Going from 3D to 2D for lasercutting

[AJLynn]

I know there must be a way to do this.

 

If I have an Autocad drawing of many 3D solids, and I want to laser cut all the faces (e.g., for a model of several city blocks) I need to make a flat drawing with all the faces in it. Is there a fast way to do this?

[JamesTaylor]

"I need to make a flat drawing with all the faces in it"

 

do you mean a net of the object? if not you can explode the 3d solids into faces and then explode the faces into poly lines. its then possible to use the flatten lisp (available from this site i think.......maybe called iron)

 

if you need the dwg to be clean, you may first want to delete a load of polylines in the side elevation so not to end up with lots of overlaid duplicate lines etc.

 

hope this helps

 

James

[AJLynn]

I don't think flatten is what I need here, guess I'll be exploding the solids. Thanks.

[GLOC]

Try the SOLPROF command (it is not very common, but it is VERY good indeed!)

you must configure a layout, then set up the view you want to flatten (could be even perspective, I think) and then follow the command options.

It creates a block with 2 layers, one for the visible edges and one for the hidden ones.

 

it is very very accurate too, I used it for some engineering drawings!

 

good luck with it!

(hope I was clear enough, this is my first post!)

[mtutaj]

for the company that I use for laser cutting, I have to make sure that all the outlines are closed polylines, and no splines.. and they have a minimum gap distance..

 

Mike

[AJLynn]

Guillermo- thanks, I'll have to try that one.

 

Mike- ours is actually pretty forgiving, it will do splines, lines, open plines, what have you - only if it's not something Autocad will plot as vectors, it will go to raster mode (scans back and forth plotting dots) and takes forever.

 

An open question (maybe I should put it in another forum):

 

Does anybody use rapid prototyping service (stereolithography, starch, what have you) and can recommend any companies that are good? My thesis is in digital/computational design, and I'm anticipating wanting to do some of this in April and if I can get a head start on researching it I might be able to get funding.