CutMyTimber : Digital Fabrication: Paperless from BIM model to CNC machines

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Comment by Greg Howes on April 10, 2012 at 12:58pm

And here is a great poster from Design To Production which concisely shows information about the process used for complex wood-framed structures.

http://www.freeform-timber.com/downloads/freeformtimber_poster.pdf

The PDF itself demonstrates great design. I am so amazed at how much information they were able to communicate in a single, attractive poster.

Comment by RhinoFabLab on April 4, 2012 at 10:49am

Thanks a lot Greg, I will take a look at all those links, tons of good information!

I am working now for a presentation for a group of people that work with Furniture. Soon, will post the GH definition that I am working on, and show how this may help a lot this group.

Comment by Greg Howes on April 3, 2012 at 10:53pm

Thanks for the question regarding importing 3DM files.

The answer is a "qualified" yes but there is much more to the answer than a simple yes or no.  We are preparing a more comprehensive answer and will post it here in the comments soon.

In the interim, here is additional information regarding regarding the fabrication of Rhino and Grasshopper projects.  We very much like Grasshopper and Rhino and are interested in working with others to better link design with CNC machines but this is a big (nearly infinite and ever changing) task indeed, so we are working to be just one of the companies pushing this integration forward.  Since we don't sell software and instead focus on fabrication, we focus mostly on process efficiencies. 

To gain an appreciate for both the complexity and potential of CNC fabrication I suggest this 50-page PDF which discusses Shigeru Ban’s Centre Pompidou Metz and the how the amazing company, Holzbau Amann, used Rhino and Cadwork (the same software we use) on the project.  The choice of Rhino is explained on page 41 of the pdf and using cadwork on page 44, "Each plank (blank and finished piece) is imported from Rhino into cadwork via .sat file."

And watch video from Fabian Scheurer of Design to Production on How To Fabricate (below)

Fabian Scheurer (Design To Production) at the Digital Crafting Symp... from CITA on Vimeo.

and blogs like Parametric Wood.

You may also want to read this pdf on "Digital Design to Digital Production" which also discusses the Centre Pompidou Metz.

Internally we refer to what we do as fabrication information modeling (far more complex – and powerful - than what is commonly referred to as building information modeling).  As you can see from the linked document, although we can work with many kinds of data, we strongly encourage the design community to design in 3D solids so we can focus on supporting and using well-structured 3D solids data in the standards used by the companies producing the CNC lines (and they won't stop innovating so these are also moving targets).

There are literally thousands of cnc fabrication companies focused on the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) market and our goal is simply to be one of the more collaborative ones while staying focused on what we do best - fabrication.

CNC machines are material and software agnostic/neutral, but someone on the team has to instruct them on exactly what to do in machine code.  Those multi-axis cnc machines are just so damn picky about humans speaking their language perfectly.  They are very obedient and do only exactly what they are told but they have no competence when it comes to translating or understanding constraints like building codes, costs, and people.

Thanks,

Greg

Comment by RhinoFabLab on April 1, 2012 at 3:29pm

Can this software import 3DM files?