1. A painting say's a thousand words. So how many does a 3D print say?...

Whilst the architectural workflow allows us to present physical models of projects and proposals, the extension of this process into detail exploration or prototyping has always been considered expensive and time consuming.

This is quickly changing.

Using Revit throughout the architectural workflow allows designers to consider the benefits of creating cost effective 3D prototypes to investigate the physicality of complex geometry, demonstrate integrative design approaches and even test propositions around the development of alternative materials or structural composites.

The availability of portable desktop 3D printing is creating and opportunities to consider prototyping in building design to explore the more innovative integrative design solutions and deliver these to clients and builders in a tactile way.  Welcome to 3D printing.

2. DAY 1 - Arrival in LA (Nov 2012):

Though it was a really long flight from Melb/Syn/LA, we left on Friday lunchtime and arrived on Friday morning.

Do we look like we only got 4 or 5 hours sleep???

So we checked into our humble 4/5 star apartment and headed off for a bit of a looksy at the surrounding area.  Nice blue skies, but don't be deceived - it was a scorcher - 73 degrees.  Oh, hang on, that's Fahrenheit.  23C sounds more like it.

We thought using a bus would be the best way to get around and have time to look around.  Our first stop was the infamous "downtown".  The bus ride was comfortable, however we felt oddly out numbered - not many Americans around.  Let's just say, I wish we could speak Mexican if you get my drift.

During our drive we happen to pull up at a petrol station and low and behold, a stations designed by a famous Architect.  Can you name the architect???

As we got a little closer to downtown LA, we thought we must have taken a wrong turn and ended up in China.  The photo opposite doesn't really do it justice, but signs every building was in Chinese (even petrol stations).  A few km later (or should I say miles), they went back to English.

Then around the corner and the Architecture hit us.  Talk about a mixture of styles.  If someone had blind folded me and dropped me in the middle of downtown LA, I wouldn't have know where I was...

So we then when for a walk into town.  We had no idea where to get off via the bus as downtown was humongous.  So we took a stab and just got off.  We ended up in a street block that was full of jewelry stores.  It was a whole block!  Sorry no photos.

So we continued down walkings and screaming down the street was not the LAPD, but LAFD - Los Angeles Fire Department truck - sorry Suleiman, I've a special interest there.  No obvious fires so we continued along...

Now for anyone interested in possibly coming here with their wife or daughters, I strongly recommend you don't.  Firstly you'd have to work out how to sneak past the entire massive block of jewelry stores (now that maneuver would be interesting), but you'd also have to sneak past all the dress shops.  Funny things is, all these dress shops have the same style of dress, yet I didn't see anyone wearing them.  Curious.  And I'm sure that writing isn't in English either.

So it was about 5pm and the sun was setting (get's dark really early here) and I just had to take a photo of this next building.  The colour was amazing.  It reminded me of the pyramids in Giza.

Next we bumped into the "Walt Disney Concert Hall".  Wow.  Titanium clad external face.  I wish I had an opportunity to a project with an open cheque book.

This building was so hard to photograph.  You'd move to a spot and just have to take a photo.  Then you'd walk some more and get to a spot where you'd have to take another photo - it had so many good angles.  Well done Frank (yes, I'm on first name basis with Mr Gehry - we go way back)...

Another angle

And again.

I then took my architecture hat off and put my interior designer hat on.  Again, wow.  The spaces were amazing.  This is a perfect example of the need for drawing in 3D, not only to design, but to conceptualize and showcase the early concepts.

Why did I only take a photo of the escalators and not photos upstairs?  Because we got there a little late and security weren't happy chappies when I tried to sneak past them to go upstairs.  I even told them I traveled all the was from Aus just to take some photos upstairs - they didn't buy it!

This is not the type of reception desk you'd want to drop something on and crack any of the layers.  This was probably 2 to 3 tonnes of glass here.

One of the many interiors...

Before we knew it, darkness - probably around 6pm - so much for daylight savings.  It's not Vegas, but the building were pretty impressive even at night.

 I don't know why, but this reminds me of Gotham City.  Where's batman?

One suggestion, when trying to get back to your hotel by bus, make sure you take note of the bus number and what street it travels on before you head back...

It was really weird.  On the way back, we came across this "mist".  Didn't know if it was smog or fog.  It came out of no where and was so thick, you could only see 1/3 the way up most buildings - they were all literally vanishing in the clouds.

3. DAY 2 & 3 - 3D model making time

• 3D printer cost - we paid around $1,200.  Now there's an improved version worth only $985
• Material used - ABS 1.75mm filament plastic (Acryonitrile Butadiene Styrene - same sfuff lego's made from)
• Alternative material - PLA (polylactic acid) - derived from renewable sources such as corn starch and biodegradeable
• Model size - 140mm x 140mm x 135mm
• Printing time - depends on the height and volume.  Prints can take as little as little as 2 minutes or as long as 8 hours pending the complexity
• Colours - white, red, green, blue, yellow and transparent
• Extrusion temperature - around 250 C
• Material cost - around $30/kg

This printer essentially is constructed from 3 stepper motors (2 for the horizontal plane and 1 for the vertical plane), a heating element for melting the filament, a heated platform to keep the material warm during the process, a roll of plastic 1.7mm diameter filament, a frame and an onboard circuit board

Printing of a 3D solid is via an STL file.  This file is formatted via printer specific software on a computer and this information is then transferred to the printer via USB cable.  The information is based on "layers" which are in turn printed consecutively until the print is fully completed. 

So sample print time:

 Here we were printing a small wine glass

 The stem builds quite quickly (and accurately)

Not sure if you can see it, but on a "slight" angle such as the base, you can see the 0.2mm "stepping".  At the very base of the cup is a disposable part called the "raft".

Below are a couple of more "sample" 3D prints produced with the UP3D printer:

 What is it?  Half an owl of course - what else?

 Bearing housing:

This is a nut and bolt made with a 2mm pitch.  Nice tight fit with a 0.2mm clearance between the two

This is a 3D bracelet created as a single print.  Given the two lips on either end, this bracelet could not be normally manufactured in pieces and assembled.  It can only be created as a 3D print.  Link to video:

http://youtu.be/6o1chNIFOXo

I didn't make this one.

Anyone recognise this tea pot?  Yes, it's the 3D max sample teapot.

An example of a solid gear made in green ABS filament:

To print this wine glass, I made a 4 pronged base (see opposite).  This ensured the print remained adhered to the base plate whilst printing.  The "raft" and "extra support" was then trimmed off.
For tall prints, extending a temporary base is a good idea.  It could save a couple of hours of printing.

Note, for the long "stem" I later found it printed more accurately if it had a fan blowing on it as it prints extremely fast and doesn't have a chance to harden before the next layer.

Not sure if you can see the resolution here on the right, but that was the intent of building this model.

The early dot matrix printers would print at 60 dpi.  Now we have laser printer printing at 1800 dpi (30 times as fine).

Our 3D printer has a resolution of 0.2mm per layer.  In line with laser printers, how long will this figure drop until we see no visible lines with the naked eye?

An example of a 3D model of a building printed using this printer.  Printer time around 2 hours.

A problem I found when printing this, was that the corners would "lift" up.  In hind sight, I should have made some temporary radial supports like the cup above, which I could them trim off.  I almost felt as if it would have been better if the base plate cooled down somewhat.




All the samples above were brought along for display at the conference - so that the audience could see some variation in usage as well as the quality of the print.  However people all like samples, so we went busy on the production line printing...

4. DAY 4 - Heading off to the conference

So what do you do when you're in LA and you've been working hard preparing for a conference and you need a break?  Disneyland of course, what else!

What was our best ride (in the odd 5 hours we had there), cars of course.  Check this link out (as we lost our camera):

http://youtu.be/1ppzzSdtBaU


Then off in the plane to our venue.  But still, no rest for the wicked.  Work, work, work...

5. Conference Day 1 - Keynote

Day 1 we had a 7 o'clock start if we wanted breakfast, else the keynote opening address was at 8am.  We opted for 7:45 and a quick breaky.

So down to the foyer of the Mandalay and then down the corridor...

(quite an impressive corridor if I do say so myself - again with my IDD hat on)

Then about a half a km walk through the casino of this building...  and we were almost there...but wait....

We took a corner headed towards breakfast and a see of people were rushing towards us.  Well, I didn't want breakfast anyway so let's just follow the crowd...

Not sure why, but we sort of "guessed" the event was straight ahead...

Oops, definitely not this way...

Males hate to ask for directions, but you know what they way when all else fails...














OK, we knew there were going to be alot of delegates at this conference and we knew that Americans have a way of up-sizing, but this is ridiculous.  8,900 people.  It was like a rock concert.

You don't believe a rock concert?  Well listen to the clip I recorded below:

Open address was made by Geoff Kowalski (chief technical officer for Autodesk).

Key points:

• AutoDesk focus is on "tool makers"

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