Danielle Aras - Pepakura Final

This is my final Pepakura piece. I modeled it in Maya then used Pepakura, Illustrator, and Rhino to create the layout for the laser cutter.

 This is the original model in Maya. The open windows were not originally part of the design but while putting the piece together I decided to leave out those pieces both for aesthetic reasons and to make it easier to put together.

This is basically what the layout of the cut file looked like (there are also some extra pieces that do not belong to this sculpture). I ended up leaving off the large base piece as well because it didn't really need it and it was much easier to put together with the bottom completely open.

Danielle Aras - Serial Slicing

This is my first serial sliced cardboard shape. I modeled it in Rhino and contoured the shape then labeled and laid it out manually.

This is what the Rhino model looked like:

For my second sculpture, I used the serial slicing script in Rhino. I had a problem with part of my model overlapping itself so a few of the slices didn't work properly, but I was able to use the contour tool to manually create the missing slices.

This is what the model looked like in Rhino:

This is what the dxf file I sent to be laser cut looked like:

B. Rogers_ Slotted Sculpture

Shapes created and organized with Rhino4

The laser-cutting process

The composition

Lazer Cutting

The Mind, The Cage
Jake Ellis

While exploring the serial slicing/laser cutting process, my goal was to create a piece that explored the dichotomy between the structural and the free and flowing. I often find that logic and reason incarcerate my emotional intuition and while quiet possibly that's a good thing, I can't help to wonder who I would be with out the cage that my experiences have created and which I exist in every day.

Rhino Model

Render 1


Render 2

Serge Ruffato: Laser cutting exercises

Exercise n1: The idea of notches was interesting, it introduced me to the laser printing process. Although it opens a wide variety of possibilities, it provided a pretty basic and rigid type of structure.

Exercise n2: This was a very simple, yet extremely useful approach to laser cutting. It's perfect for creating armatures, you can cover it with plaster, epoxy, aqua-resin, etc. It will provide a very solid and compact base to work.

Exercise n3: This process is a little more complicated, I chose to work with the cutyourownribs and massiveunroll scripts. All you need to do is type in your material thickness and the script pretty much cuts it out for you. Then you use the massiveunroll script to lay out your ribs and it will even number them for you, which is very convenient. This approach requires more work but also lowers the amount of material needed, which means it's a lighter armature and more appropriate for large structures. Very useful knowledge!

Katrina Brooks - FINAL

For my final project, I chose to use my FDM model. I enlarged it to fit the ULS laser, although they decided it would be quicker to print with the beam. Six different 1/4 inch dowels were used to hold it together. Many of the contours needed to be fixed before printing. Overall, I am happy with the result, although I wish that they had not rotated the cardboard when they printed it, as this made the corrugation irregular.

Katrina Brooks - Laser Exercises

The first exercise was the notches. These were cut out of luan.


For the serial stacking exercise I used my model from the CNC milling project. Contours were made from the model using the width of 2ply cardboard. A 1/4 inch dowel was used to hold it together.




The final exercise was waffle structures. I created a simple shape on Rhino: a cube with a sphere cut out. I then used the Grasshopper script to cut the notches and layout my pieces before having them cut from cardboard.

Claire Abitz: Practice Structures

We did a few practice structures to determine the technique to use for our final project. The first structure was practice with the contour command, which slice an object into cross sections, which are then stack to rebuild the structure. After putting the pieces together, the small model led to the idea for my final project.
The second practice was for determining slotted connections. The first picture is the design layed out in Rhino. Then I did a keyshot rendering of it in a much larger scale. The last picture shows the details of each piece when slotted together. In the end, the outer dimensions were about 20"x40" for the panel of letters.

The last practice was building a waffle structure with half lap construction. I loosely based the profile shape of the structure off the profile of a face. Finish dimensions are 20"x8". I also included a few extra pieces in this file to put together my panel of "A's."

Mitul Mistry - Final Laser Project

For my final laser cut project, I decided to do a serialized form and use it as an armature of sorts upon which I sculpted in epoxy. I started off digging out an old nurbs form I thought had potential and booleaning on a base to hold it up in Rhino. I then used the contour command and laser cut the pieces out of cardboard. After receiving my cuts, I realized too late that one of the sheets had been processed twice, while one was missing, so I had to do some "creative problem solving" with my exacto knife and the left over cardboard to fill in the gaps. I then coated it all in plaster wrap, and laid on "EZ Sculpt" epoxy sculpt to finish off the form. All in all, it was actually a fairly labor intensive process, but it's also very powerful in that it becomes possible to recreate digital form with real materials at a larger scale than FDM printing will allow.

Mitul Mistry - Laser Studies

While the notching exercise was great fun (I felt like I was making my own K'NEX), I feel that serial planing has great potential, as it is fairly descriptive of form.

The waffle form was a nightmare, as the Cut My Own Ribs/Massive Unroll scripts did some very unfortunate things, like randomly flipping some of the flat planes, mis-numbering the pieces, and laying out the notches in an inopportune manner. It was basically impossible to put together because half the notches went in one direction and half in another (and I didn't realize this would be a problem until too late), so I had to cut up the pieces with an exacto knife just to get them to fit.

The Pepakura form was also problematic, primarily because I used cardboard, which has thickness and significantly affects how you can put the pieces together. Because of the thickness, the flaps were largely useless and I had to cut most of them off, and had to make cuts along the folds. All in all, it took me far longer than I expected just to make my stupid rocket ship.

I think I'll stick to serial planing for my final laser project.

Brandy Koch: Sliced Laser

Oh guys this was awesome, I sliced the gun up into little pieces. Then I re-layered them, I got 4 separate designs out of this one piece! I got the positive, the negative, the outline, and the whole shape. This will DEFINITELY help me in the future!!