On the plus side of doing that you'll have no problem putting mirror blades on the game.

For what its worth I've had that scanner working on my laptop with Windows 8 as well.

Similar experience importing a VP mesh into Fusion 360--one big mesh. Parts can be separated out in Blender, if you wanted to spend the time.

I knew the simulated physics would never really match the real life behaviour.
After my first stab at FP table -> real table I took what I saw on the real table and worked that back into the sim.
The sim became a little clunkier (but I was confident of what worked in the real.)
I didn't really model the ramps. Making them out of matte board and duct tape was a fast, easy, and durable solution.
Start with a rough bottom curve, refine it to the width needed. Make strips for sides. Tape in place.

Makes sense. "Don't measure with a micrometer and then cut with a shotgun." Paper ramps are likely off by quarter inches everywhere compared to your final ramps.

Takeaway is--a VP/FP simulation is good for:

1) Fitting general parts on the playfield/under the glass (get a general idea of placement)
2) Inspiration/Motivation (visuals)
3) Physics simulation just gets you in the ballpark

Guessing it also helps with game code (interfacing w/hardware as well as rules)

Thank you Mark. These insights will help save time/money.

That is a beautiful image... all of the work and time represented in a pretty blueprint ready for you to mass produce to the world

The plastic bottoms would be easy since they'd be flat. The metal sides could get tricky but theoretically possible. You'd almost have to create a 3d model of the shape and bend, then flatten it out (so you can cut your shape), and then manually form around each wall. You'd then either need to add a small L-bracket, or include tabs on the bottom edge of the metal walls that you can bend over.

If you look at the heighway pinball tour, they show an early prototype where all the ramps are flat plastic bottoms, and layered flat plastics sides built up with spacers. I think this is what you're talking about:

As an example, here's a simple ramp, broken down to 3 pieces, then flattened out

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what happened to the vacuum formed ramps??

AHH so I see

With ramps this complex, you DEFINITELY want to consider costs wherever you can. The layered platforms on Alien were an early and deliberate cost-conscious decision on my part, I knew at that stage those would be areas of the playfield with no gradients and thus could be cut quickly and cheaply out of flat plastics, and the savings transferred to more expensive mechanisms elsewhere.

The obvious question: how to hold it all together. You could experiment with short L-brackets of the sort used to attach stand-up signs to posts. From my experience there is one hole for a rivet (plastic to metal) and one for a screw, and thus the holes are different sizes. However, you don't want screw threads or heads to get in the way of the ball, particularly if the plastic is on the bottom, and thus the screws would have to protrude through the sides of the ramps. If you can obtain, or get made, an L-bracket type with two rivet points instead, and incorporate rivet points into the ramp steel design, it should work out pretty well. Then all you would have to do is allow for mounting points to attach the whole ramp structure to the playfield, in seperate joined-up pieces. The decision of steel sides would help you here, because then you can add foldover tabs along any straight edges on the top or bottom that spacers can be screwed into, and in turn screwed into the playfield this way.

This is very surprising to me. I would have guessed that assembly of intensive ramps that require layers of laser cut plastic and metal sandwiched between fasteners all assembled by tiny little fingers suffering from repetitive motion issues would have been much more expensive than a simple sheet of plastic vacuum formed and CNC lasered or cut after the fact. Not to mention the fact that with all that assembly the product is more prone to quality issues with improperly constructed assemblies or assemblies coming loose for that matter...

Personally though, I like the layered approach from a prototyping perspective because that is easier to make, does not require tooling and capital to get done and allows for some downstream modifications to be made without losing money invested in tooling.

Have you asked Pinsider Freeplay40 his opinion? He makes great ramps.

I think it's awesome that both Riot and Heighway's lead designers are commenting on Homebrew pinball. Shows how healthy of a hobby this is

Really enjoying this process of yours so far, Mark!

That's who was going to do the vacuum formed ones.

Those are final ramps, not prototypes.

Always happy to help. Especially on projects as awesome as this. It was really fun to shoot again this year at EXPO and I think everyone that played it is looking forward to how it looks with all the lipstick applied.

What about Evil pinballs lead designer/fabricator/sculptor/programmer well everything but art guy

I still think I can make the ramps look pretty damn sweet for this But now there is a huge list of work for me to do. Not including my own stuff

DOOM is incredible

SHH. No Doom talk in here. This is Marks area for his awesome game

I designed a few different approaches to making plastic with steel hybrid ramps when I first started making pinball parts but scrapped it because I decided I hated plastic. its a slow, high friction material that wears out. Steel is fast and looks way better

My opinion of course.

It did take multiple attempts and a fair amount of trial and error before the crew hit upon the solution to making the platforms easy and quick enough to assemble without having to hold together and screw in the entire assembly at once. If you look at a completed machine, you'll see that it actually involves upside-down post fasteners.

No designer is going to pass up a potential new source of inspiration, especially their own is out there for scrutiny.

I think this is a great way to do the ramps. Ramps as complex as yours will be a challenge any way you try to accomplish them but I think this approach will keep it straight forward as it can be. I have decided to vacuum form but my ramps will be simple compared to this. Although, every time I play MET I change my mind and want that cool metal ramp sound...

-Jim

This is very cool

Looks like you're in a really fun part of the process now, Mark!

Looking good!

Looking great man!
You might want to try and shoot this right ramp part before you put a lot of work in it.
I made the exact same right ramp for the minion machine..
It shot real bad.
After research/looking at a lot of pinball ramps,conclusion was:
-allmost all ramps go straight for a few inches before they bend.
(They do this because you need all the momentum to get the ball up there.)
I hit my ramp several times and the ball lost momentum instantly everytime it hit the side.
I decided to make a ghostbusters kind of ramp(very steep)and was amazed to see balls got up there super easy.
So no wisenose critic comment,i think your ramp is beautiful..your approach is very professional.
My stainless ramp just was a lot of work and went into the bin.

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nice work and great approach