The first assignment will be a basic skill building assignment following the basic milling work progression:
1. generating a surface, or series of surfaces, (MAYA or other CAD)
2. translating them into G-Code, (Surf CAM)
3. and finally milling the pieces. (Precix)
Each student is required to create a milled surface within a block of polystyrene foam board (supplied) with dimensions
of 50cm x 30cm x 10cm (maximum). The surface is to be created in Maya (or any other CAD program), and broken into several
component areas. When using Surf-CAM to create milling paths for the surface, the different areas can be used to differentiate
and experiment with parameters for the milling path types, step sizes, and endmills. By varying the parameters the different
areas across the surface should demonstrate differing surface textures and patterns.
The emphasis of this assignment is to familiarize the students with the different software, introduce the students to the
machine and give them an overview of its capabilities (and limitations), and give the students an idea about the basic work
flow and the time requirements.
The assignment will be reviewed on Wednesday January 19th at 14:00.
-- RussellLoveridge - 07 Jan 2005