Each member of the team should familiarize
themselves with the technology of Digitization and its implications related
to the project statement.
Team members will visit the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington, DC to meet Smithsonian staff and learn about
the exact type of laser digitizer to be used in the project.
The information regarding the operation,
output data format, and specifications should be obtained from either the
Smithsonian or the digitizer manufacturer.
Obtain or create an interface routine
to convert the data from the digitizer output format to Pro/ENGINEER (.IBL)
files. There are currently products on the market which accomplish this
task. For example, the Laser Design Surveyor 3D Laser Digitizing Systems
include the laser digitizer, 3-D Scan Control Software, and Data Sculpt
point processing software. This allows the operator to digitize 3D parts
and then create tool paths (G- Code), STL files (.STL), Wavefront files
(.OBJ), Pro-Engineer (.IBL) files, IGES or ASCII files.
Produce Stereolithography part of
the model using the 3D Systems machine at ADML.
Create test protocol to validate
the accuracy of this rapid prototyped part versus the specimen that was
originally digitized. For example, a product such as Surfacer from Imageware
(Ann Arbor, MI) may be used to repair triangles or fill in missing areas.
The fabricated part may also require some amount of hand work. Grooves,
corners and edges may require clean-up, such as cutting, filling, and smoothing
using traditional model-making techniques.