wish list for SLA upgrades

From: Kurtis Anliker (Hughes Air Warfare Center)
To: RP-ML
Date: Thursday, January 19, 1995
Subject: wish list for SLA upgrades
     On the subject of wish lists, here are some new inputs.  Although we have 
not seen the problems previously stated with beam comp, we have a 
substantial list of our own.  There will be a book available in the near 
future (Sunday before the User Group) for the LOW LOW cost of only 29.99... 
 Anyway here are some ideas....
     1.  I dont know if anyone else is noticing this or not, (and rumor has it 
that those still slicing in dos will see it more) but on large flat areas of 
up facing fills with holes or other similar features, there are steps from 
where the laser has jumped to draw in a different location and then come 
back.  The explaination I received is surface tension, but some of these 
"steps" are on the order of .005.
     2.  There needs to be some major updates done to the VIEW software.  I 
realize 3D is not micorsoft, but to update part extents you MUST save and 
clear the file and then load it back in to VIEW.  Changes should be updated 
real time, or at least after you hit "save", if you were a writing an 
article and the word count and # of pages were not accurate with the current 
session and you had to do the SAVE -  CLEAR -  LOAD to get the updated 
information it would be complete unacceptable!!!
     3.  Updated QUICKCAST for all, I have heard nothing but success from 
everyone using this, but it still is not released.  One more month is close 
enough, I guess, but is does one month mean 1 or does it mean sometime 
soon???
     4.  It would be nice to have a platform outline in VIEW for reference 
purposes.
     5.  Improve the BUILD.LOG file to include more information.  Include start 
and ending laser powers, and possibly a meaningful average, write out what 
.stl files were in the build set, for those do not want this amount of 
information, have a flag for just the basic BUILD.LOG instead of the VERBOSE 
BUILD.LOG.
     6. 3D should realize that there software for the SGI is not the only thing 
running on the workstation, and NOT completely reconfigure the machine when 
doing new installation or updates.  Our SGI runs the 3D software, 
bridgeworks, Pro-Engineer, and will soon run Intergraph as well, and I am 
sure we are not the only group doing this.  Also, the software should key 
only to the CPU ID and not to the disk location.  It makes it impossible to 
run defrag routines, etc.  on the workstation to help its performance.  We 
recently had a hard drive fail, and SGI replaced it with another with the 
exact same CPU ID and the 3D software was the only thing that we had to get 
new keys for when we restored our backup.
     In this world of continuing improvement,  efforts put forward on continuing 
to update and improve existing software and look for ways to improve part 
accuracy would certainly be appropriate (we have a good handle on X and Y, 
but we are working in  3D).  I personally dont think that in such a limited 
market with two existing competitors with good products that another support 
generator is worth the effort.  We do not need an earth-shattering 
breakthrough at every User Group meeting.  Some of the most beneficial and 
time saving improvements could be done with little effort (we will have one 
in Tampa to share for the low low cost of free for the asking).
     Have a great day and see you in Tampa.
Kurt Anliker