ZBrushCentral

ZBrush for CNC Carving

ZBrush Usage Questions
#102

Be very carefull if you’re thinking of getting one. Here’s two issues that Bill Barschdorf of BNT Studios is dealing with:

1: ref to one of my last posts re controller software. Roland uses a very proprietary & seemingly unconventional control interface.
Mecsoft used to be working close to them but now is not since the Rhino pickup. Curently there are some funky anomilies that Bill cannot get resolved through either vendor.

2: Bill uses a fouth axis for his character work and also has a tool changer.
Nice setup except the damn tool changer holds only four tools. and there’s no support for a second tool changer. Bill most often needs on average 6-7 tools.
I brougt this up to a rep at the Pacific Design Show this year and his response was like “who needs more than 4 tools?”

He’s pulling teeth right now, But with all this said, yeah man it is a well built piece of hardware. I’d probably think of getting one ebay style and gutting it in favor better controller sfwr and different drivers.:wink:

#103

When I took a look around I found that there are pretty much 4 classes of machines.

  1. Sort of recycled cheap chinese xyz ‘drill benches’ with steppers plopped on. Looks scary and probably is scary in regards to precision, speed, and support. Low rpm and made for steel…

  2. Small machines in the 3-4 inch Z and 10-15 inches bed size. Nice for models but you can;t use it to make a carving on a toilet seat…

  3. 4x8 routers which are to large for the home office 8-).

  4. Mega cool, super fast, extra slick, hyper expensive, ultra precise stuff in the realm of 100,000+

There are only a couple of bench top systems which looked attractive but are also in the 20-30K range when properly equipped.

Seems there are no toy’s around. sighhhh…
Lemo

#104

I suppose you could cut up your toilet seat to fit the smaller machines.:+1:
Yeah you are right. That whole midrange machine is illusive but a lot of guy’s retrofit a bridgeport type machine. I know a guy thats retro fitting a Pana robo for machine work on foam. do a google on Pana robo to see what this is going to look like. He bought it on ebay for just a few G’s, Just needs control sftwr.

#105

Yeah, about the newer roland models, I’m sure that there are issues. Modela 4 is really good for what it costs (nothing over and above the cost of the machine), but it’s lack of ability to remember the state of the cutting in between cuts is a real drag. i.e. the lack of something like mecsoft’s pencil trace. Mecsoft’s “basic” software also lacks that and the “not-basic” level costs more than I spent on my little mdx. :slight_smile: Maybe I will build my next machine. If there is a next machine.

Heh, one of the new roland machines popped up on ebay last week for $1000. The auction was pulled within a few hours though. I wonder what that was about.

And even 4 slots in a tool changer is infinitely better than what I have now. What sucks the most about my little machine is that it never really zeros it’s position to the exact same location after you turn it off (and you have to do that to change tools or you risk breaking the tiny ones – and at $40 a pop… well… I’m sure you know). It took me a long time to develop procedures to calibrate between cuts and be able to do it with any reliability.

#106

billrobertson42 - Are you using the MDX for you figures? Or do you farm out for SLA?

#107

Just a little MDX.

I looked at SLA as a possiblilty in the beginning, but didn’t go that route.

#108

Hey I was browsing the web and found this cool little toolchanger design.
Seems it’s designed for shureline’s but the idea is worth looking at.

http://home.insightbb.com/~joevicar3/default.htm

#109

Are you talking about sherline? http://www.sherline.com/

#110

Yeah sorry for the mis spelling. The toolchanger isn’t made by Sherline
though. I just thought the concept is worth looking at. I may try and
work something out like it, but it’ll be a little bit of a retrofit as I have
an R-8 to Er collet setup.

#111

Yeah it looks pretty cool. I think I hear air in the video when it does it’s changes. The sherline stuff looks pretty interesting. How does that work? i.e. you buy their controllers and then how do you produce tool paths for it? Do the controllers just take g-code or something like that? so basically any way? I’ve only ever used the integrated stuff from roland, so the rest of the world is a bit of a mystery to me.

#112

Its taken a while but I’ve made some progress. The photos show the Zbrushed figure, a basic poser one I made into a more muscled type.
The figure was cut into the pieces you see in the group shot and printed
in styrene for the body, legs and arms. The head and hands were printed
in wax. I put in a few photos because its hard to explain how it all comes
together to some people. Thought maybe the non CNC nuts
would like to see even more uses for Zbrush.
STL-Girl-title.jpg
David

Attachments

STL-Girl.jpg

STL-Girl2.jpg

STL-Girl3.jpg

#113

Very cool.

3d printing?

What brand of 3d printer? Any post processing?

#114

Re: Sherline interface. Not sure what comes stock, I would bet there’s control sfwr. But a CAM app is probably up to you. I’m not aware of a Sherline CAM package.

I’m in the process of refitting my machine with new Steppers, drivers and
control sfwr. So I figured now would be a good time to look into making a tool changer.

Typically, with the big boys, the machines come with control sfwr only. The difference being the way this control sfwr is made. Some like what comes with Haas are for managing the machine itself and accepting the G-code from a CAM source. Others like what comes from Southwestern Industries offer routines right at the controller. These are called conversational controllers. Pretty cool for a shop that will not need more than that but when these controllers receive g-code posted from a CAM source, some things need to be modified. :mad: (like I was discribing earlier in this thread). It seems to me that a turn key system that gives the most flexibility costs $$. To save $$, you give up flexibility in the form of restricted workflow according to the whim of the controller.

#115

billrobertson42 , yes lots of very fine post work. I don’t remember the exact
model of printers…if I quote it maybe wrong. Will post finished pix soon.

David

#116

hi all, i work for an ice carving company, and we just bought a roland 3d scanner, a 5 axis, and a 3 axis mills machine from thermewood. i would like to know if someone has a pipeline to intergrat zbrush in to this. the software that i have are esprit, artcam pro, maya , rhino, visual mill, and of course zbrush. any help will be very appricated… thanks

#117

Cool. I know how to use every tool/software in your line up! There is to much to talk about for the thread. You should call me for a conversation.

Isaiah
253 232 3990

#118

Hi Routb,

Hey man I disagree, unless you’ve got propriety issues, this is the only thread going around in any forrum bringing Zbrush to manufacturing. If you have the time to outline your pipeline even basic steps we can leapfrog from there, and
hopefully many apps will get coverage.

billrobertosn~ I got my CNC controller finished last week and have good control with the control software. I’ll fill in with more later.

#119

Very intersesting. Please post an update when you get the chance.

I’m starting to seriously consider farming some of the stuff I want to do out. No time, and the lack of ability to do undercuts is a severe bummer.

The time issue is the biggest though.

#120

Does anyone here have experience making hi-res sculpts in Zbrush then sending out to CNC/ machined in hard foam large scale? By large scale I mean an elephant. Of course it would have to be machined in pieces and assembled in bricks.

We have done some work with sculpting maquettes about 6" tall then 3D scanning them, scaling up to about 7’ in Rhino 4.0 tall and then sending out to be CNC’d in foam blocks then assembled. This worked well for us but with Zbrush we could have total control over the pose and be able to manipulate the sculpt on other ways such as changing proportions. Is any one using zbrush for big stuff?

fork

#121

Hi routb,
sorry it is an old thread but I’m just evaluating a way how to create
3D relief out of drawings or photos like this application here:
http://www.picasoft.com/english/stenza.php

it looks like you have a big experiences using Zbrush to do this kind of work?
Is this the way to go?