Z Corporation & 3D Printing w/ArchiCAD

[Anonymous]

Hi all.
I have mentioned our 3D printer on this forum before when we were still considering whether or not to get one, and then again once we HAD purchased it.

I went to a ZCorp User Group meeting a couple of weeks ago with Andrew in Rhode Island.

We did a presentaion and met alot of people and learned about alot of new techonology.

We met architects that use the printer, a representative/designer from NASA was there, there were people there that use this machine in hospitals, engineering etc etc.

When we talked about this before it seems that most of you that responded recomended that we just outsource to companies that allready own these printers.

We have to say that owning our own 3D printer has been great.
It is very fast and efficient, took us about two months to figure out the issues with scaling a building down and printing it in 3D. Thickening windows and walls, how much to thicken them, how much detail to put in these models, etc.

I would like you t o all look into these printers again.
They work so well with Archicad.
The way we draw, build and design with BIM with in ArchiCAD allready is exactly the information the printer needs to print these models.
With other 3 Dimensional programs I learned you run into problems printing that you dont with Archiad. Other programs you are building 3D information with surfaces & planes. ArchiCAD has all of this information figured out allready when you plae a slab, roof , wall or beam in your model. Software that models with surfaces ends up with holes, and funny polygons all over it that you have to fix before you can print your models.

ArchiCAD & the printers from ZCorp go hand in hand as far as I am concerned and Graphisoft should be in contact and working more with them.

We are doing a Webcast with Z Corp that I would like to invite you all to attened on December 08, 2008.
You can register here:
https://www.zcorp.com/Z-Corp/AEC-Webinar/spage.aspx

If you are interested in Zcorporation and what they have to offer here is a linkto their website:
http://zcorp.com/

More: while we were there I did a user testimonial for them, you can find it here:
http://zcorp.com/Z-Corp/Customer-Case-Studies/spage.aspx
(the one called "Andrew Chary Architect PLLC")

I recomend you all check this out, if I love this thing and we find it SO helpful I know you will too.

This isn't meant to be a sales pitch, it is meant more just to share with you guys something that I thin is great


Edit: Oh, yeah, and Graphisoft you're mentioned.

[Dwight]

Please post some results.

[Anonymous]

Very interesting. Thanks

[Anonymous]

Whats the price range?
Bier

[Srinivas]

Congratulations Jess! Would you mind posting some pictures of your projects.

[Thomas Holm]

Jesikuh123 wrote:
...The way we draw, build and design with BIM with in ArchiCAD allready is exactly the information the printer needs to print these models.
With other 3 Dimensional programs I learned you run into problems printing that you dont with Archiad. Other programs you are building 3D information with surfaces & planes. ArchiCAD has all of this information figured out allready when you plae a slab, roof , wall or beam in your model. Software that models with surfaces ends up with holes, and funny polygons all over it that you have to fix before you can print your models.
...

Could you please outline the process, how you format and export the print file to the printer, for a simple model?

[David Shorter]

We ran some tests a couple of years ago ... getting info from ArchiCAD to a 3D printer. We used STL (Stereo Lightographic) to get from ArchiCAD to the printer. Needless to say it wasn't that simple. Save as 3dMax first as Max has an STL output. Later you could use Maxonform as this had an STL out. Haven't got this option in 12 yet.
Actually the result were quite good.

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys, I will post some pictures of our models a little later today.
But, quickly, to get the model from ArchiAD to the ZPrinter you need only to export it as a VRML (.wrl).
This export type takes all of the textures and materials into the printer software with the 3D information.
It's quick.
View what you want printed in 3D with the layers showing what you want to see, File>Save As>VRML.
Tada.

[Dwight]

Z-Corp is using your boathouse in their ad.

How big is it?

What did it cost? How long to print?

[Anonymous]

http://aec.cadalyst.com/aec//article/articleDetail.jsp?ts=012709111453&id=575392

Here is another interview and Article our firm did for the ZPrinter.
The Version we use is a Z450.

Dwight to answer your questions from a while ago:
The cost per model is roughly $2.50 per Cu. in. We built a big model a while back that cost us in materials $287.00, I got a couple estimate from some companies that we could out source this to and the price ranged anywhere from $1000-$2700 and would take 2-3 weeks to ship the model.
The model we made was about 15 inches long, 8" high, and 8 inches wide. It took about 13 hours to build in the printer ( So it printed over night, and was done when we got back to work the next day) then we needed to remove it and "post process" it, which for this model took longer than usual, but usually takes us three hours or so. This model in particular comes apart at all three floors and splits in half so you can see in it, and you can see it in a cross section type view.

We do have a hard time making our models look nice in photographs, but the photos shown in the article look nice.