From curved to flat - for lazer cutting

I'm preparing something for lazer-cutting, the attached image shows an example of what I need.

The wooden slat is curved, and has a slot cut into it. I now need to cut this slat from a flat piece of wood. Obviously due to the curve of the wood I can't just take a projection-view, I need to somehow 'flatten' it out.

Does anyone know how to do this in Grasshopper? Please let me know if you do!

(Given the subtlety of the curve, I'm sure a projection would be 'good enough', but I'd like to know if there is a proper way to do this, as my model may get more complicated as it goes further)

Thanks

James

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by martyn hogg on September 13, 2013 at 1:11am

There is a Rhino command called "Unroll Developable Surface" which works for surfaces that are curved in one direction only. If the surface is curved in more than one direction you can use a function called "Smash" but I don't think this will give you a useful result.

I'm not sure if Unroll will work with solids though. You probably need to deal with your panels as flat surfaces and then giver them thickness later. (If you need to)

Perhaps you could look at some of the examples that lay out panels in a grid and then create a rhino script to unroll them onto a different layer.

(I'm not sure if GH has the Unroll function)

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