Turning 3D SketchUp Models Into Reality

Last review, weve tackled many IT concepts, Sir Loy shared amazing things in relate with our discussions. He shared with us the concept of blocking.. Blocking fasten the access time in retrieving files yet the counterpart is the wasted space.. He shared that if we would just expand our curiosity we could come up into an innovative idea of utilizing that space. He shared also the use of file compression - it could save its size, however a good quality was still a necessity on the other party. Some researches greatly deal with this. They uses a gadget with a million frames per second that even you take it in slow motion, quality information was still captured. There so many concepts we talked about, till we come up to the idea of turning 3d sketchup model into a reality. This made me curious. I searched over the net and i found an article bout it.There was a company named, Sweet Onion Creations which deal with 3d printing. and the process goes this way:

It starts with a very fine white powder that resembles cornstarch in consistency. The toxicity is so low that it is almost food-grade in quality. On the computer, a house or hillside is sliced up digitally and made into an outline or “pancake.” From here it is fed into the machine and each outline of that pancake traced out using a small dispenser on an “x” and “y” axis. A sugar and water binder is applied to temporarily glue each layer together. It’s commonly referred to as an “additive process”. The best part is it generates the least waste (97% is recycled back through) which means less cost for our clients and easier on the environment.

However, the success of the architecture model hinges on a perfect “water tight” Computer Aided Design (CAD) file called a Stereolithography or STL for short. Preparing this file is typically the most tedious and difficult task of the entire process of going from 2D drawings on the computer to the 3D model in the hand. If not carefully produced, a corrupt CAD file causes the model to “blow up” in the machine and the results are fragments of building materials that simply crumble upon removal.

Nice to know bout it. Sometimes i wonder if this would be common in some ways, maybe i could apply it in business (in a dream.^^) I always visualize of having an stand in mall catering this service. Some would draw a cake and in just a couple of minutes - a real one would appear.^^ know one knows^^

reference:http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2009-01-07-n63.html