Lamina 1.0: Surfaces from 3D Files
Over at the Transmaterial blog (tracking the materials revolution one mind-bending product at a time), they’re covering Lamina 1.0, a slicing program which is in some ways similar to skeinforge, but instead of cutting up 3D models according to their volume, cuts them up according to surfaces.
The result is a collection of shapes which can be bent slightly to acheive a 3D shape created from a model file. Thick lasercut acrylic might not be the best choice for working with a system like this, but thinner stock or more flexible materials like light wood or cloth would do quite well.
This also has me thinking of making lasercut 3D shapes with skeinforge, however: you could slice a 3D model and then lasercut the slices instead of 3D printing them. Granted, you’d need pins or something similar to hold the whole assembly together, but some pretty exotic shapes would probably be a lot easier this way than trying to design them in 2D CAD, particularly things put together with TopMod.
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Dominic Muren Said,
August 13, 2009 @ 2:52 pm
Paul Haeberli (Lamina’s developer) is a really cool guy, and has done an incredible job with lamina. The best part of the software, for anyone who has worked with unwrapping before, is that it can take a surface that curves in two axis, and reduce it to a developable surface (one that curves in only one) before unfolding the model. In addition, the software allows the user to draw cut lines to more easily unfold the model. Possibly the best use of this product is for laser cut cardstock or plasma-cutter cut sheet steel, both of which are cheap, and easily tack welded with tape or welding.
I’ve thought for a long time that the main reason that lamina hasn’t gone mainstream (despite being around for almost 7 years) is lack of visibility due to there being no limited feature free or cheap version. Visibility in the community is probably more important than profits, at this point. Just a note Paul