I want to CNC machine a complex model. If I use just a solid block, it would waste most of what will be an expensive block just to take it directly from the block. Is there any options in CATIA, rhino, 3DS for some type of algorithm or some other method to calculate the amount material needed, and the pieces required to make the model. For instance, a rectangle, a triangle and sqaure joined together to make up the desired shape.
So essentially you are interested in buying bulk material in those forms and them glue/attach them somehow for a raw material to CNC? To my knowledge for 3D layouts there isn't much widely available. There are plenty of programs to do this on a 2D layout say for sheet metal nesting. You would probably have to create your own type of program to figure this out. I am pretty positive I could write a Pro/Program to get a rough outline of say a statue.
Don't get me wrong it would be very difficult to set up and I haven't put much thought into it, maybe I will in the near future if I have some free time because it is an interesting problem. First you need to define code to analyze the external geometry by dimension and orientation. I would probably use a vector algorithm. Which I would drive standard geometry to such as those you described.
This is actually a really interesting idea and if it worked well could potentially save a lot of material and time. I'm not sure exactly how this sort of manufacturing works - whether the factory always starts from a simple metal block or whether they plasma-cut a rough 'blank' outline first? I know there are 2D nesting programs, that are used to nest flat shapes for sheet metal cutting but I think translating that idea to 3D would be a whole new challenge!
So just by measuring the max dimensions of the product, cant you break it down into the possible combinations? Of course you cannot make too many combinations but you can make a few and choose the most practical one. Still better than wasting material in cnc, and time. Also if you would post the pictures of the design, maybe we could suggest some combinations too. but you’d have to manually input it for the CNC. But if you are outsourcing the production its not your problem. with wood, I have seen people use CNC in a very similar way. But I have not seen with metal. And with wood they always use only 3 shapes, cuboid, cube and cylinder. I tried to find some links but couldn’t find any on the web.
Yeah, I suppose all that you need to calculate is an outer 'bounding box', so perhaps the calculations aren't that complicated. It depends how accurate you want to go really.
