3. Computer-Controlled Cutting¶
This week I learned lots of different 2D and 3D design softwares.
Individual assignments¶
- Design, lasercut, and document a parametric construction kit, accounting for the lasercutter kerf, which can be assembled in multiple ways.
- Cut something on the vinyl cutter.
Downloads¶
Files¶
Helpful Documenting of Past Students¶
Students Who Helped Me¶
Creating the Sticker¶
Finding Image¶
The first that I needed to do was to pick out my sticker. I went through alot of different ideas but then my friend recomended me to make peppa pig so thats what I decided todo. To get the image that I used I just looked up an image on the internet.
Adding it to Silhouette Studio¶
For adding am image to Silhouette Studio, I struggled. This is because I thoug it was going to be a easy save as and import. But everytime I tried todo this I crashed the plateform. I didn’t learn from my mistake until I did it like 5 times. On the 6th try I decided to just cody and paste the image in.
Tracing¶
Tracing was very easy once I knew how todo it. I could have looked up a tutorial but I decided to not do that and just play around until I figured it out.
To trace my peppa pig I selected the whole thing. Then I went to panels, and then trace. This brought me to a few options.
The options are the ones in this picture. First one is for outlne trace, the econd one is the one I chose which is trace by color, and the last one is the magnet one. I wasn’t sure how to use that tool so I stuck with the trace by color. I tried the first one, but it wasn’t working for me. The I had solid fil on because I wanted to see what I had selected. And then was the option of Single Area and Outline. I chose sigle area because the All Areas wasn’t working. Although is was annoying and long process, it worked.Then I did trace and detach to see what I have traced and what I hadn’t traced yet.
This is my peppa pig being traced by the color. The size is seen in this image which was important because we needed to keep it small.
After I finished tracing it, I saved it to drive and then moved it to the vinyl cutter. I used a very bad laser cutter that was old. There were two in the lab: one that auto-changes the blad depth and the second one that in order to chang the blade depth, you have to do it manually. I got stuck with the one that you change manually. I didn’t realize that until I tried to cut it multiple times. This wasted lots of time and a lot of frustration. I manually changed the blade and then tried again and it worked perfectly. I decided to cut the whole pig out on every color and then weeeded the vinyl, or removed the parts I didn’t need, and then use transfer paper to make the sticker.
This is my sticker compleatly created on transfer paper. It took a lot of work to create but it was fun and satisfying to peel all the vinyl.
At Charlotte Latin, every year the students in fab add stickers to a window in the lab. That is where this sticker went. THis is what it look like on the window.
Parametrics¶
To create parametics I used Fusion360. This is a very simple platform that I have being using since 7th grade. At first I began to create the paremeters wrong because I didn’t understand the assingment. Then I went to the Nueval and figured out the assignment. Then I asked Amalia where to find the parametrics. Once I did that I went to Richard Shan’s website and followed his directions.
About Parametrics¶
Paremetrics are used to make designing easier. When creating things with all same sides like a perfect triangle or square, then rather typing in the numbers, you can use all the same parameters and there will be the same. The most important part is if you need to make the object bigger and smaller, instead of retyping all the number, you just need to change one number and it changes them all.
Setting Up Paremeters¶
The first step of this project is to set up all th paremeters. I went to the modify tab in fusion. Then I went down to the paremeters and set them up. These are the paremeters that I chose because Richard chose.
Creating the Hexagon¶
Creating Sketch¶
For creating a hexagon, I created a sketch. Then went to create tab and I chose polygon. Then from there, I chose the polygon that said inscribed polygon.
Then I began to draw it and then I chose 6 side. After that I typed in the paremeter “hex_to_center”.
Creating Tabs¶
Center Line¶
After that was set, I hit enter and the hexagon was created. Then from ther I begain making the indents on the sides. To create this. I found the center point on one of the sides, which creates an X with a triangle next to it. Then I used the command L, which creates a line, and I began to draw the line down. Then before I clicked enter I typed in the paremeter “centerline”. This is set at 10mm and so everytime I use it, the thing that im editing will be 10mm.
Line to Side¶
After that, from the bottom of the line I just created, I began to make a new line. This time I typed in the paremeter of “linetosides”.
Then I drew that line and I created a new one that went from the edge of that line back to the top. Then I followed the same steps on the other side of the center line.
This is what the tab looked likes finished and before filleting.
Fillet¶
After I did that I filleted the sides. To get that tool, I went to the top bar and clicked fillet.
Then once I was on that tool, I clicked on the two lines that intersected each other.
Then after that I typed in the paremeter “fillet”. Then the top line disappeared, therefore I created a new line that went from the top of the center line to the edge of the hexagon. Then I followed the same step to fillet the line.
Once I was done filleting, this is the end result.
Circular Pattern¶
To make this even easier I used a circular pattern. This is because the next thing was putting the tabs on all sides. The circular pattern easily does that for me. To create one, I went to the create tab. THen I went to the circular pattern at the bottom and clicked on that. It also should look like the image below.
Once I chose that a the sides popped up of where the sides will be. Originally it’s set as 3 sides but for the hexagon, I changed that to 6 sides. Then once I did that it went to all the sides and it looked like this.
After that clicked ok and deleted the extra sides. After that the hexagon was done and I could began creating the other shapes.
Creating the Square¶
When creating the square I followed pretty much the same steps as the hexagon; I even used the same parametrics. Not only was I just lazy creating new ones, I also wanted the the tabs to be all the same size and that was the easiest way todo that.
The Sides¶
For the sides of the square I used parametrics because is was easier. So todo this, I went to the create tab again and then went down to the rectangle. Then off of that I made one with the center point again.
Then for the sides I used the square parametric. This made sure the sides were the exact same so it was a square.
The Tabs¶
After creating the square, I moved onto making the tabs on the square. For that I followed the exact steps as the hexagon. Once I followed all the steps, It looked like this. The only thing I changed was in the circular pattern it was 4 sides instead of 6.
Creating the Pegs¶
The pegs were the hardest part of this assignment because Richard didn’t have clear instructiosn on how he created it so I had to figure it out my self. He had the meassure ments but not how to create the angle.
The first part was setting up the sides of the rectangles. This is me using the rectangle lenth paremetric.
Then this is the width of the rectangle using paremetics. All of the sizes I used are in the table screenshot of my paremetrics. After creating one I duplicated it to create the angle.
The angle was hardest because I descovered that if you move just one point it doesnt work. Therefore, what I did was click the top left point and rotated it 120 degrees and then used the command M to move the rectange down to line up with the bottom point.
Then I followed the same steps as before to create the tabs. I did the same thing each time because I wanted then to be even.
This is what the final design looked like from the top which was very importat that it was from the top. When I went to go laser cut it, I thought there was something wrong with my file because it looked like one line. I later figured out from my classmate,Angle, that it needs to be from top view rather front front view when importing the file.
Laser Cutting¶
This is what the laser cutting looked liked right after cutting it.
Assembling¶
This is the building process. As I was building it I kept on running out of parts so I had to laser cut more and more throughout building it. This was very fun to make and if I had to make it again I would remove the construction lines in the square side bc I didn’t think they would laster cut, but it did and it was annoying to build all the tiny pieces.
