Organic structures in nature are self-supporting and consist of truly sculptural surfaces with highly efficient inbuilt, load bearing mechanisms of internal structure. The increasing trend in Architecture and machinable processes to mimic organic sculptural forms on a physically huge scale, are an effective visual percept of nature and natural self-supporting forms. This paper references Californian based architectural practice Frank O. Gehry Associates (FOGA) and their use of Time-Compression Technologies in the manufacturing realisation of the unique and fluid architectural design of the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Northern Spain. FOGA use CAE technologies in the process of rapid prototyping and analysis toward the realisation of sculpted buildings of seemingly unrestrainedfreeform curves. This paper presents an overview of an approach as used by FOGA and demonstrates an application methodology to illustrate 3-dimensional surface and solid modelling and machining of complex curves. The methodology will look at technologies as used in the aerospace industry, now increasingly used in current engineering contexts, to the digital capture of shape and form for the manufacture of complex contours. The research will introduce non-contact 3D laser scanning technology to produce CAD data of a natural and self supporting structure from nature. The methodology will develop an organic shape of a sculpted freeform curved surface. A comparison procedure will be developed to benchmark the accuracy of the captured data, the resulting CAD model design and the machining capabilities of an industrial multi axis milling machine to perform a specified piece of work (machining capability, efficiency and quality of surface finish). The comparison will be based on a benchmarking framework developed by a manufacturing improvement research. The main objective of the comparison process is to define any deviation in the CAD model surface against the actual point cloud captured from the original form. Surface deviations or gaps highlighted in the identification process will then be followed by a proposal for data processing and surface model improvements to suit specific machining capabilities.
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