Researchers at SDSC’s telemanufacturing facility (TMF) integrated rapid prototyping technology with scientific visualization to produce 3D solid models.

A solid model gives a researcher a different perspective on a scientific 3D data set that complements insights made possible from a computer graphics display. SDSC’s telemanufacturing facility or TMF consisted of a Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) device that the researchers connected to the Internet for remote use. The first such experiment with this device–the construction of a model of the San Diego Bay from digital geometry data supplied by SDSC computational biologist John Helly and SDSC visualization researcher T. Todd Elvins–was completed in March 1995. The data set consisted of 125,000 triangular polygons that were converted into a solid prototype to serve as a study tool for ecologists and oceanographers.