EXLABFABRICATE definition manual
Fabrication Tool 01 Layout for fabrication
CNC cutting machinery is informed via vector line patterns which it then follows across the fabrication material. The most common of these fabrication technologies are limited to two dimensions (laser cutters, card cutters, 3-axis routers). To effectively and efficiently communicate, elements are assembled in a single plane similar to how you would manage a print file. This clustered component orients any number of planar curves to a grid on the XY plane.
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Fabrication Tool 02 Label for fabrication
A by-product of fabricating increasingly complex designs is the increasing importance of documentation of individual elements. This process of data extraction and conversion into labelling for fabrication can also be automated. As CNC machinery dutifully follows the vectors it is told, it is important to try to minimize time taken to fabricate extra documentation elements such as part number/description. This clustered component contains a script which bakes curves of input text in a ‘single-line font’ chosen because of its suitability for this task. The default font used is ‘Machine Tool Sanserif’ which needs to be downloaded (for free) for it to work properly. This script was developed from that of Benjamin Golder and Guilio Picentino.
For other single-line font labelling, font download link, other text info, bug-checking and troubleshooting: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/invalid-text-lines-single?commentId=2985220%3AComment%3A73107 http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/text-curves-from-a-string?commentId=2985220%3AComment%3A58246 http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/more-control-over-text-tools http://rhinotoday.com/2009/07/single-line-fonts-in-rhino/
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Fabrication Tool 03 Make Tabs
This clustered component takes an unrolled polysurface and adds tabs to allow for the 3 dimensional assembly of 2 dimensional fabricated elements. For efficiency, this definition does not check that tabs are created on the outside of the shape. Although this is most common result, the direction of the tabs can be ‘flipped’ with a boolean toggle. Tab width is defined via a number input (assuming dimensional units from the open Rhino file) Taper is defined as a factor which scales from the original offset length. Most commonly this will be around 0.7 (70% of original length) though tight geometries may require less. Testing is often required to ensure that tab size (width) is adequate for fixing and that tabs are tapered sufficiently for acute corners.
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Fabrication Tool 04 Unroll a polysurface
This tool takes a series of joined planar surfaces and unfolds them onto the XY plane. This is a handy tool to use either at the end of the design process to allow fabrication of complex geometries or alternatively early in the process where generated patterns can be mapped to the surface or simply overlaid to create various effects. This script was adapted by AL-TU + T_A_I from the Giulio Piacentino renderAnimation component.
For other surface unrolling, bug-checking and troubleshooting: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=unroll
In particular: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/profiles/blogs/unrolling-surfaces-in-1 http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/unroll
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Fabrication Tool 05 Unroll a ruled surface with curves
This scripted component takes a list of ruled surfaces and unrolls them using Rhinos ‘UnrollSrf’ command. (Literally. It bakes the surface, runs the command and then references the unrolled surface back into GH) It also accepts a list of curves which are on the surface and unrolls them with it. While it is a very simple script, it is unfortunately time consuming. So it is to be used only once you are set to fabricate. Then, activate, go and make a coffee, (eat properly, have a shower for once) and come back.
NOTE
This script uses the ‘unroller’ method only available with RhinoCommon in version 5.0. You can easily download a 90 day trial of Rhino from rhino3d.com to use this script at the end of your current experiments to fabricate and generate feedback. You will also need to install GH as a plugin for version 5.0.
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Fabrication Tool 06 Waffle Grid - Type 01 For a surface This cluster component takes a surface geometry and find intersections in perpendicular directions (X and Y). The intersections are then used to build ribs to support the surface. The intersections between ribs are then found and notches are substracted so that the sections can be joined together.
For other waffle/grillage scripts, bug-checking and troubleshooting: http://fancywires.com/?p=59 http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/grillage-fabrication http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/grillage-fabrication-reopened http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/a-solid-waffle-for-laser 7
Fabrication Tool 07 Waffle Grid - Type 02 Solid geometries This cluster component takes a solid geometry and divides it in perpendicular directions. The intersections of these sections are then found and then notches are substracted so that the sections can be joined together.
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Fabrication Tool 08 Waffle Grid - Type 03 For existing intersecting surfaces This cluster component takes perpendicular planar surfaces and creates notches for fabrication and assembly.
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