Stereolithography Services - Widely Used Rapid Prototyping Technology

What is Stereolithography?
Stereolithography has many names and few of them are 3D layering, 3D printing, solid free-form fabrication, photo-solidification and solid imaging. It is the most common and extensively used form of rapid manufacturing and rapid prototyping. Stereolithography fabricates 3D parts and allows creating solid 3D objects from CAD models with high precision and excellent surface finish within few hours (time depends upon size and complexity). Machines used for Stereolithography are known as Stereolithography Apparatus (SLA).

Advantages and Disadvantages:
Stereolithography provides a quick and simple means to convert CAD models into real objects. This is very useful where time is money. The constraint as mentioned above is that the time to produce three dimensional parts depends upon the size and complexity of the object. The accuracy is very good having tolerance within .004"/inch. The problem again is that SLA devices or machines are too expensive. Photo-curable resin used in Stereolithography can cost as high as $800 per gallon. Then the process involved in SLA produces fumes due to which it requires a well ventilated environment

Best Part of Rapid Prototyping:
Since 1986, the year of its invention, SLA has taken large steps equally in its machine design and resources used for it. SLA is real rapid modeling and is fast switching from rapid prototyping to rapid manufacturing. It can be an exceptionally convenient and valuable process in many conditions and for many industries. It has been used effectively to aid surgeons with ear implants and can be used in almost every industry from jewellery manufacturing to military, power, marine etc. This makes it the best part of rapid prototyping.

At EMS-USA we deliver 3d scanning, reverse engineering, and rapid prototyping service involving both on-site and off-site engagement models. Contact us for Stereolithography Services and other product and services we offer.

AP - The Capitol rang loud with vows to fix the crisis-ridden economy Tuesday as Congress opened for business at the dawn of a new Democratic era. "We need action and we need action now," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Republicans agreed, and pledged cooperation in Congress as well as with President-elect Barack Obama - to a point.

Will Free Games Kill Hardcore Gaming?

Only a couple of years ago, free non-gamer oriented games were something not considered as a serious threat to the gaming business.

Now with the Nintendo Wii - a console oriented at non-gamers - is crushing its competitors (Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3) in sales, it's something the gaming companies have to seriously think about.

This has proven that there's a huge market for non-gamers who want fun, user-friendly and non-complicated gaming experiences to pass their free (or work) time.

Basically, anyone with the correct skills and software can make anything (although limited to a 2D environment) in the free online gaming world. Now you can see hundreds of remakes of old classics, from Mario to Sonic, from Tetris to totally new mixes of games, spawning new mind-bending genres that have thousands of people glued to their PCs, ignoring work.

One particular genre (or game type, whatever) has a particularly interesting story. It's called Tower Defense that many gamers refer to a form of cyber-sports on its own. The idea is that you have a base, a path and a selection of units. You have to build these units - or towers - around the path. The path starts off-screen and leads to your base. You have to carefully place your units around the path in order to kill all the enemies that use it to get to your base. There is a lot of financial strategy involved, as well as quick reaction times and careful planning.

What's interesting about this genre is where it was born. The roots lead to a game called Warcraft 3 by Blizzard entertainment. That game allowed you to make custom maps, and one of the examples provided by Blizzard was a Tower Defense game. It didn't take long for lots of variations to appear, thus resulting in a very popular modification to the initial gameplay scheme. It was fun, simple and entertaining. The key to it was the multiplayer aspect and the simplicity of it. Any player - even with a fairly low skill level - could easily go ahead and compete (or co-op) with the best players on the map.

This was a long fad in Warcraft 3, but eventually ended up getting flash treatment and became a popular free games genre that thousands of people enjoy today.

At the same time, there were vice-versa stories. A game called Alien Hommid originated as a flash game and was picked up by Microsoft - and is now available for download as a paid Xbox Live Arcade game.

While free games most likely won't kill the hardcore gaming market, they certainly took a huge chunk of market share of the gaming business. Let's just hope that they won't take it over entirely.

PlayedOnline provides more information about free games available online such as the famous Tetris, get great gaming resources and have some fun, visit us today!

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How To Make A Video Game With FPS Creator

FPS Creator is a powerful software program that makes video game making extremely easy. It is all drag and drop and you don't need to know any programming at all. It also has a 30-day free trial period, which allows you to try it before you decide to buy it.

FPS Creator makes video games in the first person shooter style and it is quite possibly the easiest software development tool you can use. Within five minutes of starting up the program you can have a small video game ready to be played. To do this you need to place three different types of items in the game. The first type is a room, the second type is an entity, and the third type is a player start. This article explains these three different types of entities and how you can quickly place into your game.

When you start up the program you see a desktop workspace with a grid. This area is where you build your world. On the left of this workspace is the library. Click on the add prefabrication icon then select a library item such as the control room large or control room small. Then move your cursor to somewhere on the workspace grid and left click. This places the control room right into the game. This control room is a prefabricated room that is ready to go and it is complete and in place. But one room is rather boring so let's place a second room. Move your cursor and place another room right along side the first one. Make sure the walls of the rooms are right up against each other. The doorway between the two rooms is automatically calculated and placed so you don't have to worry about it. You can continue this process and place many different types of rooms right into the game.

Now you place items such as furniture or weapon and ammunition right into the game with the same drag and drop technique. These items are called entities. In the library along the left, click on the entities tab then click on the new entity option. This brings up a large selection of entities that you can drop right into the game. Select an entity such as the Uzi then place it into one of your rooms with a single left click. Continue this process and place other entities into the game. Have some fun with it and place as many different entities as you want.

To complete your game all you have to do is place a player start (which is you) somewhere in the game. To do this you press the markers tab then select the Player Start icon. Now place this in one of the rooms you created. You have completed your first game now all you have to do is run it and play it.

To run the game you simply press the test level button along the top menu. The program will compile and run your game. You can now play it and interact with all the various items by moving from room to room and pressing enter to open doors or pick up items.

FPS Creator makes it astonishingly simple to create your own video game and the key to making a game, and the reason why it is so easy, is the large collection of prefabricated items that come built right into the software. There are hundreds of items that you simply click and drag right into the game. And the makers of the software have quite a large selection of extras in many different themes that can make your game really unique. If you want to dabble in making your own video games but you don't want to learn how to program this is an excellent software tool for you to try and learn with.

For more articles, information, product reviews, and tutorials on the exciting world of making video games for free check out the author's website at: make-video-games.com

AP - Police say an angry 4-year-old Ohio boy grabbed a gun from a closet and shot his baby sitter.

Rock Band Video Game - Rock Band vs Guitar Hero - Who Wins?

As everyone knows by now, Rock Band Video Game is out and taking the nation by storm. At least for those who have been able to get their hands on the game thus far. Well, the question that everyone has been dying to have answered follows. Rock Band Video Game vs Guitar Hero ... who wins?

MTV's Boston-based Harmonix thrilled players of the music/rhythm genre when they first came out with their Guitar Hero game. It was so unlike anything that was then available. It was so popular that there have been two subsequent versions, with the latest version just released as Guitar Hero 3.

Well, Harmonix has now gone and outdone themselves with their latest creation, Rock Band the game. Developers wanted to not just come up with another game: they wanted to come up with a way for people to actually play music ... and boy, did they!

Guitar Hero originally came with only a guitar player option, but a slew of tracks to play. It has taken this third version for Guitar Hero developers to finally get around to offering a drum kit. Something that already comes standard with every Rock Band game. Rock Band does another "one upper" by not only including the guitar; it also comes with a microphone kit.

If you were to do a side by side comparison, there are special features each of these games offer. Guitar Hero may offer more songs to shred with the guitar right now (a bit over seventy titles at last count), but Rock Band will be adding new tracks every week. Rock Band also has a better quality soundtrack than Guitar Hero and even though Rock Band video game costs a bit more, it just blows the door off Guitar Hero in overall capabilities. Its multi-player feature looks to be a bit more challenging (and fun) than Guitar Hero's battle mode which pits a player against just the computer. There is also a Tour Mode for Rock Band being set up to run online that Guitar Hero just can't compare with.

There was an actual "Cyber Battle of the Bands" held between both these games at this year's EA gaming convention. The final conclusion, after a four song play-off was that Guitar Hero 3 was hard put just playing catch up to the newest contender on the video gaming block: Rock Band won, hands down!

The ultimate "Battle of the Bands" will actually be played out in the retail arena. With the upcoming holidays, it should be interesting to see if Rock Band continues to outdo Guitar Hero.

Want to find out more about Rock Band Video Game vs Guitar Hero? James provides much more detailed information including new Rock Band game video clips and resources of where to find this hard to find game. Visit his site, Rock Band The Game and rock your world. You can also find info here at at Rock Band Video Game.

AP - Israeli forces edged closer to Gaza's major population centers on Tuesday and attacked new sites, including a U.N. school, claiming more civilian lives after ignoring mounting international calls for an immediate cease-fire. A Palestinian rocket attack wounded an Israeli infant.