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This is something of interest to me lately, as i'm planning to buy a small 4-axis mill very soon to make my own prototypes in aluminum. When visiting a prototyping lab overseas, I've also seen a 3D printer which builds the model directly in metal. But it's so expensive to use that it's mostly for emergency tool and die work, not for prototyping. It seems we are getting ever closer to the replicator from Star Trek. "Computer, I'll have a bourbon and a martini for my lady friend"... I agree with you it was really beautiful until they drilled the pearl settings. That was cheesy as hell...
Brian, are you sure that every backyard milling company has a 5-axis mill? It's pretty expensive stuff. And you can use polygonal and subd models to send for milling. The problem with using those modelers for industry is the surface quality is not perfect enough and will show some distortions. Working in Nurbs you can produce surface quality of a much higher order...
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