{"id":8795,"date":"2010-03-18T16:04:13","date_gmt":"2010-03-18T23:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ponoko.com\/blog\/?p=8795"},"modified":"2018-03-11T21:07:14","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T04:07:14","slug":"creating-laser-cut-3d-forms-super-easily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ponoko.com\/blog\/how-to-make\/creating-laser-cut-3d-forms-super-easily\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating laser cut 3D forms super easily"},"content":{"rendered":"

and with stunning results!<\/strong>\"\"Every day I see a a lot of good content go through my feeds and occasionally they are some real gems which lower the barrier for people to create great designs. <\/span><\/p>\n

I saw two\u00a0SketchUp<\/a> plugins\u00a0a while ago and have only just had a chance to test them out. I am amazed how easy it makes creating sliceform\u00a0laser cut models and I’m wondering how I ever did this before. I wish I’d known about these when doing\u00a0this project<\/a> with my students back in 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0plugins\u00a0are:<\/p>\n

Slicemodeler\u00a0by\u00a0Public Art International<\/a> (available for a $10-$50 donation) and\u00a0SVG\u00a0Outline\u00a0plugin\u00a0by\u00a0Flights of Ideas<\/a><\/p>\n

Slicemodeler\u00a0allows you to take a 3D form and slice it up into interlocking pieces. It is so easy to use it is unbelievable! You enter the distance apart that you want the sections, the material thickness, choose which axes the slices are on, and the software calculates the intersections.
\n\"\"<\/a> Once you have all the slices, that’s when the\u00a0SVG\u00a0outline\u00a0plugin\u00a0comes in. Select the sections you want (that have been conveniently laid out by\u00a0Slicemodeler) and hit Export to\u00a0SVG\u00a0file.\u00a0\"\"<\/a> Now you have a file (or files) you can open in\u00a0Inkscape\u00a0or Illustrator to arrange for laser cutting. The\u00a0SVG\u00a0export\u00a0plugin\u00a0claims to be able to label you profiles but I could not get it to work with the labels that\u00a0Slicemodeler\u00a0adds to the parts. I manually added labels to the parts in Illustrator and then laid the profiles out on a P3 template.\u00a0\"\"<\/a> And the finished article made from 1\/4″ cardboard.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
Another couple of designs that I made looked at forms that were a bit more complex. It should be noted that I modeled all of these designs in\u00a0Blender<\/a> first and then imported them into\u00a0SketchUp. The reason for this is that I am marginally more proficient at 3D modeling in Blender than\u00a0SketchUp\u00a0so creating the complex fluid forms was quicker and easier using Blender.<\/p>\n

My (slightly convoluted) process was; create the form in Blender, export a ‘.3ds’ file, import into\u00a0SketchUp, run\u00a0Slicemodeler, export\u00a0SVG\u00a0files from\u00a0SketchUp, open in Illustrator, label and arrange for laser cutting and then finally cutting the profiles on the laser cutter. It sounds like a lot of steps but it is actually a simple process compared to imagining how these pieces interlock and drawing the sections in 2D in Illustrator. The process could be simplified if a) you model your form directly in\u00a0SketchUp\u00a0or b) there was a\u00a0plugin\u00a0similar to\u00a0Slicemodeler\u00a0for Blender.<\/p>\n

This wavy form, which might be some weird shelf for my office\u00a0tchotchkes, is 1300mm long so I had to cut the long sections in pieces. You can see the tape at the joints. Note the joints are staggered to minimize weak points in the structure.\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a> And some\u00a0blobby\u00a0worm like thing.<\/div>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a> Previously, this style of form creation has been possible with premium 3D modeling software like Rhino, but the great thing about Blender and\u00a0SketchUp\u00a0is that they are free.<\/p>\n

This significantly lowers the barriers that stop people making things. And the\u00a0plugins\u00a0are either free or for a small donation which is totally worth it to support the great independent software creators that add huge value to these bigger software packages.<\/p>\n

However, with the lower entry barrier expect a proliferation of designs that start to share a design language. What\u00a0details<\/a> will you add to your designs to make them stand out from the rest?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

and with stunning results!<\/strong>Every day I see a a lot of good content go through my feeds and occasionally they are some real gems which lower the barrier for people to create great designs. <\/p>\n

I saw two\u00a0SketchUp plugins\u00a0a while ago and have only just had a chance to test them out. I am amazed how easy it makes creating sliceform\u00a0laser cut models and I’m wondering how I ever did this before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to-make"],"yoast_head":"\nCreating laser cut 3D forms super easily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ponoko.com\/blog\/how-to-make\/creating-laser-cut-3d-forms-super-easily\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creating laser cut 3D forms super easily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"and with stunning results!Every day I see a a lot of good content go through my feeds and occasionally they are some real gems which lower the barrier for people to create great designs. I saw two\u00a0SketchUp plugins\u00a0a while ago and have only just had a chance to test them out. 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