[Anniepoo]

I have a couple projects where I have a 3D model and would like to laser cut and manually stack up layers of corrugated cardboard.

One is a terrain model. The other is a lampshade, the light through the shade will be an interesting pattern.

I'm looking for software that takes in 3D (In whatever format), and puts out a 2D path. So I'd be turning a 3D model of the land into, effectively, a contour map, as a 2D dxf or ai or svg or some such.

I can use Aspire to slice the 3d model, and generate a profile path, but that's slow, one at a time.

Any suggestions?

[jmullett]

You might try looking at some of the resources for 3D printing. I think that is the manner in which they operate, by breaking up the .stl file into slices. I see that a program called OpenSCAD can di it, but you might have to find or write a script to automate it a bit for your needs ( OpenSCAD User Manual/3D to 2D Projection - Wikibooks, open books for an open world ). Another such program I see is slic3r ( Slic3r - G-code generator for 3D printers ) which produces g-code maybe that works better to program the laser directly.

[jmullett]

You might try looking at some of the resources for 3D printing. I think that is the manner in which they operate, by breaking up the .stl file into slices. I see that a program called OpenSCAD can di it, but you might have to find or write a script to automate it a bit for your needs ( OpenSCAD User Manual/3D to 2D Projection - Wikibooks, open books for an open world ). Another such program I see is slic3r ( Slic3r - G-code generator for 3D printers ) which produces g-code maybe that works better to program the laser directly.

Sorry about the double post, can someone tell me how to delete it?

[Anniepoo]

Thanks for the openscad pointer. I can probably write a program to make a bunch of dxf files, then read them.

I'm also experimenting with getting a grayscale heightmap, then tracing it in illustrator.

[jmullett]

Upon further review it looks like that Slic3r program does .SVG files as well as the G-Code