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126   Phone: 516-328-3970 www.technocnc.com CNC Articles CNC Milling Machine Eliminates Three Weeks of  Hand Carving Technodome Model and downhill skiing in the same visit. In addition to nature attractions, it will feature disaster rides, IMAX theatres, a 125,000-capacity sports and music arena, and massive indoor theme zones similar to those at Disney parks. The Technodome’s  capacity  is  11  million visitors per year, and its annual budget is predicted to be $1 billion. PMAMI  got  involved  with  the Technodome  when  an  architect developing  a  concept  for  the  facility hired PMAMI to produce an architectural model. With 12 employees, PMAMI is the largest fi rm of its kind in Toronto. The company has been in business since 1980, serving the model making needs of  local  and  international  architects, industrial  designers,  engineers,  and manufacturers.  Its  6,000  square  foot facility in downtown Toronto features a full range of model making and presentation capabilities.  Model  making  services include wood and plastics machining, laser cutting, prototype molding, casting, vacuum forming and fabrication. Plastics and  wood  are  the  primary  materials used in the construction of models along with a wide variety of composites and unique materials. Other in- house services include computer animation, signage, graphics, and brochures. “We have made many large models, but the one of the Technodome, at a 1:200 scale, measured 22 feet long by 10 feet wide by two and a half feet tall, is the largest model we have made to date,” says McCann. Cutting 3D Parts PMAMI  used  a  laser  cutter to  fabricate  the  portions  of  the Technodome model that were 2D shapes, such as walls and fl oors. McCann didn’t want to cut the roof pieces this way, however, because the roof was so complex. “The roof of the Technodome has many different roof styles, including a big dome,” McCann says. “Breaking the roof up into hundreds of little 2D pieces and then assembling them would have been extremely diffi cult.” The alternative was to create 3D molds of the different roof shapes and then vacuum form acrylic over the top of the molds. The acrylic pieces could then be assembled on top of the walls fairly easily. One option for producing the molds was to carve them by hand out of wood. To do this, PMAMI craftsmen would have used a band saw to rough cut the shape out of a two- to four-inch thick piece of basswood. Next they would have used a milling machine to carve more of the 3D shape. Then they would have hand- carved the details. Producing the molds this way would have taken fi ve weeks, according to McCann. Instead he decided to look for a computer numeric controlled (CNC) machine that would be capable of producing architectural models. McCann was aware of two options in The fi rst step in creating the model was to import the architect’s AutoCAD drawing into Techno’s CNC Interface. Peter  McCann  Architectural Models  Inc.  (PMAMI)  saved three  weeks  in  the  production of an architectural model of the Technodome by cutting molds for the roof sections on a CNC Router instead of hand carving them. The Technodome, when it is built, will be “the world’s largest and single- most technologically advanced indoor attraction ever,” according to its developer. The architectural model itself was huge, the largest PMAMI has ever produced. The roof of the model was particularly challenging because there were many different roof styles. Peter McCann, president of PMAMI estimates that carving the roof molds by hand would have taken at least fi ve weeks. With the computer-controlled  method,  cutting instructions  for  the  milling  machine were  generated  from  the  architect’s CAD model and the roof portion of the project was completed in only two weeks. “The  model  was  so  large  we  had  to divide  it  into  sections  and  then  glue them  together,”  says  McCann.  “The accuracy we got with the CNC machine was so high that all the different roof pieces fi t together perfectly.” The  Technodome  is  the  dream  of Abraham  Reichmann,  a  member  of the Toronto-based Reichmann family known  for  ambitious  developments. Reichmann  has  been  shopping  his Technodome project around from city to city for nearly a decade. For a time, it looked as if it would be built in Toronto. Currently, it seems that Montreal will be its home. Wherever it ends up, the Technodome’s  proposed  1.2  million- square-foot space will reportedly feature several biospheres, making it possible for a patron to go white-water rafting