| three.js view | cutting | animated gallery |
| stills | The three.js 3D model viewer was critical for properly assembling the cut out pieces, as the locations of notches could be carefully checked.
The laser cut process was a bit more involved than usual. The exported PDF file from 123D Make needed to be edited in Inkscape, a free drawing program. The bounding box around the whole drawing could not be removed in Inkscape. To delete it an SVG file was exported and this file edited by hand - the box was at the end of the file. The lasersaur, named the Asylasaur, had calibration problems due to the laser itself being recently replaced, so some experimentation had to be done to cut fully through the 1/8" birch sheet. The material costs were low, as a 5' x 5' piece of birch was eighteen dollars. The laser itself cost $5 for 5 minutes of cutting time. At this point the model produced is considerably different than the original animation. The form produced consists of simple 2D forms, triangles and squares, on the horizontal levels. Slices of the elaborate curves traced in the third dimension are made visible by the vertical elements. |
sideways |
| laser cutter | PDF plans | SVG cut file |
