Vigil

Ah yes thanks. I guess I was thinking Universal and my mind confused HHN and HRRR.

So my roommate and I had been bantering over the past few days over how cool it would be to go to HHR. This has gradually turned into very tentatively planning it. We're grad students in Virginia, so if it were to happen it would involve driving the 12 hours down there on Saturday, doing HHR on Sunday (with the frequent scare pass...cheaper than the regular ticket), doing something (?) Monday, and driving back Tuesday. Now what I really need is people to tell me it's crazy and not to...but if it were to happen...anyone have any recommendations of really cheap hotels, tickets, things to do, etc?

And even then those are still considered the consumer hobby ones. The more industrial ones that I am using (and that I imagine he is using as well) can be upwards of $20,000. I know my school has one that can print in bio-compatible material that was $200,000, and they just got one that was $750,000 that can print in a range of stiffnesses.

Yup! Stl files (stereolithography) are what most (if not all?) 3D printers use.

There is an "align to seed" option with the curve driven pattern that you might have checked instead of the other option which is right above it (the name of which escapes me right now).

Here is the finished loop! I glued it all together, painted it (blue and orange...go Hoos), and attached it to a wooden base. I also painted the footers grey. Hope you like it!

^Nice! That look really cool! What program are you using? The model's surface isn't a super nice finish. Because the printers print the model layer by layer, the orientation of the part plays a large role in the surface finish. In the xy plane, you can get perfect circles because the resolution in those directions is very small. The z resolution is much more limited, so printing a circle in that direction will result in a less-than-deal print because of the layers (particularly in smaller circles with high curvature). Hopefully the picture below helps a bit. Anyway, because the shape is so complicated there really is any great way to print them, so some parts are better than others. There is a way to smooth it out using an acetone vapor bath (which melts the surface of the model giving it a glossy look), but I haven't ever used it and was nervous to try because it will get rid of small details and some of the pieces are really small (like the crossties). Anyway, I also made the drop on Griffon! Once school starts I'll hopefully have much better access to the printers and be able to work on it more often. So if you were to print a cylinder, you could print it in one of two orientations. Option A would be preferable because you get a perfect circle in the direction that matters. Option B results in an approximate circle because the resolution is not as good. Because the loop changes orientation there wasn't really an optimal way to print it from a structural standpoint (though I realized later that the crossties are very weak because of how I printed them), so I just minimized material and time. The supports ideal orientation is vertical (like A) but I actually printed them in B to save time and material. The curvature is also large enough that it doesn't make much of a difference either.

I don't know if anyone has pointed this out yet, but the name of the ride is Valravn. As in ValRavn. VR. I don't think that's a coincidence, especially with the cardboard headset that came in the packet. I would also explain the rather odd name.

Sorry for the delay! I was on vacation last week and didn't have a chance to dissolve the support material before I left. Here is a photo of the track pieces and supports. I decided that this model is only going to be a loop; this can be the test run. It's a lot bigger than I expected for a desktop model, and 3D printing the other parts of the Loch Ness Model would be kind of prohibitive at this size. That said, it still does look pretty cool, and I hope to print a smaller version of the whole model soon. I should also have an update for this model pretty soon too! The second picture is just all the pieces balanced; nothing is glued yet.

Here are the printed parts! They have to sit in a bath for a little while to dissolve the support material.

Yeah 3D printing is not particularly fast. It works by slicing the model into layers and extruding plastic to build them up one layer at a time. Unfortunately, that usually takes hours.

I just started printing one of the loops for Loch Ness. It will be done in...approximately 12 hours... Anyway, I think I'm going to do Top Thrill Dragster next. Last weekend's trip reminded me how much I love that ride. If anyone else has one in particular they'd like to see done, I'd be happy to check it out. Eventually I'm also going to do the drop on Griffon. I tried (for like five seconds) but stopped because I couldn't get the shaping right and wanted to do I305.

I finished the I305 model! Here are some pictures. I hope to start 3D printing LNM tonight.

^Yeah that's what I thought. I figured I'd start with a) something from one of my home parks, b) one of the most iconic coasters ever, and c) something that would show off the flexibility of the 3D printers. ^^I did all the models by hand in Solidworks, which, boiled-down, is basically a much, much more advanced version of Sketchup. 3D printers need a specific file type (.stl) and I'm not sure whether Sketchup is capable of exporting them. In any case, Solidworks is a better option for this stuff anyway. It'd be really hard (if not impossible) to accomplish the same stuff in Sketchup. Here are some of track dimensions. Arrow Track Dive Machine Intamin Double Spine

Hey everyone! So I've had access to 3D printers for basically the past four years in my lab and around school (and will still have access to them with grad school), but it only recently occurred to me to make roller coaster track. I don't really know why I hadn't pursued it sooner; I think it was part not having time and part not having a reliable way to get the track dimensions and, with me being keen on details like that, I didn't want to start if it wasn't going to be perfect. I also knew that I wanted to start with the Loch Ness Monster but trying to make nice-looking loops was maddening. Both of those issues were solved. I came up with a way to get the relative sizes--NoLimits2. As seen below, I made short sections of track in the side, top, and front orientations and then viewed it from the front in the NoLimits editor. After screenshotting it, I could pull the image into Solidworks and trace over the track (each pixel is 1mm in the software). A little massaging to make the numbers nice, and I have the cross-section for the track! The loop issue was solved by writing Matlab code that spat out an array of xyz points for a loop based on several parameters (height, shaping--like clothoid, initial speed, g-force, etc.). These could then be imported into Solidworks for the curve along which I could make a sweep for the track. All of the other dimensions were just culled from pictures of the ride. Like I said, I started with the loops of the Loch Ness Monster (which I am waiting to print) and am currently working on the lift hill of Intimidator305. I figured that I could do the iconic parts of rides and paint them to have little desktop models. If anyone happens to know the specific colors of rides (like the track of LNM is Caution Yellow), that'd be helpful at least for the models. I'll update when I print them! I got no idea why the bottom two sections are all shiny. They have the same appearance set as the other sections.

Yeah it's the deep rumble that's super cool. And yeah I would echo thrillbill, downtime this weekend was a lot. Still got everything done, but definitely more than I'm used to. Actually got to watch them fix a brake fin that was malfunctioning right in front of us. PS: Is the mobile typing on these forums really screwed up for anyone else?

^Yeah that one. It's not the cable because that gets higher. So it is a sound effect? It's one of my favorite sounds tbh.

Spent the first of two days at the park today. Overall it was a day! A few notes on the day because it's late. Maverick is now basically perfect with the new restraints. Rougarou is much better as a floorless. Millennium was hauling. A few questions if anyone happens to know the answers: 1) What are the ops checking for at the back of MF before dispatch? 2) Is the loud "whir" on TTD that lowers in pitch as it launches from a speaker or part of the ride?

Steel Force at Dorney Park

Thanks for the advice. I also just realized that we could also do Dorney Park. Both are equidistant from where the wedding is (and also on the way back by 81), and it seems like a much more manageable park with a chance to not be as crowded (I've heard Dorney never really gets to bad. Not to mention it's cheaper. I suppose I should ask in that thread, but does that sound like a good idea?

Thanks for the advice. I also just realized that we could also do Dorney Park. Both are equidistant from where the wedding is (and also on the way back by 81), and it seems like a much more manageable park with a chance to not be as crowded (I've heard Dorney never really gets to bad. Not to mention it's cheaper. I suppose I should ask in that thread, but does that sound like a good idea?

So I feel like those pictures kind of answer my question, but maybe not... My family is going to a wedding in New York tomorrow (having driven from Virginia) and because my sister's birthday is on Sunday when we are driving back, my mom was thinking of surprising her by going to Great Adventure. As much as I want to go, I'm not quite sure it would be worth it. We have to be back that night so we wouldn't have a lot of time, maybe 12-6 (I would try to negotiate up, we have two cars so maybe some of us could go longer...kind of irrelevant at this point). Would the ticket money and time be worth going? Or should we just wait and go later this summer, which is also an option. (My family is all from New York, and I'm still surprised we've never been.)

I'm going to the parks for the first time tomorrow for 3 days. Does anyone have any tips? Unlike most theme parks I've been to, I don't really have a game plan or know what to expect. Any particular order in which we should do things? Thanks!

The Intimidator crew I saw when I was there over the summer is the fastest I've ever seen at any park. The seatbelts didn't slow them down at all.

I'm sure the ride is going to be fun, but, damn, it sure looks rather hideous right now. I was at the park recently, and the thing looms over the Apollo's queue. It's just a huge structure that looks really cramped and busy.