15. Wildcard Week¶
assignment Design and produce something with a digital process (incorporating computer-aided design and manufacturing) not covered in another assignment, documenting the requirements that your assignment meets, and including everything necessary to reproduce it. Possibilities include (but are not limited to):
# - 3D Birthday Cake Pop-Up Card for my Daugheter
Idea¶
For Wildcard Week, I wanted to make something different from my previous projects. Since my daughter’s birthday is coming up, I decided to create a 3D pop-up birthday card.
Initial Sketches and Testing¶
Before opening any design software, I started with a sheet of A4 paper and a pencil. I drew a center line and began sketching different curved layers that could form the shape of a cake.
My first goal was simply to understand how the folds would behave when the paper was opened and closed.
After a few trials, I settled on a design made of three curved layers that would represent the different levels of the cake.
The inner layer had a radius of 40 mm, the middle layer 65 mm, and the outer layer 90 mm. I also added a candle in the center measuring 15 mm wide and 40 mm high.
Understanding the Mechanism¶
The structure works using a combination of cuts and folds.
The vertical cuts create tabs that are folded inward. When the card is folded in half and then opened, these tabs move forward and create the three-dimensional effect.
At first, I found it difficult to predict how the paper would move.
Design and Fabrication Process¶
I began by sketching several ideas on paper to understand how the pop-up mechanism would work when the card was opened and closed. After testing different layouts, I selected a three-layer birthday cake design consisting of inner, middle, and outer curved sections, with a candle positioned at the center. 
The design was then recreated in Fusion 360, where I drew the arcs, created the pop-up slots, and arranged all components on an A4 sheet for fabrication. The final design was exported as a DXF file and prepared for laser cutting.
A challenge arose because Fusion 360 exported dotted fold lines as continuous lines, causing the laser cutter to cut through the paper completely. To solve this, I replaced the dotted lines with small rectangular perforations, creating foldable sections while maintaining the strength of the card.
The final card was laser cut from A4 paper, folded along the perforated lines, and assembled to create a three-dimensional birthday cake that pops up when the card is opened. The project successfully combined computer-aided design, laser cutting, prototyping, and paper engineering to produce a personalized birthday card for my daughter.
I cut my desing using A4 paper.
using fusion 360 I designed the arc then procceded with the slots.
Challenges fusino exports dotten line as continuos lines, if i tried to cut on laser, it was cuting continous line, now i found ou that istead of dotted lines, i place rectanules to coma up with dotted