Cases

Robert Zubrickie designs complex support structures in a matter of minutes

Hi, my name is Robert Zubrickie. Magics support generation has made my nearly impossible job possible. Thanks to this Magics module, my throughput has increased by at least 800%. I work for Tyco Electronics and I am the chairperson for the 3D Systems Users Group (users of 3D Systems equipment). I began working with stereolithography equipment in 1991. It did not take me long to realize that it took massive amounts of time to design supports for my 3D CAD models to be run in our stereolithography machine. Sometimes it took me longer to draw the supports than it took to draw the product. I had to use the same CAD software to draw the supports as the part, which was painful.

While attending a users group conference, I met a speaker from Europe who made a presentation on building a skull using stereolithography and using Magics to support the skull. This caught my attention. There are so many irregular down-facing surfaces on a skull and I was intrigued that he could even support such an object. This is when a light bulb went off in my head. If he can do this with Magics software, I should be able to do the same thing with my connectors, which have tiny irregular surfaces just like a skull.

I contacted Johan Pauwels in Belgium and purchased the DOS version of Magics. He worked with Pieter Bourgaux from Materialise to make changes to the product to meet my needs. The funny thing is, every time I called Pieter at that time, I heard a beeper going off in the background. My curiosity got to me and I had to ask him what that was. He told me it was a fork truck. Still curious I asked, "Why is there a fork truck near you?" He replied, "We are a start-up company. We have two desks in the corner of a warehouse where we are renting space."

Today, 15 years later, Magics' support generation module is way better than I ever expected. I set up my computer with dual monitors and, as I draw or modify the supports on one monitor, I can watch the changes take effect on the other monitor in the isometric shaded view. This alone allows me to watch the surface which is being supported as well as seeing if the support is penetrating into the surface to hold it up. Magics' support generation module increased my support design significantly. What would normally take me eight hours to do, I can now do in a matter of minutes. Amazing!