Elysium Max Exoskeleton

Spent nearly entire day 6AM-5PM (1 hr break) to get miniscule progress... but it's perfect! After this is done, no more AutoCAD ever again. This felt like digging a 40 foot hole with nothing but your own tongue.

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Spent nearly entire day 6AM-5PM (1 hr break) to get miniscule progress... but it's perfect! After this is done, no more AutoCAD ever again. This felt like digging a 40 foot hole with nothing but your own tongue.

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LOL I hear yay, I love CAD for 2D but never build anything but primitives in 3D. Have you tried Rhino? Its really easy to use and would be perfect for this project.
 
Rhino was the first 3D program I learned. I chose AutoCAD because I wanted to ensure compatibility when submitting to manufacturing, but now I hear a lot about Solidworks so I will check if that's an option. Just hate to change software so much. I started this project in Blender and then switched to AC loosing a month of work on the chest piece and pistons. If I wanted 2D I could have just used Illustrator (which is $100 for v10, as opposed to 1k for AutoCAD LT). It has almost the same snapping options and you can draw everything to scale with exact sizes.

This week I also posted "AutoCAD tutor wanted" ad on craigslist and set down with an expert to talk about the piece above, as well as how to model the shoulder pieces, which are curved on both X and Y axis (and I wanted to maintain exactly the right distance on a curve instead of extruding the flat outline straight down and intersecting with a sphere section). He talked me through a few things, but overall I would say it was a waste of $100. Pretty much "you want something done, do it yourself" scenario in this case.
 
Solidworks isn't a bad option if you're just making parts and basic assemblies. If you want to learn more advanced software for doing complex assemblies, analysis, sheet-metal, wiring all in one program, go with CATIA. They are both Dassault Aerosystems programs (and if the rumor mill is true, will 'soon' become one software suite), but as is true with most modeling programs, the only thing that really changes is the GUI and what workbenches it has.

I've used Inventor and Pro-E a little bit, but didn't really like them.
 
Rhino worked really well for my current project, a TRON Legacy Disc. It produces excellent STL files for 3D Printing.
 
Excellent thanks for the suggestion. I will probably prototype some parts with plastic 3d printing before going to alum/SS. This part is a good candidate. Progress today:

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I want this "realness" feeling that I don't believe I can get with resin :) Also I am planning to continue this project past the prop/cosmetic stage to work on actuators and sensors for movement, so I want to get in the groove of building it rugged.
 
Sadly, the way the suits actually move is kind of faked. The tolerances on all the "pistons" are extremely sloppy, and there's a fair number of rubber parts to allow for flexibility. There's a ton of wiggle and empty space built into the things that would never work "for real".
 
I would have to re-design all the parts from ground up and find a way to transfer all weight into the ground, not to mention that most of these pistons couldn't possibly perform meaningful movements. That's a three year project at least (if it took me almost a year to do cosmetics). I got a fresh subscription to Science magazine to read Ray Baughman's articles on artificial muscles and my first Arduino kit. I am pretty confident with software engineering but very low on electronics knowledge at the moment. I started on non-working prop first because finishing a simple project is better than biting off a huge chunk, getting discouraged and giving up in despair. When the simpler project is done, that boosts confidence and excitement for the next phase.

Got another day left on upper arm, next up shoulder blades and hand/finger shock plates.

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Well I was wrong about "another day". The model is done, but it's got artifacts I simply don't know how to fix. Posted a thread on CADTutor forum, and a pinged a local contact who was nice enough to offer help. Looks like I got another circle of hell do go through to finish this one.
 
Got nearly done when I realized I did geometry incorrectly... Tricky references! This will have to be re-done almost from scratch, but here's a GI render of where it got:

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Some GI renders of a part submitted for manufacturing quote. Going to visit the plant in a couple of days to talk about tolerances and price points.

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Would love to hear how the quotes come out. The one time I got a CNC quote it was many times more expensive than an additive 3D printed process. Looking for a reasonable priced CNC shop.
 
CNC just refers to the method of controlling a manufacturing machine, including a 3D printer. I'm assuming you're trying to get them CNC milled, rather than using additive manufacturing?

CNC operators tend to rebuild the models they are given, just so they know for sure that what is being put into the machine is correct, and from the datum points they need. I have a sneaking suspicion that those 2 pairs of parts alone will cost you what some of the production-used lots on eBay cost.
 

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