Good evening, our association (Black and White Zulus) is currently carrying out a project of urban installations, in Grenoble, as part of a call for tenders from the City Hall for the re-decoration of street furniture. We want to make thermoformed plastic totems, which can be inserted on the road posts in order to decorate them and increase the attractiveness of the street. I also want to say that we are neophytes in the field of CAD and I will try to explain our problem to you with probably some clumsiness.
We made these totems on 3D max to make them in a thermoforming company in Belgium. We are going to make shells in this technique and we have already made a 3D file on 3DsMax (in a cloud of dots). See attached photo.
However, they need a file compatible with solidworks, 3dm (Rhino) or igs (IGES) stp(. STEP), which is not in a dot cloud and which conforms to a production file.
Sowe need to go from a cloud of dots to "solidworks mathematical curves" and we would like either someone who knows the software to find a way to automatically process the files by adding a few precise dimensions, so that the file is usable (For example by mastering and using ScanTo3D from solidworks), Or someone can recreate the totems for us in SolidWorks cleanly from the dot cloud model we have. Apart from a few simple dimensions on the bottom of the totem, the rest of the "artistic" sculpture is not to the millimeter and can be adapted to technical constraints.
We are looking for someone who is familiar with the principle of thermoforming and 3D, especially on SolidWorks. We have fairly short deadlines, and given the urgency and the demand, we will ask you for a quote to pay for this service. This project I remind you is an associative project, we are all graphic designers or artists, and a problem of organization and service provider forces us to launch this call for help, I would understand if it does not fit into the rules of the forum!
Thank you very much! Robin from the Black and White Zulus
Using a converter is not possible? 3ds to step or other?
Can't you attach the file directly? This will save time.
I think that this post is not necessarily in the right place.
Nothing serious, I invite you to repost it either in one of the existing groups, for example "position to be filled", or to send it directly to Clementine who will be happy to post it in the right place. =)
(link available until June 1st it will be enough I think)
I specify that this file is only used as an example, it's not a definitive version it has been moved a little since then, it's just so that you can take a look at the chmilblic =)
To tell you more, apart from the fact that these totems which are 500mm high and 150mm wide / deep, will have to slide (on a height of 400mm) around poles that are 115mm in diameter (with a part that glues the pole flush to the bottom like a collar), there are not really any other sides. They have a left/right symmetry as well if it can help in the choice of a tool or a way of proceeding.
I think that by seeing the file you will understand the problem better. I'm just waiting for your opinion, to know if I need to completely redo the model on solidworks, or if a conversion or a "scan" is possible, and I will then contact Clémentine to direct me to the right place to post! Once again sorry to intervene like this a little vaguely, especially being a neophyte on the forum and in the field of CAD =) In any case thank you very much for your help, it's really nice and we will be happy to mention lynkoa as a thank you at the end of the project!
I have already tried myself to open the .obj on solidworks freshly installed for the occasion and naively sent it back to the manufacturer in .sldprt, this is not accepted. I don't know how to say too much, but I think it's the counterpart of vectorization on illustrator (I'm a graphic designer). You have to turn this pile of dots and tiny surfaces into beautiful, smooth, clean curves. That's how to say it in my words... Is this what we call a "surface" file?
Once again, this file aims to make a Thermoforming Plastic shell. They are used to working with huge companies in the automotive or furniture industry for example, they need perfect "vector" files =)
But again, this is NOT intended for 3D printing, but for industrial production in Plastic Thermoforming. (Hence the need to integrate precise dimensions.)
I think that the "clean" solution will be to recreate the files entirely on solidworks, taking as a "model" our file in a cloud of dots ... What do you think?
If that's the case I'll delete this post and re-post it in vacancies =)
Indeed, as Gerald points out, we are going to have the part redesigned entirely in solidworks, in view of the difficulty of digitization... It was therefore a neophyte's mistake to have a person who does modeling and not CAD work at the base.
The supplier cannot work with this kind of model, without dimensions and without measurements, which is very logical after all.
In any case, thank you all for your answers, I hope it can help other people with the same problem...
We have indeed managed to extract a surface from the mesh, thanks to Scan to 3D, but the rendering and approximation of the operation is far from being precise and efficient enough to create a viable file for industrial production for the moment.