Friday, December 6, 2013

3D Printing & Revit

In college, we had access to a 3D printer that could build a physical model of our drafted CAD model by spraying corn starch--or some other medium--layer upon layer.  It looks like we will be able to download a free Autodesk program to convert our revit files to useful format (.stl) for 3D printing (or Stereolithography) should we ever want to make a 3D model for a client or the CT Engineering display case.  Here are some really cool large buildings modeled: http://www.materialise.co.jp/mammoth-stereolithography

After a quick google search, it appears www.makexyz.com  has some local Seattle shops that will build a model for a price per cubic centimetres ($0.25/cm3 to $1.00/cm3).  Based on some typical assumptions, I think that would could model a 2500 sq ft house at 1/8"=1'-0" scale for about $220 (at the low end of prices).  



2 comments:

Rob Thompson said...

Sounds interesting.... Maybe the Schnitzer model might be an eye-catcher...?

Unknown said...

We would need to make sure they fit the build platform. A 2500 s.f. home at 1/8" = 1'-0" would fit most of them, but much larger than that and we would need a larger (and therefore more expensive) printer. Looking at the front page, any structure larger than 80' in any direction would need to use either 1/16" scale (too small for most) or a larger platform (assume $1.00/cm3).