Skull Jelly Tutorial

[10bulls]

I have just posted a brief tutorial on making skull jelly to the main documentation site...

http://www.cambam.co.uk/docs/tutorials/skulljelly.html

For those looking for that perfect Halloween treat

[dertsap]

skull jelly is definitely an attention grabber

[Robin Hewitt]

Holy broken cutters Batman, that looks like it might cut an injection tool cavity

I did have hopes when I saw you slicing that cow, the slices sure looked like tool paths to me.

I presume it is all straight lines, but lines can be short and God has given us die grinding pencils

Before I dash out, buy your ludicrously cheap software and give it a go, one question...

Will it let me hog out the core then switch to a tiny ball nose for finishing?

[10bulls]

Hello there Robin

It should indeed cut an injection cavity. You can do a front and a back mould and if you include a cylinder surface in appropriate places it should do sprues toos.

Now for the buts...

I will say that 3D is not CamBam's strongest feature at the moment. It is usable but needs some refinements to make it more useful and easier to use. The bulk of CamBam development and testing to date has gone into improving the 2.5D functionality but 3D improvements are planned soon.

Biggest problem is, it is not yet using plane slicing for toolpath generation (despite cow mutilation ability). It is using a Z roughing approach... a lot like heightmaps... which means if you are doing small depth cuts per pass (as you'd need to do in hard material), the toolpath is very inefficient. This can be alleviated by using a big fat end mill and large stepovers (and a hefty roughing clearance) for the roughing passes. And yes, you can then create another finishing pass and select a tiny ballnose to get a better finish.
For finishing passes the z-roughing is not such an issue.

The other thing I need to work on is usability. Setting the clipping volume to something other than the default bounding box can involve doing some maths which is always to avoided. Easier property dialogs and more tutorials and examples are also needed.

Both these issues are being worked on for the next major release, so 3D will be improving soon. The latest development release now uses a much faster OpenGL drawing view which makes working with meshes much nicer.

So purchases of said ludicrously cheap licenses are always welcome, but please don't be upset if the 3D 'clunky factor' is a little high at present.
CamBam licenses are for the life of the product and will entitle you to free bug fixes and upgrades so will also work with better 3D releases.

I hope all that doesn't put you off too much but I thought I should give you some warning.

Attached is a sneaky peak at the next development release which should be out in the coming few days. This shows a 100k face model in the new OpenGL drawing view.

BTW Hows that big gun of yours... have you unbunged it yet?

[Robin Hewitt]

Originally Posted by 10bulls BTW Hows that big gun of yours... have you unbunged it yet?

All unbunged and I just bought CamBam Plus.

I'll learn how to use it while you figure out how to slice your cow

Robin

This is 2 lbs of grass clippings over 1/2 lb of powder

[irving2008]

Originally Posted by Robin Hewitt All unbunged and I just bought CamBam Plus. I'll learn how to use it while you figure out how to slice your cow Robin This is 2 lbs of grass clippings over 1/2 lb of powder

Hi Robin, thats not your back garden is it? That gun looks very much like the one I saw in your garage (although I suspect it probably isn't)

[Robin Hewitt]

Originally Posted by irving2008 Hi Robin, thats not your back garden is it? That gun looks very much like the one I saw in your garage (although I suspect it probably isn't)

Not the garden, my poor old car had to haul it blooming miles before I could try it out. I am only allowed to fire my garage cannons infrequently, like no more than once or twice a year. At over 6 quid a pop that's probably a blessing.

I think we are drifting slightly off topic here, don't want to get 'ed

[Robin Hewitt]

Hi 10 bulls

Can you push the button to get me past "Pending Payment"?

I want "Play Now" not "Pay Now"

I did pay, honest I did mister.

Robin

[10bulls]

Oh Dear! License email was sent out Friday afternoon. I have resent it and also pm'd you with license information.
Carrier pigeon fuelled and on standby at your request.

Fantastic cannon shot! Grass clippings eh? Is that what they use in 'turf wars'?

Many many thanks and do let me know if you're still having problems.

Andy

[Robin Hewitt]

Originally Posted by 10bulls Grass clippings eh? Is that what they use in 'turf wars'?

Probably

OTOH it's about the only thing I do that could even vaguely be described as "green".

2 lbs of grass gives the same recoil as 2 lbs of iron but stops a couple of miles sooner. A good commercial alternative is porage oats.

CamBam now installed and looks to be working fine and dandy.

Robin

[greybeard]

Originally Posted by Robin Hewitt ....... A good commercial alternative is porage oats.....

Good grief, what an appalling weapon of mass destruction - a porridge cannonball...

John