Sunday, March 4, 2012

Mel Cannady: Exploring Pepakura

The visual index paper models of ployhedra is where I began with this project.  I chose an interesting form that could be applied to a number of projects called a trucanted icosehedron pentakisdodecahedron.  I downloaded the .pdf from the website and opened it as a .jpeg in Adobe Illustrator.

From here, I was able to select lines and separate onto layers which line was to be cut which way.  Valley folds, mountian folds and and outer edges were each separated, colored and labeled appropriately.  Next, I edited the stroke of the lines, designating whether lines should be dot-dash (mountian), dashed (valley), or solid (outer cuts).




 I imported the image into the illustrator laser template and sent it off for print.



I am happy with the end result and everything seemed to turn out alright.  This experiment helped me understand how to manipulate the line and folds of the material in which I intend to print on.  It was interesting being able to translate to the printer a sort of puzzle that I would then be able to put together myself.  I want to explore with other models and see if I can translate more difficult models through to the printer.

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