[Info-vax] Nice printers for OpenVMS?

[Doug Phillips]

On Aug 7, 7:49 pm, Johnny Billquist <b... at softjar.se> wrote:
> On 2012-08-07 22:56, Doug Phillips wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Aug 6, 6:20 am, Johnny Billquist <b... at softjar.se> wrote:
> >> On 2012-08-06 12:38, JohnF wrote:
> >> [...]
>
> >>> But
> >>>    http://www.makerbot.com/
> >>> which actually builds these things right here in my hometown
> >>> has some interesting, though less dramatic, stories.
>
> >>> And a little puzzle that's had me confused: you can't "print"
> >>> any 3d object whatsoever because these printers work by deposition.
> >>> So you're constrained to shapes that can be constructed by deposition.
> >>> What are the rigorous geometrical/topological/whatever contraints
> >>> imposed on the family of shapes that can be constructed by this process?
>
> >> You can't do something which is connected by material on the top side,
> >> so to speak. It should be pretty obvious if you think about it.
> >> Something hanging from above would have to be hanging in the void until
> >> the printer have come up to the point where it connects. Objects are
> >> built from the bottom up.
>
> > Which side is the *bottom* ?
>
> Depends on your question. If we're talking about the object as such,
> then it depends on your point of view.
> If we're talking about it, as printed in the printer, then it's the
> layer done first.
>

Right. The best *bottom* is the one that requires no (or the least
amount of) support material (scaffolding).

> > For a shape where hangers can't be eliminated, a second type of easily
> > dissolvable or meltable material is deposited to stabilize the hanger.
>
> Interesting idea. Might be something for the future... But then again,
> you need this dissolvable material to bond with the non-dissolvable, and
> you need to get the non-existing parts of the non-dissolvable material
> out of the way before depositing the dissolvable materials, which then
> needs to only be deposited in the areas vacated by the non-existing
> non-dissolvable material (why do I get into such weird and complex
> wordings here...?)
>

The past couple of years have seen incredible advancements in 3d
printing so if you haven't looked for a while you might be amazed.

Search for "3d printers support material" and/or just "3d printers
materials"

And for JF, there's this single-material printer: http://www.chocedge.com/