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Facilities
The facilities at Rio Hondo
College's Visual Technology department feature the
latest in modern Computers, Printing Reproduction Equipment,
drafting,
and Rapid Prototyping. Our facilities are open on Saturdays
and extended hours on weekdays to allow students the opportunity to work outside of
scheduled class times.
Computer Labs
The Visual Technology Department boasts 4 computer
labs with 25 workstations each. Most open lab workstations range
between 1.9 GHz and 2.8 GHz* based systems with as much as 1GB of
memory. Our network is anchored by several multi-processor
severs offering about 700GB of centralized storage. Students can save their files
to their own personal network drives, allowing them to work at any workstation.
Several CD-Writers and DVD-Writers* are available in each lab to allow for easy data backup and
portability. Optical mice offer the latest in reliable
control and accuracy. Monitors range in size from 19 to
21-inches. Disabled access stations are available
in every lab. During class, instructors are able to broadcast
their presentations, demos and graphical aids to a large projection
screen at the front of the room AND directly to each student's
monitor, delivering an optimized, interactive visual learning experience.
(* available Spring 2004)
Printing and Reproduction
Printing facilities at Rio Hondo's "Visual Technology" Department includes three heavy volume laser printers
capable of printing "A" size (8.5" x 11") and "B" size (11" x 17")
documents. A network volume color laser printer handles
exacting color reproductions of graphics and photo-quality documents on "A" and "B" size paper.
Large format printing in both color and black and white are
processed by a large format inkjet printer (pictured above), capable of printing photo-quality
documents up to 36 inches wide. Students may make use of a large
format color scanner to scan floor plans, maps, and large layouts.
An industrial-grade large format copier takes care of large
format copying in seconds.
Drafting Labs
The "Visual Technology" labs includes two drafting labs with 30 stations
each. Each station offers a large 40" x 36" height- and
tilt-adjustable drawing surface, omni-positional lighting, track
drafting machines with mounted straight-edges, and ergonomic,
height-adjustable seating.
Rapid Prototyping
The FDM 3000 from Stratasys (Visit Stratasys' website
here)
meets the department's rapid prototyping requirements. FDM stands for
"Fused Deposition Modeling", referring to the building process
this machine uses to create models. The machine fuses material
together by melting ABS plastic and depositing it in formation in as
small as 1/12th of an inch layers, providing accuracy down to even smaller
scales. Designers can see their drawings...
"...go from art..."
"...to part..."
...in a matter of hours (the brown "support" material seen in the
picture washes away in a water-soluble solution). This allows
the designer to test his creation for form, fit, and function.
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