Future of CAD/CAM/Manufacturing?

[ElPanda]

I think 3d printing/additive manufacturing is absolutely the wave of the future in terms of making parts a reality, if only because of its literally unlimited geometrical capability. It just needs to be faster, which I am sure it will be.

I feel like it is still in its infancy though, sort of where CNC was back in its early days (paper tape and all that jazz)

as far as the future of CAD/CAM is concerned I think this video showcases some neat technology, the most promising to me (being a gamer at heart) is the implementation of the Oculus Rift headset for design software. Full stereoscopic 3d and an Imax sized field of view would be amazing for any designer.

what are you guys' thoughts?

[cockerpunk]

quality is always the issue with additive manufacturing. the quality of the metal being printed now is pretty terrible and requires a lot of post processing. sometimes even sintering, in which case it being additive, isn't much of an advantage.

on the quality of surface issue, only two photon seems to have the required accuracy to achieve something like final form surfaces, but two photon is tough, and again materials, and again time. every time you increase the quality, the process time goes up by a function of a cube .... tough to complete parts. there is also envelope size problems, and computer stitching issues.

it has its place, and for some medium scale, and low quality applications, it will be used in production. but to replace machining, esp in high accuracy/surface finish applications? nope.

[PBSteve]

While the cubed time thing could be mitigated with the equivalent of adaptive meshing, I have to agree with gordon.

I'll be watching for touch based drafting before immersive 3d stuff, and CAD companies are pretty slow on the uptake of new stuff like that.

[ElPanda]

Wheres your sense of adventurous optimism? Im ignoring current technical limitations because technologcal improvements always seem to mitigate the problems that processes experience as they evolve.

Additive has its niche for now but I see so much potential in the mid to distant future

[cockerpunk]

Wheres your sense of adventurous optimism? Im ignoring current technical limitations because technologcal improvements always seem to mitigate the problems that processes experience as they evolve.

Additive has its niche for now but I see so much potential in the mid to distant future

well if you ignore all technical limitations of anything then it all becomes awesome.

additive is the top of the hype cycle:



believe me, i have access to the worlds best additive manufacturing equipment ... is it useful? yup. is it gonna render everything else obsolete? nope.

[morolen]

Depending on how the Rift is on eye strain I am looking forward to it for video editing, though other aspects of post-production will have to wait. Color calibrating one of those things is likely impossible at the moment.

And of course, for gaming.

[ElPanda]

I will always be excited about new ways to make stuff

So I might be trapped on the hype train forever haha

[cockerpunk]

I will always be excited about new ways to make stuff

So I might be trapped on the hype train forever haha

the trick is not to ride the cycle, but figure out what the eventual plateau is.

now, if you can do that every time, you should be the head of 3M, or Dow Chemical or Intel or something. haha, its tough to figure out what can be solved by incremental development, an what is a fundamental technological limit. and there is certainly a sliding scale between the two of those ends too.

[PBSteve]

To be frank, spending a day in an oculus headset or similar working on CAD sounds miserable no matter how much the tech evolves.

[HipboyScott]

I like the idea of Oculus for some things but it's probably overkill for most CAD at our level.

Cars? Architecture? Ships and aircraft? Sounds great!

I would mostly want it for IL-2 and Rise of Flight, and Mirror's Edge 2