3. Computer controlled cutting¶
Overview¶
This week was special because it was my first week of group work. Yay. The links to my files will be seen below and so will a link to my group work. This week was all about designing cool shapes and designs using computer programs like CorelDraw, Silhouette Studio, and Fusion 360. In CorelDraw and Silhouette Studio I created a four color vinyl sticker, in Fusion 360 and CorelDraw I designed my very own parametric Design, and in my group work I used CorelDraw as well. I used A LOT of CorelDraw.
Files¶
Group Work¶
Vinyl Sticker¶
For my vinyl sick I choose to create Wall-e a character from a favorite movie of mine.
Process¶
A. The first step was to find a simple enough, find photo to derive 4 colors from so that this sticker is actually feasible.
B. After finding this picture I cropped out the robot called Eve (a friend of mine created her) so I just had wall-e and then sent him to CorelDraw where I could separate the outlines of Wall-e by color. It is a very usefully feature for vinyl cutting and anything else where you need to find a way to separate things simply based on color.
C. I clicked trace bitmap and then Logo because Logo is very good if you want to mass separate colors which I want to for my sticker. After selected logo you can adjust the settings of Detail, Smoothness and Corner Smoothness to change how you convert it from raster to vector. I would also highly recommend converting the image to vector as it is much easier to adjust in Silhouette Studio.
D. Next click the color tab and try to merge as many similar looking colors as possible and remove any unnecessary colors until there are three or four colors left. This is much more manageable to cut out and put together.
E. Finally I exported the file as a SVG file and open it in Silhouette Studio. From here I clicked the butterfly looking trace button and dragged the box over the entire design brought in. It created the trace for the entire design including creating the outlines of each of the 4 colors I choose: brown, silver, black, and yellow.
F. Finally I grabbed the vinyl for the 4 colors I wanted and cut out the entire Wall-e shape out on each of them. Used a blade depth of 2 with the material being glossy Vinyl.
G. After this I weeded out every single piece of the stick except the color I wanted for each individual color and then transferred each of them one by one to a piece of transfer tape.
H. The reason this works is because there are no color overlaps in the design and it fits together perfectly where I can then stick it wherever I want and then slowly smooth it out and remove the tape leaving my finished design!
Parametric Design¶
I decided to create an octagon for my shape and make multiple versions of the octagon.
Process¶
A. At first I created the basic outline of the octagon by creating 4 lines at a 45 degree angle and another 4 at a 180 degree angle in Fusion 360’s sketch.
B. After creating my shape I decided to cut out a chamfer joint for each of the 8 sides, to do this I first needed to define the parameters of material width and kerf. The material width was 0.15 inches while the Kerf was 0.015 inches. You can go to change parameters by hitting s and then typing in parameters.
C. after this I made the width of the joint the constant variable of material length so that no matter the size of the shape the joints would always fit together with any other 0.15 width material.
D. Next I found the center of the shape by using the midpoint of 2 different lines to find the exact midpoint of the octagon and put a point there so I could use the sketch tool of circular pattern. I used the designated point and created the pattern of 8 different sides of the same joint on all 8 sides of the octagon
E. Finally I exported the file as a DXF file and sent it to CorelDraw where I made sure the size was the same as the on on Fusion 360. I then used the laser cutter to create 6 more of the shape and then tested to see if were structurally sound.
The Testing of Durability