Integration of rapid prototyping technology with CAD

摘要

Rapid prototyping(RP) is a relatively new technology, which still faces challenges and a lot of problems in different stages of the process; this makes RP technology available only using very specialised equipment and very sophisticated software. This project is a step towards expanding the use of this technology, easing some of the difficulties and knowledge required to use RP systems.ududUsing existing CAD/CAM software, which is well understood and normally used in machining operations the software developed manipulates the machining code from the AlphaCAM package and generates code and instructions suitable for RP technology.ududTwo user-friendly programs were developed using Visual Basic to generate control code for a wax droplet RP system previously developed. CAD/RP follows the traditional method in RP and generates control instructions for the system from a STL file. The CNC/RP software is designed to generate control instructions for the system to build a prototype from CNC code, generated using AlphaCAM. This work, undertaken by the author, broadens the application o f layer manufacturing where functional prototype parts are produced.