My last post was about rapid prototyping with sugar and lasers, it turned out well, but the result is really only 2d. Although with some supporting hardware I think it has great potential for making full 3d objects.
Soon I will be testing a 3d object with finer sugar, but the first step is to get all the 2d layers of a 3d object and semi-manually building up the object layer by layer.
After some research I found Skeinforge, a collection of python tools for slicing and creating g-code for 3d printers like the RepRap and Makerbot. I downloaded the version that’s included with replicator-g, the program that controls those same machines.
For anyone that may be using Skeinforge with Solidworks, the trick is to set your STL export options correctly, I used:
Output as: ASCII
Unit: Millimeters
Do not translate STL output to positive space: Unchecked
Once that is set Skeinforge works great with Solidworks STL files, though you will need to be patient when you are waiting for the output.
