rapman-education's posterous

rapman-education's posterous

Dave White  //  A place for educators, teachers, lecturers and students to find "stuff" about RapMan,BfB3000 and BfB 3DTouch printers... The unofficial Blog by Dave White, Advanced Skills Teacher and Head of D&T in Clevedon School UK.

Jul 20 / 8:08pm

Updated Resources

It has been a busy few weeks for me at the end of term and I may have overlooked a few updates of resources on the BfB wiki.

 

I have managed to reduce the file size of the volcanoes (before and after) for the Geography 3D terrain printing project (Mt St. Helens), so both versions are now available for you to try- before you have a go at converting DEM files to .stl. http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Geography_-_Mount_Saint_Helens_Volcano

 

Although not really a T&L resource I have also uploaded a manual for the BfB Axon Software (draft) http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=BfB_Axon This provides information on how to get started with this excellent software for creating g-code for your RapMan or BfB3000

 

rfa.arch (don't know his/her real name) has had considerable success printing models of tall buildings (see the tread on the forum Tall Buildings). The files were downloaded from Google Sketchup 3D Warehouse and exported as .stl files. rfa.arc has also provided a .stl file of the Empire State Building that you can try as a starter. http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Architectural_Models 

 

Dave

 

 

Jul 19 / 8:19pm

Data Conference Presentation

Almost forgot.... when I got back from the DATA "Digital D&T" conference I did say that I would post a copy of my presentation.... here it is

Dave

Click here to download:
DATA Conference Rapman.pdf (2.76 MB)
(download)

Filed under  //  Conference   DATA   Education  
Jul 17 / 7:53pm

Axon on the BfB Website

BfB axon is now available on the BfB Website. BfB Axon Download.

For more details see previous post on July 2nd 2010.

Dave

Filed under  //  Software  
Jul 9 / 9:17pm

Print your own DNA

This time about DNA and the double helix.  http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Science_-_DNA

Dna

This resource is heavily based on the work by "Cathalgarvey" on Thingiverse... my thanks to him for producing the .stl files (and to Bogdan for spotting them and realising it would make a good T&L resource)

Dave

Filed under  //  Cross Curricular   Resources   Teaching and Learning  
Jul 7 / 10:08pm

Just got back from the DATA Conference at Keele University

Just got back home 8.45pm UK time... 150 mile trip
As promised I'm reporting back on how the conference went 
J

BRILLIANT... I really enjoyed it J I ran 2 seminar/workshop sessions of about one hour in the morning and afternoon to a good sized audience each time (sorry didn't count them) They were teachers, lecturers, advisors etc all specialising in D&T so a fairly knowledgeable lot.

The presentations went down really well (even though the university's IT system refused to produce sound for my video clips ) ... I will post a copy of the presentation later (after I've annotated it)

Interestingly there were a few "Dimension" owners in the audience.... Their expressions were very interesting* when I mentioned about initial cost, running costs and showed them the quality of output... Ok you can see a difference but it's not 20-40X better on a Dimension... I would rather spend the cash on having 20-40 RapMan machines than buy one Dimension. I would be happy to have one in each of my workshops!.... ok, so I can dream a little
* for interesting read "green with envy"

If BfB don't get a few sales from my presentation and seeing a BfB3000 "in the flesh" I would be very surprised

Dave

PS the BfB3000 and the BfB Axon software were a dream.. fantastic combination and excellent results... and the machine survived bouncing around in the back of my car perfectly well... (the BfB 3000 road test ...and I'm fairly certain I can hide the evidence of my little printing mistake  from the BfB guys...oops... you would have thought by now that I would know the difference between the z+ and z- buttons)

 

 

Filed under  //  Conference   DATA  
Jul 2 / 8:53pm

BfB Axon... "new" RapMan and BfB3000 software

Really hope I don't get into trouble for this from the BfB Guys.... But I was so impressed that I just had to post this!

(download)

I dropped into BfB HQ today to collect a BfB3000 machine to take to the Design & Technology Association International Conference next week (see a previous post on this blog)  ..... The BfB3000 will be so much more impressive than my beat up and very old RapMan (but it still has real "character") . Whilst I was there the guys very kindly gave me a pre-release copy of their new software "BfB Axon".... My first impressions at least from an education point of view are.... WOW!!!!

The place that this takes in the suite of software seems to be that this is a (fully working!) replacement for the "BfB front end Beta" and is in no way intended to challenge the position of NetFabb.... in my view it complements and joins the suite of Skeinforge and Netfabb. Infact Netfabb will remain an essential part of the RapMan kit for its superb stl fixing ability and build quality.

BfB Axon is built on Skeinforge (in fact clicking on the Advance settings button opens the familiar SF interface which should keep the settings tweakers happy)... but there are some significant enhancements ... Easy user interface.
Tried and tested settings for BfB 3000 and RapMan with 1 to 3 heads (including support)
Rotate and scale (but not repair) stl files before processing.
Nice simple g-code viewer to view in 3D and step through layers

The program installer installs Python, Skeinforge and the interface (not certain about psyco or if installing this would have the same speed increase).... and on my win 7 laptop worked brilliantly (I have not tried it on any other OS).

So an "out of the box" solution is on the horizon.... don't quote me but I think it is going to be downloadable from the BfB website soon, and if I'm not mistaken at zero (or very low) cost!... now we can afford to install it on lots of machines and teach several/students at a time I know that the BfB guys have been working VERY hard on this whilst at the same time trying to push out huge numbers of RapMen and BfB3000's. For me and for schools/colleges who are finding funding increasingly difficult in this current economic climate this looks like it will be a brilliant solution... Thanks BfB Guys I really can't wait to show it off for the first time in public at the DATA Conference... Thanks guys for letting me do this.

Dave

PS As I said at the start... I hope the BfB Guys don't mind me "leaking" this info... So to save my neck please don't bug them by email (or on this forum) for further details, release dates, cost etc... at least not until the official release has happened

Filed under  //  Software  
Jun 21 / 5:47pm

Wallwisher

In my quest to provide a wide range of quality Teaching and Learning resources I am looking for new ways to get some feedback from teachers, lecturers and students (or anyone else) about the resources on the wiki,  and ideas for new projects.etc...  So.... try this...

Note... This is very experimental (never tried it before), I have chosen not to have to moderate comments on the wall but if there is any abuse I will have to remove it.

Jun 19 / 11:38am

The Design and Technology Association Education and International Research Conference 2010

Keele University,UK.  Wednesday 7 – Friday 9 July 2010

Link to the conference page of the DATA website

I have been invited to contribute to the DATA Conference on the 7th July 2010 by running two lectures/workshops, These will be one hour sessions with potentially 50 international teachers, lecturers, advisors, consultants and government representatives etc at each of the sessions.... and the general theme is Digital Design & Technology, I will of course be focussing on 3D printing and RapMan.

This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase what RapMan can do in schools, colleges and universities to enhance student's learning.

I will be showing the work done by my students and the Teaching/Learning resources that have been produced and the support systems that are in place via the wiki and forum (i.e. you guys !)

And now I start asking for some help!!!! I would really like to show the international nature of RapMan... I can already show how you guys helped me to develop the wind turbine project for schools, but i would like to show more than just the objects printed at my school, so.... I woud be really grateful if you guys out there in schools, colleges, or universities could send me some quality photos of the work your students have been doing.
The best way to do this would be to attach some photos to this post on the BfB forum- DATA Conference , or the thread ...Printing Examples... show your best printing projects here!    or by PM. I will of course fully credit anything that I use. .... the only thing I would not be able to use a photos of students (I would have to get written permission from parents etc to publish these).

Anyway, I'm really excited about this conference (and a little aprehensive  Wink ) and really looking forwards to recieving any help you guys might be able to give by sending examples etc.

Many thanks, in anticipation.

Dave

Filed under  //  Conference   DATA  
Jun 12 / 1:56pm

D&T Practice. The DATA magazine

D&T Practice- the Design & Technology publication for professionals - Published by DATA The Design & Technology Association, (issue4 2010) has published a feature on RapMan. The article explains about Technology Supplies Ltd (TSL) - the exclusive distributor of RapMan to Education in the UK, showcasing RapMan at BETT 2010. It goes on to explain that BfB and RapMan was the winner of a BETT award for "Best Digital Device".

Also there are details of the pilot RapMan Project that is now running in schools in Scotland. The schools showcased their RapMan Machines at the Celebration for Science Event in Glasgow on June 11th 2010.

Click here to download:
DATA RapMan.PDF (298 KB)
(download)

Filed under  //  Article   DATA  
Jun 11 / 5:37pm

BfB and RapMan visit Techlink.

On the 10th June 2010 Iain Major (a director from Bits From Bytes ltd) went to the annual Techlink conference to demonstrate RapMan. Techlink is a project supported by a local engineering company's charitable trust. Through this support secondary schools throughout the South West of the UK have been able to purchase CAD/CAM equipment that they would otherwise have not been able to afford . Over the last couple of years the charity has been purchasing CraftROBO machines (cutter/plotters) for every junior school (7 to 11 year olds) in the area.... But the good news is that
they are now looking at the possibility of providing a RapMan machine to secondary schools (11 to 18 year olds).

At the Techlink Conference Iain was able to not only demonstrate the RapMan but also to showcase some of the Teaching and Learning resources that are available on the BfB Wiki. Techlink are particularly keen to develop the project about wind turbines and Iain printed a steady supply of turbine fans throughout the event. The BfB demos were visited by dozens of young students who were amazed by the whole process... budding designers and engineers of the future J. A number of teachers and parents also visited the stand and were again bowled over by what they saw. One parent was so impressed with RapMan that he placed an order then and there!

Anyway, I'm really excited at the possibilities of this link with Techlink.... I'll post some more details as this develops.

Dave

Click here to download:
Bits_From_Byte.pdf (1.04 MB)
(download)
PS The PowerPoint (shown here as a pdf) is available on the BfB Wiki
http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Promotion_Resources

 

Filed under  //  Conference   Education