Digital Cutting

Vinyl Cutting:

Vinyl Cutter Workflow-

1. choose a jpeg or stl file to download to either your google drive or the silhouette cameo printer directly

2. download the file to the silhouette cameo

3. outline the file in order to just have the part of the file you want, not all of it

4. change the dimensions of the file to the corresponding number of squares on the grid you want your sticker size to be

5. put the amount sticker material you want on the real life grid

6. place the grid in line with the silhouette cameo

7. press load on the vinyl cutter so the grid will be almost ready to print

8. press print on the computer and download on the vinyl cutter

9. place transfer tape on the sticker

10. smooth the transfer tape and make sure it is on the sticker very well

11. peel the transfer tape back slowly, in order for the part of the sticker you want to be on the transfer tape

11b. use tweezers if necessary and for weaving if necessary

12. place the transfer tape where ever you want the sticker to be

13. smooth the transfer tape again and peel it back slowly again, then enjoy the sticker

Sticker Examples-

For my sticker I made a sticker of a girl playing lacrosse, a silhouette image to make it easier to transfer. I used a printer called a silhouette cameo. After I chose the image I wanted and downloaded it to the computer as an stl, I placed a piece of paper used to make the stickers onto a grid that I later lined up with the silhouette cameo to be outlined and printed. I had to decrease the size of my design or silhouette in order to have it fit on the amount of sticker material that I placed on the grid. After the design was outlined and printed, I put transfer tape on the back of the sticker and made sure it was smooth and sticking to my sticker. That allowed me to pull back an edge of the tape and the sticker came right out of its outline. Then I placed the sticker on my notebook and took the transfer tape off, and the first sticker I made was complete. For my "advanced" sticker I made the word lacrosse from the silhouette maker. My sticker is 6 in by 2 in and had a mini lacrosse stick within the a. The letters and the lacrosse stick required me to practice a new skill, weaving. I used my jpeg file that I had downloaded to my google drive and downloaded it to the silhouette cameo. I printed my vinyl sticker and used transfer tape in order to get my sticker from the piece of sticker material onto my planar. Once my whole design was on the transfer tape, I was able to carefully weave the letters out of the outline of the letters in order to just have the outline of the word on the transfer tape. I used tweezers to do this, and then my sticker was complete using a new technique, weaving.

Inkscape:

Parametric Design Workflow-

1. Create a shape of your choice with the dimensions of your choice

2. press clone under edit

3. type in your number or how ever many clones you want

4. pull the original away from the rest of the clones because you can edit all of the clones at once like changing the length or width of the original can change the length or width of all of the clones at the same time, but if you just change something one one of the clones, it does not effect the other clones or original.

5. It is helpful when there is a lot of one object with the same dimensions that need to be edited; it is more time efficient

5b. you can clone a lot of shapes in a project or just one and can also make as many clones as you want, can even clone several shapes together

5c. when forming anything press-fit, you can edit all of the sides at once, and can make slots like in the parametric design I created and edited those all at once.

6. If you need to do something not involving all of the clones, but just with one, press unclone to make it separate.

For My Parametric Design:

1. I made a squares, circles, and rectangles.

2. I made smaller rectangles to form as tabs and used 4 of them in an object. I used 4 clones of the original to create the first object.

3. I created on circle, square, and rectangle with the 4 tab clones inside of the shapes.

4. I grouped the shape and the tabs together.

5. I created 16 clones of the shape with the tabs inside of them.

6. I downloaded it to my google drive as a pdf file and svg.

7. Following the laser cutter workflow, I laser cut my design.

My Parametric Designs-

Parametric design is a way to scale the objects you create on Inkscape, but not scale all of the objects. For example when you make a box and need the cardboard to fit together and have already made the sides of the box with all of the slots, you can use parametric design to increase the sides of the box but not the slots. You have to first clone the original shape and make however many clones you want of the shape. Then, you can pull the clones away from the original object, and if you edit the original object, you can edit all of the clones at the same time. Therefore, when you create a box or any other form of press-fit, you can edit all sides at once with the same dimensions and not have to edit the slots if they are a different original figure with clones. This makes scaling more efficient in the long run. You can clone one shape or more than one shape and can make as many clones as you want. I used the laser cutter to make and cut out my parametric design pieces. I made 16 squares, rectangles, and circles with 4 tabs inside of each individual shape and used cloning to make it easier. I downloaded the pdf for the design of the "building blocks" or parametric design that I created a little while ago and used the settings for cardboard on the laser cutter, which are 10 speed by 100 power by 10 frequency on the larger laser cutter we have in the lab. I used a piece of cardboard that was 30 in by 20 in and then after I set the correct settings on the laser cutter, I printed my design. Since in my design I set the outlines to .001, all of the shapes and tabs cut out so I didn't have to do anything but design and print the parametric

designs. After the shapes were cut out, I was able to put or fit them together like legos.

Laser Cutting (also laser cut box):

Laser Cut Workflow-

1. download the design you made on inkscape as a pdf, on google drive or in general, in order to download it to the laser cutter

2. open your pdf and download it to the laser cutter software

3. make sure both fans are on on the laser cutter and the laser cutter is on

4. set the correct document properties to laser cutter corresponding to the material you are cutting such as settings for speed, power, frequency, how big your piece of material is, raster or to cut, color mapping is off, and other details corresponding to how and what you want your final product to look like and the material you are cutting with

5. press print

6. watch it print to make sure it does not catch on fire

Laser Cut Box-

I worked on creating my tabbed box on Inkscape. I followed a video on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1FIl5Eq4PQ) about how to create a laser cut box step by step to find out how to make the sides and bottom of a box by either adding tabs onto the sides or cutting the tabs out of the sides. For my second box, I have to adjust the measurements of the tabs to the width of cardboard in order for the sides to fit together to make my second box. I used parametric design in order to copy the tabs, and I used tabs with the dimensions of .5 by .3 inches and placed them .15 inches into the corresponding rectangle or side. I also had to create two other rectangles for the bottom and other side of the box. I used the union feature on Inkscape in order to make the tabs and the rectangle be one object, and I used the difference feature in order to make empty spaces where the tabs will fit in when the object is printed.I saved my tabbed box into my Google Drive as a pdf and svg. I saved it to a pdf in order to laser cut my box using a laser cutter and cardboard as the material of the box. I was able to print my first and second box. The settings for both boxes when cutting were 12 speed, 100 power, 50 frequency. In designing the boxes, I used .001 in order to cut through the box. When I made my first tabbed box, since the dimensions were not specific to the cardboard, the sides fit together, but the tabs on the box were hanging over the sides. That is why I had to create another box that fit the dimensions of cardboard. Once I downloaded the pdf and laser cut my second tabbed box, I put the sides together, and the box fit perfectly together without any over extending tabs or sides. Then later, I created a lid to my box by creating a copy of the bottom side of the box and adding more tabs to the side of the box using the union tool. I then laser cut my box. My lid could stay on the box.