icon_divider="yes" icon_position="left" modal="" animation_type="0" animation_direction="down" animation_speed="0.1" animation_offset="" alignment="left" class="" id=""]More Info[/button]
AccuSmooth Post Processing
The AccuSmooth post-processing solution can produce a smooth, polished ¬finish on your 3D printed parts. Through the process, parts are dipped into a vapor tank containing a liquid that is brought to boiling point. The vapor rises and melts away the part surface, eliminating all layer lines. It only takes a few seconds and you’re left with a sharp ¬finished look similar to that of traditional molding technologies. AccuSmooth Benefits include: Easy setup and simple to use Minimal time to process parts Eliminates layer lines, improving aesthetics Increases strength of parts Can use bead blasting after process to further camouflage layer lines Operates with standard 110 power For more information about AccuSmooth or our 3D Printing or Scanning services please email us by clicking the button below. [button link="mailto:sales@cimquest-inc.com" color="default" size="" stretch="" type="" shape="" target="_self" title="" gradient_colors="|" gradient_hover_colors="|" accent_color="" accent_hover_color="" bevel_color="" border_width="1px" icon="fa-envelope-o" icon_divider="yes" icon_position="left" modal="" animation_type="0" animation_direction="down" animation_speed="0.1" animation_offset="" alignment="left" class="" id=""]Contact Us[/button]
Improving Aesthetics of a Scanned Mesh
In this blog post we will discuss how to improve the quality of your STL to produce better 3D Printed parts. The STL, or Stereo Lithography file format, is widely used for rapid prototyping, 3D Printing, and CAM. An STL file describes the surface geometry of a 3D object by triangulating the vertices on each face of the object. At times though, the STL file may contain errors, small holes, imperfections, and blemishes as shown below. These imperfections may happen if the file was produced by scanning a used or worn part. So how do you go about modifying the STL file, and optimizing it, to produce a better quality 3D Printed part? One solution is to use Geomagic Wrap. It has many powerful easy-to-use tools that enable you to improve the cosmetics of the model by modifying the mesh structure underneath. Let me show you a few of these tools. First, you can easily remove the spikes, or pyramid shaped polygons from the mesh and smooth them out by using the Spike Removal tool. Next, for the sections of the model that are really sloppy, you can simply delete the polygons by using the Manifold Open tool to quickly get rid of [...]
SOLIDWORKS 2017 Convert Features to Bodies and Surfaces
There is new functionality in SOLIDWORKS 2017called Convert to Bodies, that allows you to remove the feature history in a part, while retaining geometric references in the assembly. This new feature comes in handy if you have a simple assembly and you want it to one of your manufacturers, but don’t want to share the feature history of the part you designed. One option is to save out the part file as a neutral format file, such as a step or an iges file. However, you would then have to take additional steps to swap out the file with feature history, with the recently created step file. Instead, you can avoid these additional steps by using the new functionality Convert to Bodies. To do this, open up the part file, right-click on the file name that appears at the top of the Feature Manager Design Tree, and click on Convert to Bodies. Change the name of the new file so that the original file is not overwritten. When you click OK all of the features on the tree are converted to one body, and the feature history tree is removed. If you want to hold on to your sketches and reference geometry, select the [...]
SOLIDWORKS 2017 Patterns and Features UI
In today’s blog post we are going to introduce three new enhancements to Parts and Features in SolidWorks 2017. The first one has to do with using Instances to Skip in patterns. When creating a pattern, SolidWorks would already give you the flexibility to remove a pattern instance by clicking on the pink spheres; this way you weren’t bound to the array produced. Although at times, depending on how many instances you wanted to skip, this could become a tedious process. Now in SolidWorks 2017, you are able to add or remove instances to skip by simply using a box or lasso, greatly speeding up the selection process. Another useful enhancement has to do with extruding from Any Size Planar Face. Previously, SolidWorks allowed you to extrude from a Surface/Plane/Face. The limitation was that the Surface/Plane/Face must encapsulate the sketch. If it didn’t, you would have to create additional reference geometry so that you can achieve the desired extrude. Now in SolidWorks 2017, that limitation has been removed. You can now extrude from Any Size Planar Face, whether it fully encapsulates the sketch or not. The last enhancement involves Circular Patterns. Now in SolidWorks 2017, you are able to create Symmetrical, and Asymmetrical [...]