Why Magics Bijoux
I have been a very satisfied user of MagicsRP since 2000 for the preparation of Stl files that I process on Sanders and Solidscape machines. When I was asked by Materialise last year about the jewelry market, I outlined the MagicsRP features that I have been using on a regular basis, suggesting how Solidscape users in particular would benefit from an appropriately priced, machine specific program.
MagicsBijoux is the result of that effort with features and benefits tailored for jewelry and the Solidscape technology.
In recent years, many jewelry designers have been using one of several Rhinoceros PlugIn solutions. As a result, most users are creating overlapping surfaces and polysurfaces without resolving the internal shells that result. These same designers are generally trained to design using a CNC mill to create simple waxes, a method which also does not require them to resolve internal shells. With Solidscape however, CAD designers need to achieve a single watertight shell which takes significantly more CAD time. Magics Bijoux, in most cases, will eliminate the need for resolving internal shells and artifacts so that jewelry designers can work faster and design in the same manner as they do for CNC wax processing.
New Project
The Magics Bijoux New Project tab can be used to assemble several Stl files within the build envelope as a batch. When creating a new Project you are gathering all of you files in one format that is compressed down to 10-15% of the original file size to save disk space. The MJP file type, ( Magics Bijoux Platform ) can also be opened by Magics Lite and Magics RP.
Load Design
You may import 3 different file types in Magics Bijoux. The standard Stl ( stereolithography ) file, the popular Magics MGX compressed file type, or the Magics Bijoux platform file MJP. Unlike the Magics Lite program, there are no restrictions on the number of files you may open and include in Magics Bijoux
Triangle Reduction
With the increased use of both mesh files and scan data in jewelry design, we are finding ever larger files with too many triangles. The triangle reduction tool can decimate or reduce the number of triangles either globally or in selected local areas. Users can mark surfaces, shells or highlight specific areas for reduction by angle or triangle size. For Solidscape, triangle reduction will decrease processing time and overhead, eliminating the “too many facets” errors in Modelworks when working with large dense files.
Repair Design
Perhaps the greatest strength of MagicsBijoux is the analysis and repair of Stl files. You can use the One Button Wizard or individual tools to Stitch, Fill Holes, Repair Edges, etc. It also contains an advanced Unify command designed to Boolean multiple shells after repair. Often, with the click of a button, a user can resolve problems in a Rhinoceros file that would otherwise take hours of tinkering for Solidscape processing
Prepare Design
In the unlikely event that a user is unable to repair and combine shells with the Repair tab, Magics Bijoux also has a full Boolean operation to either combine or subtract intersecting and/or overlapping shells. Also on the Prepare Design tab is the ability to scale models for casting/molding shrinkage. At this time re-scale is global however, I understand that in the next Magics Bijoux release, Materialise will add the ability to scale unique values on each axis.
Smooth Design
This Magics Bijoux feature may seem at first look a bit unusual. In other industries, this feature has been used to correct coarse facets created by a poor modeling export. In the case of jewelry, most of our designs are intended for investment casting which is where this feature works for us. CAD design tends to create very sharp edges from Boolean subtractions and the intersection of polysurfaces. Unfortunately this is contrary to what investment casters would prefer. Most metal casters tend to request a radius over a sharp edge to mitigate metal shrinkage on solidification. A smoother radius also tends to minimize the cleavage of thin sections of investment leading to finning and metal-mold reactions.
In using the smooth functions locally and/or globally on sharp angles, Magics Bijoux and Solidscape users will be able to improve casting quality on critical projects.
Prepare Platform
In order to organize the parts for your build envelope, Magics Bijoux provides for automatic placement of all parts along with the ability to rotate and place designs in an order and angle best suited for Solidscape. Magics Bijoux handles the rendering and display of large Stl files with ease allowing the user to visualize faster and better than Modelworks the build envelope and part orientation.
Export Design
Once you have your files repaired and the build envelope prepared, you are ready to export the files directly to your Modelworks program. The Save File option allows you to save the batch again as a MJP ( Magics Platform ) with file size compression. This can come in very handy if you have to come back and build the same scene again or to refer back to a previous build.
In the Export to Modelworks panel, you have several options from which to choose. The Export Model button will tell Magics Bijoux to save the scene as an Stl file including all of the repair and preparations you have performed thus far. If however you choose the Export Slice Tag option, Magics Bijoux will Slice the models for you at the layer thickness you choose in advance. In both cases, Magics Bijoux will execute Modelworks automatically and insert your work for further processing. The advantages of the latter method are twofold. Magics Bijoux is much faster at slicing large files and in particular files with many parts. If you are using designs from a scanning device you can save hours of processing time. In addition to the slice time, users of the more recent Modelworks software will be able to export custom configurations directly from Magics Bijoux to control items like platform layers, extra support cells, and extra cooling time without having to make that request via Modelworks. Magics Bijoux was closely integrated to the Modelworks software and in updated versions will also allow for adaptive slice thickness and other custom configurations
Magics Bijoux is available for a 30 Day trial via a Download Voucher available from the Solidscape User Group site or from your local Solidscape Reseller.
Video Content Courtesy Materialise