Steven, List,
I agree with your thoughts about the need for a wider proliferation of 3D
CAD. 3D CAD is analogous to refined crude (gasoline) as it relates to the
internal combustion engine. The more broadly 3D CAD is used, the more
important "solid imaging" will become to industry and academia. Sorry
Marshall, I just can't get used to thinking of myself as a "fabber".
We are currently working with Tulsa Technology Center toward the development
of web-based courseware on the following subjects: Rapid Prototyping For
Product Designers, 3D CAD including Solid Imaging, and Reverse Engineering
with Solid Imaging. During a meeting this morning with Tulsa Tech, they
asked me if I knew any experienced people in this field who might be
interested in working with them on the development of courseware. So here
is a great opportunity for any budding courseware designers out there.
Ron Jones
SHARED REPLICATORS, INC.
-----Original Message-----
From: Steven <themissinglink@eznetinc.com>
To: Marshall Burns <Marshall@Ennex.com>; List: Rapid prototyping
<rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi>
Date: Wednesday, September 08, 1999 11:34 AM
Subject: CAD University
>I had made a posting here, one that I feel bordered on genius, around the
time
>of Siggraph. No one commented on my idea so it either got lost in the
hoopla of
>the trade event, or no one recognized its signifigance(It could not be that
I am
>overestimating it's value of course).
>
>The idea was to help the RP industry become more mainstream by sponsoring,
in
>conjunction with the various CAD software developers, an online CAD
University
>to offer several levels of CAD training. It is my opinion that the only
thing
>keeping RP from mainstream use is that very few people outside of engineers
>working for large manufacturers in their R&D department have a firm grasp
of
>CAD.
>
>In my case, I knew about RP and wanted to purchase a Sanders machine but
what
>stopped me for over a year was figuring out which CAD software was best and
how
>in the world I was going to learn to use it with tutoring costs at $300/day
and
>up.
>
>I decided on FormZ, which many of you may look down on as a low end CAD,
but for
>my purpose it was great, and I have since purchased a ModelMakerII. I
chose
>FormZ because I was able to take a semester long college level architecture
>course which centered on solid modeling using FormZ for around $1,000. I
felt
>that the training and escalation up the learning curve was more important
than
>the ultimate power of a software which I might never utilize without
signifigant
>training.
>
>So I believe that the RP bottleneck is in making CAD more accessible and
>mainstream through industry sponsored training, not necesarily in making RP
less
>expensive. With more users, service bureaus will likely flourish, thereby
>increasing RP manufacturers volume and ultimately bringing down the unit
price
>for all of us.
>
>Comments?
>
>Steven Pollack
>
>
>For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
>
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
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