SketchUp + SliceModeler + SVG Outline = laserable-ish
April 2, 2009Who can resist playing with SketchUp after reading Make’s blog post of SliceModeler – fantasy to physical (the video @ PAI demonstrates the joy of good soundtracking as well). If you’re determined, stingy, and slightly capable, you can get 3d-object to laser-cut-friendly output on the free. Since the free SketchUp doesn’t export anything useful, use the SVG Outline Plugin to get back to flat space. While labor intensive (at least in free mode), the process lets you scale up the shape complexity. Certainly less work than attempting similar antics by hand.
carved out cylider shape
First off, grab the latest SketchUp and model up some happy. I leave you at the mercy of their tutorial videos. Someday I’ll follow this advice myself and maybe then I will stop hating on their UI choices so much.
Next, Asteronimo’s SliceModeler plugin from the project page or SketchUcation [reg req'd]. Deal with fact that SketchUp on OS X does the correct (by Unix/extensible design) but dumb (by typical Apple user) setup and wants things over in /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/plugins.
flattened slices layer
shape passed the SliceModeler
Using it is pretty straight forward. Take heed of the warnings about the number of slices. My SketchUp tended to fall over when slicing more than ~30 slices per axis. Be sure to generate the “flattened” slices, makes life easier when working the the SVG plugin. Numbering would help during assembly, but the script was bugging out whenever I tried that setting.
SVG file output
Then, it’s Flights of Ideas SVG Outline Plugin, found on Google code. Zoom thru the tutorial or dive right in. What is worth repeating is that it generates an outline for any selected shape. SliceModeler produces full shape groups, which means there’s tedious work of selecting out just the facings you want. More reason to avoid a huge number of slices.
Finally, open it in your vector app (Inkscape works if you don’t have anythig) and lay it out as needed. This is about the time you realize how large sliced flattened objects are. So much surface area. So maybe even less slices, perhaps. Fiddle with the necessary stroke and color issues before printing.
Flickr of the final object
Assembly involves the usual antics. Keep as many references around as possible as the combinations are not always obvious. Throw in some Thingiverse if you’d like to share and Ponoko if you don’t have the cutter local.
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