Week 3: Reflection And Learnings
Download All Week 3 Files Here
Reflection
This week I really depened my understanding of laser cutting and merged parametric design with scripting. I had laser cut before this week, but never took into account more detailed factors, such as kerf, dithering types, frequency, etc. Now I feel much more confident in my ability to make precise designs. I never felt stuck at any point this week, and I really enjoyed using programming to add features to my designs that would otherwise be very laborious by hand.
Vinyl Cutting
Laser Cutting
- What kerf means
- What dithering means
- How different dithering types affect rastering
- What frequency means
- How frequency affects vector cutting
- How power affects vector cutting
- How speed affects vector cutting
- How to measure kerf
- Difference in kerf at the top and bottom of cut material
- Popout tabs are effective in creating popout pieces in cardboard
- The best tab settings to use for popout pieces with 1/8" cardboard
- Glowforge laser cutters differentiate objects through color, not stroke weight
Cuttle
- How to create layered designs
- How to format layered designs for vinyl cutting
- How to implement scripting
- How incorrect anchor values in a line can lead to hard to trace errors
- How to create dashed lines
- How to create rounded corners
- How to take kerf values into consideration with parametric design
- How to manipulate graphic objects with scripting
Silhouette Studio
Inkscape
- How to import many SVGs at once
- Exporting isn't needed because the files automatically saves as an SVG
CorelDRAW
- Different bitmap types and their results
- Just one object at a time can't be exported by selecting it
Cricut
- How to use the Cricut software
- How the
Attachcommand is critical for layered designs - The best pressure setting to use when cutting