Plastic Ink offers 3D CAD systems including Mechanical Desktop, ProEningeer Wildfire, Rhino 3D, SolidDesigner, SolidEdge, SolidWorks, Think3, Unigraphics, AutoCAD, Alibre, CADKey, I-DEAS, Inventor and IronCAD. Plastic Ink also designs 3D CAD systems that would suit the individual need.
The Plastic Ink range of products reduces the number of components and complex multi part assemblies. The support material from Plastic Ink allows for part design. The processes designed by Plastic Ink enable more component features per part. This minimises assembly costs and allows for short run production.
CAD file is formatted in IGES or STEP format to maintain accuracy. IronCAD system files are exported by selecting the ‘File’, ‘Export’, ‘Part properties’ and ‘Rendering’. Facet Surface Smoothing is set to 150 and clicked on file and export and STL is chosen.
AMSTLOUT command is used for Mechanical Desktop to export STL file. Mechanical Desktop from Plastic Ink features settings like Surface Tolerance and Vertex Spacing. Surface Tolerance aids in controlling the distance between the edge of a facet and the actual geometry, while the Vertex Spacing option controls the length of the edge of a facet. Aspect Ratio is another setting that controls the height and width ratio of the facets. Surface Tolerance, Vertex Spacing and Aspect Ratio are adjusted to produce an acceptable file.