Android app for block assembly
Collaboration with a local company paved the way to the development of an Android app to represent 3D models that are built by joining a set of 3D blocks. Each block is made of a set of layers of parts machined by a 3-axis CNC machine out of foam sheets. The manufacturing process is more or less outlined in this video:
The problem here was for work workers to have an easy way to know the assembly of the parts without the need of having a computer screen. Given each one of them happens to have a smartphone that seemed the obvious choice. And that is the result (portrait video warning):
As you can see in the video each block has a red number hovering it. And the low polygon count of the 3D mesh is just to ease on the amount of data transmitted and not a limitation of the program itself.
I wanted to make this tool useful for other users, so the file format is a regular ZIP file with .mim extension that contains three different elements: one binary STL file for each block, first one named b1.stl, one binary STL file for each number of block, first one named n1.stl, and, optionally, another text file named slices.txt that would include the details of the slices of all parts needed to build the model. If this latter file is omitted, then the view of stacked layers is not available but all the 3D functionality is still available.
For projects that have more than one block, the blocks' files will be named b2.stl, b3.stl and so on. Same applies to the files containing the 3D mesh of the numbers. Colors are assigned automatically.
You can try for yourself the free Android app using this file. Let me know what other use you have found for this program.
The problem here was for work workers to have an easy way to know the assembly of the parts without the need of having a computer screen. Given each one of them happens to have a smartphone that seemed the obvious choice. And that is the result (portrait video warning):
As you can see in the video each block has a red number hovering it. And the low polygon count of the 3D mesh is just to ease on the amount of data transmitted and not a limitation of the program itself.
I wanted to make this tool useful for other users, so the file format is a regular ZIP file with .mim extension that contains three different elements: one binary STL file for each block, first one named b1.stl, one binary STL file for each number of block, first one named n1.stl, and, optionally, another text file named slices.txt that would include the details of the slices of all parts needed to build the model. If this latter file is omitted, then the view of stacked layers is not available but all the 3D functionality is still available.
For projects that have more than one block, the blocks' files will be named b2.stl, b3.stl and so on. Same applies to the files containing the 3D mesh of the numbers. Colors are assigned automatically.
You can try for yourself the free Android app using this file. Let me know what other use you have found for this program.
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