New Member Intro, Small board right now, introductions around? Options

[swertel]

I have heard about Free Dimension for quite some time, I just didn't have reason to become a user until the Alibre Design / Free Dimension cooperation. Now that I'm a full fledged, paid-up user of Free Dimension, I felt it was time to register for this forum.

I see a couple other usernames I recognize from other boards. Just curious how you all heard about FD and what you use it for.

Right now, I'm hoping I can design a golf club head with it. Some day, I want to be able to take 3D Scan Data (obj, stl, vrml, u3d formats) directly into Free Dimension, manipulate it into a new design, then put it into AD to create manufacturing drawings. My fingers are crossed.

[Tim Goldstein]

I heard about FreeDimension from Alibre also. Just got a vacuum form machine as part of a business I acquired and it looked like FreeDimension combined with Alibre would be just what I needed to get some nice mold plugs designed for making model airplane parts. I also have a Haas VF2 mill with the high speed machining option as well as FeatureCAM with the 3D Module. So all I was missing was a good surface design program. Hoping FreeDimension will be that program.

Hadn't thought about importing a 3D scan and then manipulating it in FreeDimension. If it can do it, that would be a great feature.

Tim
Denver, CO

[Dauns]

this is great.
This must be a lot of work.

[Scott Hagen]

We have thought of adding a tool for importing 3D scan data to use as a reference for shaping the model. I guess it would depend on the amount of demand for such a tool.

I saw this scanner from Polhemus the other day that reminded me of this functionality:

http://www.polhemus.com/?page=Scanning_Fastscan