Converting RHINO artwork for MODELA PLAYER 4
In Rhino3D, you may have created original artwork, taken scanned artwork, or combined both together. Through the process of importing, changing formats, and/or using the FLOW command on your artwork, you may have moved the model origin (center of rotation).
Here's how (by retaining the correct origin and scale, etc) you can correctly export your objects into Modela Player 4 for rotary milling on a Fourth Axis.
- Open your artwork in RHINO, and ensure the drawing includes only the objects you want to mill.
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Because the most useful results are obtained when the rotation axis is directly under the XZ milling plane, we want the artwork to be on centre in the display so that we don't create an "eccentric" object on purpose, and so the cutter can access the most areas.
We ensure the object has an appropriate centre in Rhino. - Click File > Save as, choose the 'Stereolithography' .STL format, and save your file now.
- Start Modela Player 4, and open your the .STL file you created within Rhino.
The object exists on the correct origin in Modela Player 4.
The particular workflow explained in this series of tutorials should help you understand a few concepts:
- If an object is not mounted perfectly on-centre when you SCAN it, the subset of the surface data you will obtain is still useful, and the eccentric offset of the final object can be corrected when the object is in displayed in its polar representation in Rhino.
- If a block of wax is not mounted perfectly on-centre when you MILL it, the surface that you create will be correct; any eccentricity expressed through solid wax is no different to mounting a 'perfectly concentric' block of wax with a lump on one side! There is no problem so long as the correct (polar) origin is imported into Modela Player 4.
- Slightly eccentric (radially displaced) scan targets are very forgiving, because you can re-present the data in a polar co-ordinate system (and reposition/correct it).
- What is most important is that the setback position of the Y-motion table is the SAME when you scan and when you mill (compensating for bent needles as appropriate!).