39-245
Rapid Design through Virtual and Physical Prototyping

Carnegie Mellon University
Spring 1997

Step 1: Open the file and return to the main menu.

Step 2: From the main menu choose Prototype.

Step 3: Choose rotate and manipulate your 3-D model to be sliced. The slicing occurs along the xy plane (this goes into the screen). It is VERY important that the model is oriented such that end with the largest surface area is toward the top of the screen, with the smaller surface area toward the bottom.

Step 4: Click on Info under the Prototype menu and make sure the information makes sense to you for the model you created.

Step 5: Click on Slice under the Prototype menu. A pop-up window will appear prompting you to choose the material. The default material is Standard so just click on OK. Another pop-up window will appear displaying the number of slices and sheets used. Make sure that the number of sheets is not astronomical, otherwise it will take forever (You can rescale the part to reduce the number of sheets. This option is under Prototype and explained in Navigating through JP System 5. ) Hit the Return key if everything is as it should be. Just to warn you, this process may take awhile depending on the complexity of your part. Hit Esc to stop the process at any time.

Step 6: After it has finished slicing, click on View Sheets. Use click on the arrows on the right side of the screen to go through the sheets so that you can see if there are any slices that are inconsistent with how the model should be. Click on Return after doing so.

Step 7: Click on Align Subparts . This will put all of the slices together and you can watch it build on the screen. Watch to see if there are any inconsistencies with the part. Click on Return after doing so.

Step 8: After all of these precautions, click on Return in the Prototype submenu so that you return to the main menu. Choose File under the main menu.

Step 9: Click on Plot under the File submenu. You can choose Range, All, or Mask. Range is to plot a few sheets that you want. All plots all of the sheets including the Mask. Mask plots only the mask used to cover areas that shouldn’t have spray adhesive on them. Single will plot only one sheet. Choose whatever option you wish. Load the plotter as explained above and Press any key to start plotting. You can only plot one sheet at a time.

sfinger@ri.cmu.edu