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Paul Kinsky of Worcester, MA, developed an algorithm that transforms 3D models into laser-cut pieces that can be assembled into a physical version of that model.
Laser-Cut Polygonal Sculptures
Posted by John Baichtal | Thursday April 7th, 2011 11:15 AM
Categories: Arts, Paper Crafts | 5 Comments
You can also create polysculptures cheaply in paper with Pepakura and a CraftRobo.
http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/
Fan-freaking-tastic. That is some next level stuff. Really, great work.
This is cool, any idea if he has documented the algorithm or plans to open-source the code? I’d love to have something like Pepakura that ran on my Mac.
Thanks! I’m a junior at Worcester Polytechnic, and I’m making more of these for the rest of the term for one of my classes. Here’s a better version of the description:
I take an OBJ file, which stores vertexes, faces, etc, and use that to build a set of faces and a set of pairs of connected faces. From this the algorithm generates a bunch of triangles(faces) and a bunch of angled connectors.
These pieces are laser-cut out of acrylic – the eagle is from .060 inch acrylic and the dolphin is from acrylic that’s twice as thick. Then I slot them together, which, in theory, doesn’t require any tools except for glue. In practice, sometimes I get a measurement wrong and need to spend all night sanding the tabs to make them fit.
Also, my personal favorite is the dolphin, because it’s my first closed model – the eagle is one sided, meant to be mounted on a board. The dolphin’s also cut from plastic twice as thick as the eagle. You can’t see in the photos but it’s much more sturdy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61463511@N08/5597628375/
I have not much time, but I’ve got many useful things here, love it!
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