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College of Visual Arts & Design Digital Fabrication Laboratory

Location:
ART 150 (Enter from the outside of the building, do not go through the Wood Shop from inside the ART building)

Hours of Operation:
Monday-Friday: 8:00am-5:00pm
Saturday-Sunday: CLOSED

Click here to schedule FabLab Safety Training course.
Click here to schedule FabLab Filecheck.

Contact:
Email cvadfablab@unt.edu

The CVAD Digital Fabrication Lab (FabLab) is located in ART 150 and is an open resource for current UNT College of Visual Arts and Design graduate and undergraduate students to make work utilizing the equipment we have available. All students currently enrolled in CVAD courses will have access to the lab without any additional costs as the FabLab is paid for with your student fees. Anyone outside of CVAD is required to buy a semester pass in order to gain access. The pass, called a FabLab ShopCard, costs $100 per semester and is required of all non-CVAD students, faculty and staff who wish to use the FabLab. CVAD faculty wishing to use the FabLab for class demonstrations will not be required to transfer any departmental funds to the FabLab.

The FabLab is divided into clean and dirty areas. The clean area has equipment like the laser cutters and resin printers while the dirty area has equipment that are either more messy or require a greater amount of dedicated space like the CNC router and Plasma Cutter.

The FabLab is a resource for making art work, it is not a production facility for your business or commercial ventures.

About the FabLab

The CVAD FabLab is primarily a student resource. Faculty and Staff will not be allowed to schedule time in the lab during the hours of operation above but may use the equipment on a walk-in basis if the equipment is available. This follows regular university protocol. Additionally, faculty can use the FabLab outside of the hours of operation provided they attend a training session - BUT there must always be at least two people present when the FabLab is used outside of the hours of operation and at least one of them has to have attended the “Afterhours Training”. If a faculty member is unable to find someone else to be present when they are available to work it is possible to hire one of our graduate students to work with them. The faculty member, or department, would be responsible for paying the graduate student. The current rate in the FabLab is $12.50 an hour. Payment can be made through an IDO (see your Department Chair or Department Admin). Only CVAD faculty and staff will have afterhours access, not students (graduate or undergraduate).

Faculty utilizing the equipment for their own personal work will not be required to pay a fee to use the equipment but will be responsible for paying for the sta worker outside the normal hours and will be responsible for the expenses incurred in printing lament and the resin costs if using the 3D printers. No other materials are provided for faculty use in the FabLab.

Before being allowed to use the equipment in the FabLab, all students, faculty and staff must complete a Safety Training course. Students scheduling time on equipment should already have experience using the piece of equipment.

Students who wish to schedule time on a piece of equipment will first need to come to the FabLab and have the staff work with them on a Filecheck. An appointment can be scheduled through this form. At the Filecheck staff will work with the student to not only ensure their file(s) are correct but to also make sure the student is prepared to use the equipment. The Filecheck generally takes approximately 30 minutes and after it is complete the staff will schedule the student’s time on the piece of equipment.

With some of the equipment materials can be provided but what we have available may not be what the student requires for a project. If we have the materials you need you may have them free of charge.

To schedule an appointment for a Filecheck, complete this form. If you have any questions, send an email to cvadfablab@unt.edu. Appointments are available from 8:30a - 4:30pm, Monday through Friday.

Faculty Demonstrations and Workshops

We have a Faculty Demo Area in the FabLab that can be reserved by faculty for faculty to perform class demonstrations and/or workshops. The demo area contains dedicated smaller versions of the Shopbot CNC router and Epilog Laser Cutter that can be used to teach students the basics before they come to the FabLab to work on class projects. Other equipment is available for use in the demo area as required; the full list is given below. The demo area is enclosed so that the demonstration/workshop will not impact the other operations of the FabLab. There is a projector at the instructor station so that faculty can display class-related or other materials during the demonstration. Faculty may schedule time in the demonstration area here: cvadtraininglab@unt.edu. FabLab staff will not be leading demonstrations.

FabLab Staff

FabLab Staff are present for your safety, the safety of the machines, and to help you trouble-shoot problems you may have utilizing the machines. FabLab Staff members are not trained to assist with any issues regarding your design process including trouble-shooting design software issues, they are trained to help you process your finished design through the machines in the lab.

Student Responsibility

The laser cutters and CNC machines are potentially dangerous and need your full, undivided attention. A few seconds could mean the difference between minimal equipment damage and thousands of dollars’ worth of damage. Students are financially liable for machines damaged by reckless and/or negligent use. Also, if one would like to make a 6-hour engraving on a laser cutter, then one will have to watch a 6 hour engraving on a laser cutter. It’s not the FabLab Staff member’s job to oversee your 6-hour project. Students are not allowed to temporarily leave the FabLab while a job is being processed without pausing the job first and notifying the lab staff.

Reserve Time

If a student is more than 15 minutes late to an appointment on a piece of the equipment they will forfeit their reservation and it will be counted as a no show.  More than two no shows will result in the loss of your access to the FabLab for the remainder of the semester. Students should come prepared to utilize the equipment right away; editing files or cutting down material should be completely done prior to your appointment.

FabLab Software Education Resources

The FabLab staff have created a series of Software Education Modules to deliver training content that can be used for self-learning to increase the understanding of FabLab software among users. The Software Education Modules assume that the user has little to no knowledge of each software program. You can use any of these software programs to create files for use on our machines.

Modules include:

  • Illustrator CC (Lasers/CNCs)
  • Netfabb (File check for 3D printers)
  • PreForm (Resin Printer)
  • Epilog Dashboard (Epilog Lasers)
  • LaserWorks/RuiDas Works (BOSS Laser)
  • PartWorks (Shopbot)
  • Torchmate CAD (Plasma cutter CNC)
FabLab Equipment List

Clean Area
1.  Formlabs Form1+ (Resin printer)

  • 4.9"x4.9"x6.5" build volume
  • Parts commonly designed in Autodesk Fusion 360 or Tinkercad

2.  Formlabs Form2 (Resin printer) 

  • 13.5"x13"x20.5"
  • Parts commonly designed in Autodesk Fusion 360 or Tinkercad

3.  Epilog Fusion M2 (Laser cutter 75 watts)

  • 40"x28" cutting area
  • 13.25" material thickness (not cut depth)
  • Parts commonly designed in Adobe Illustrator

4.  Epilog Helix 24 (Laser cutter 60 watt)

  • 24"x18" cutting area
  • 8.5" material thickness (not cut depth)
  • Parts commonly designed in Adobe Illustrator

5.  Boss SS-3650 (Laser Cutter 150 watts)

  • 36"x48" cutting area
  • 12" maximum material thickness (not cut depth)
  • Parts commonly designed in Adobe Illustrator

6.  Creaform Handheld Scanner

Dirty Area
1.  Torchmate Growth Series 4x4 (Plasma cutter)

  • 4'x4' cutting area
  • ½" maximum material thickness (cut depth)
  • Parts commonly designed in Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk Fusion 360 or AutoCAD

2.  ShopBot PRS Standard 96x48 CNC

  • 8'x4' cutting area
  • 4" maximum material thickness
  • 2" maximum cut depth (based on bit length)

Faculty Demo Area
1.  Epilog Zing 16 (Laser cutter 30 watts)

  • 16"x 12" cutting area
  • 4.5" maximum material thickness (not cut depth)
  • Parts commonly designed in Adobe Illustrator

2.  ShopBot Desktop (CNC with 1hp Spindle)

  • 24"x18" cutting area
  • 3.5" maximum material thickness (cut depth)
  • Parts commonly designed in Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk Fusion 360 or VCarve Pro

3.  Printerbot Plus (Filament printer)

  • 10"x10"x10" build volume
  • Heated bed
  • Parts commonly designed in Autodesk Fusion 360 or Tinkercad

4.  iPad Cart

  • 20 IPads loaded with process documentation for each piece of equipment in the FabLab
  • Integrated 3D modeling and 2D design apps for quick concept-to-production sketching

5.  Miscellaneous

  • Instructor podium with overhead projector hookups
  • Collaboration table (available upon request)
  • Material available for demos (located on material rack)