A solid waffle for laser cutting.

This script is aim to take in a BRep polysurface solid for generating a laser cutting file.
It can handle hollow forms, cantilevering masses and can generally take more complex geometry then the usual section plane-section curve algorithm. This is because of an operation which determines the middle point for notch/slot to happen, instead of the usual fixed height notching.

Ideal script to generate massing models for complex geometries.
It uses a global coordinate grid to determine cutting plates location, which allows two adjoining form to be baked separately while cutting plates matching across the two form.
Best used in mm scale.

This is not a simple script, not intend for general purpose.
The script still relies on solid Boolean operations, thus limited to what Rhino 'can Boolean'.

I'll add more description about the script later when I have more time.
I attached a form testing file, which you can play with some forms that I've sketched.

This is my first post, suggestions and comments appreciated.
Inspired by David Fano's Parametric Truss script.

waffle_20101228.ghx, 1.6 MB is the latest script (hope it works on GH0.8)

Attachments:

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bert Simons on August 2, 2014 at 6:39am

Hi, thnkz for your script!

I used it to get this script that I made for my students to get an 'all in one' definition that works also on meshes and surfaces. It also can make hollow waffles from meshes, even from complex meshes because I added some (buggy..) code to get rid of the 'overlaps' that occur when offsetting.

Attachments:

ribs_mesh_V2_rhino5.gh, 1.6 MB

Permalink Reply by martyn hogg on September 7, 2014 at 10:46am

Thank you Victor!

Couple of things could improve the waffle I thought...

1) When you set the number of section planes and section plane spacing it would be nice to be able to have these centred perfectly about the brep being waffled so the waffle sections are symmetric... I had to play around with the parameters to get this spot on.

2) I cut this on my router and forgot to dogbone the corners at the bottom of the "fries" so I had to take out the radii at the bottom of the fries so it would all fit together... it would be good to be able to add a fry overlap (or auto dogbone the corners) to allow for any radius left from the cutting process - Even if cut on a laser cutter I think there would be a small 0.5mm radius in the corners which would hold off the parts by about 1mm (?) Someone posted a dogbone component on here once.

Great tool though... saves so much time verses doing it manually!

Permalink Reply by ｗｅｎｄｙ on September 8, 2014 at 7:31pm

Hi, Thank you for sharing this script! I have some problem to apply this script. I change the material thickness but when it is small than 2, the sections don't work. Can you please help me with that?

Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Iain on December 4, 2014 at 5:34pm

I'm having problems getting this script to work in Rhino (both 4 and 5). Can't see where I'm going wrong as I've updated grasshopper and it keeps throwing up an error each time I drag it in.

Permalink Reply by Victor Leung on December 4, 2014 at 7:08pm

Provide a screen capture with the errors please.

Permalink Reply by Frank Chao on March 21, 2015 at 11:53am

Hi I am currently trying to replicate the Metropol Parasol design and I have built the overall form as a series of lofts and sweeps now I am at the point where I want to contour them and get the right panels however I have tried all the scripts and I cant seem to get the notching right both in terms of position and depth... If I change the depth too much my x panels disappear.... Help?

Please find attached the model I am trying to cut. I will be building this at 1:1000 so the thickness of the material is roughly 1mm therefore 1 metre in the model. The spacing should be about 2.5m

Attachments:

Cut File.3dm, 3.4 MB

Permalink Reply by Frank Chao on March 21, 2015 at 11:55am

apologies this is the actual model

Attachments:

Cut File.3dm, 2.5 MB

Permalink Reply by Jhornig on February 29, 2016 at 7:21pm

Hey! I'm willing to use your script, but it doesn't work well, may it be because of different Grasshopper versions? what can I do to fix this?

Thanks

Permalink Reply by Victor Leung on March 1, 2016 at 10:01am

Well, first of all, Thank You.

I loaded the ghx file, and saved it as gh file for you.

I tested it with a simple geometry, it should work now.

Cheers

Permalink Reply by Rudi Neumerkel on September 1, 2016 at 4:36pm

great work, thanks man!

Permalink Reply by anton sahler on December 20, 2016 at 10:52am

hey victor,

i was using your script some years ago. now, maybe because of a new grasshopper version, im not able to bake the tags next to the slices. have you got a hint for me?

regards, anton

Permalink Reply by Victor Leung on December 21, 2016 at 12:35am

Hi Anton.

I think you have to highlight the tag component. Right Click and Bake or Press Insert Key on Keyboard.

I'm not sure if it bakes into a TextDot Object or Text object in Rhino. As of GH1.0 Text Tag Component in GH makes TextDot objects in Rhino while Text Tag 3D in GH makes Text objects in Rhino