Digital bodies¶

1. Objective¶

2. References, research & inspiration¶

weekly sessions thoughts and ideas research, brainstorming and ideation final idea

3. Obtaining a digital body asset¶

3D model generation using AI¶

Digital Asset generators¶

Creating from scratch¶

Photogrammetry¶

KIRI Engine¶

Blender Clean-up¶

Blender Designing¶

4. Lasercutting¶

Lasercutter working¶

The lasercutter used for this project is a SIL 4030 CO2 100W laser-cutter.

The lasercutter uses a laser tube to creates the laser beam and an assembly of mirrors and lenses to focus the beam on target material. The movement of the laser head is controlled by two stepper motors corresponding to X and Y axis. This means, on the lasercutter we have only two parameters to play with, The power of the beam and speed of the laser head. That being said, there technically is one more motor to adjust the height of the bed, so as to keep the material at the correct Z-distance from the head.

To begin working with a lasercutter machine, It is reccrecommended to perform certain tests to understand the clearances and tolarences and characteristics of that particular machine.

The tests to be performed for various materials-

• Kerf test
• Focus test
• Speed-power matrix test

Softwares and workflows¶

After 3D model is finalised, there were two ways to go about creating the file for lasercutting;

1. Continuing with Blender to unwrap and flatten the model
2. Using SlicerForFusion360 to create panelling

One caveat for using slicerForFusion360 is that it is an outdated tool and thus can be buggy. Additionally, there might be some issues with loading slightly complicated model. That being said, the fuctionality is pretty straight forward. For this particular exercise, I decided to go with Slicer for fusion360, since the the model was simple and lightweight enough.

In SlicerForFusion360, After loading the model, I decided to go with the panel construction method which converts the 3D model in sheet developement sections. After adjusting the parameters for the resolution i.e. vertex count, and modifying the seams, the file can be exported as dxf or pdf.

After some touchup and nesting in inkscape, we're ready for the lasercutter. The laser I worked with uses the software RDWorks, an old but reliable software for controlling lasercutter.

The working of RDWorks is fairly easy, as stated above, there are only two things to really think about when it comes to laser cutter; Speed and Power! (Insert top gear meme)* After a few tests I narrowed down the parameters for marking as well as through cutting. As seen in the image, even though there are two types of operations being performed here, there are 3 different colour assignments and further only one type of operation as per the software.

1. For the laser cutter, whether it is marking or cutting, it is essentially the same thing, marking is just a cut that did not go through.
2. Once a part is cut completely for the stock sheet, it is separate and can move, vibrate, or just fall down below the bedFor a better output and workability, it is always better to divide the cuts by their purpose - The black colour is assigned to the cuts that are internal, used for folding the panels and blue is assigned to the outer cuts.

3. Order of operation on the the laser should be -

   1. Marking
   2. Scanning
   3. Inner cuts
   4. Outer edge cuts

5. Fabrication¶

Material Selection¶

The inital idea was to use thin scrap pieces of plastic or acrylic but eventually ended up with a 1mm cardsheet. Although, there were combination of materials which I'd like to try for next time.

File preparation¶

After the dxf file is imported into RDWorks, these are the steps to follow-

1. Ungroup and delete the unnecessary frames, text etc.
2. Auto group and arrange the elements according to cut order. If the elements have not been nested, this is the time for it. Use the arrangement and alignment tools in the tool bar. While nesting, try to form a general ractangular shape for optimal use of material and least amount of waste.
3. Once nested, assign colours and set the parameters and order for each operation.
4. Ungroup all and delete overlaps.

Lasercutting process¶

Done in two parts - marking + folding cuts, and edge cuts Images

6. Assembly¶

Assembly Video¶

Assembled Model Images¶

Fabrication Files and references¶

7. Learnings and Takeaways¶

• What did I learn? What did I personally find interesting or surprised me?
• What would I do differently? If something "failed" do I know how else to tackle it now?"
• How does this connect to my final project or my learning trajectory?
• What are implications and possible applications, think also from the ethical or environmental aspect, how it could connect to your practice and project?

_