Stacked Cardboard Laser from STL object: Auto Arrange?

Snapmaker Luban
1

Hi all,
I try for the first time to create an object by importing an STL file into the laser workspace, which slices it into slices which you can than laser-cut from e.g. cardboard and glue together to form the original object.
This works right out of the box very nicely - COOL! - it creates an SVG file for each slice, adds cut/arrange marks and you can process each SVG to generate GCode.
Now, my object would create 37 slices, each ~250mm x 250mm, but some slices only contain very small objects. This wastes a lot of material and will cause significant work.
So here’s my question: Is there a way with or without Luban to streamline this by auto-arranging the slices onto the available workspace and reduce the number of cardboard sheets I need to cut?

To make it more clear, here a few pictures:

The 37 slices in Luban (Yes, Halloween is coming in :slight_smile: ):

grafik
grafik548×580 125 KB

Slice number one - nicely marked with number I top right; You can see how much material is wasted:

grafik
grafik534×566 18.7 KB

What I would prefer - the pieces arranged and their number lasered into them:

grafik
grafik699×684 14.4 KB

I started to do this manually:

  • Open the saved .snaplzr-Project in 7-Zip
  • Extract the SVGs
  • Open them in Inkscape
  • Remove arrange marks
  • Move the number into the piece
  • and arrange the parts

This is however really tedious work…

Any help/hints appreciated!

Btw.: This is how I envision it to look like in the end:
grafik

2 Likes
2

I use Slicer for Fusion 360. Deprecated, but still working!
If you want to use luban, save your file, open with 7zip, and voila, all slices as SVG in it :slight_smile:

1 Like
3

What about https://deepnest.io?

3 Likes
4

deepnest is da bomb, but would be nice to have this functionality in Luban :slight_smile:

2 Likes
5

Slicer for Fusion 360 is perfect!!! So many possibilities, and when you load the DXFs into Lightburn, you get two jobs, one for alignment marks and text, the other for cutting - that’s exactly what I wanted - thanks so much for pointing me there!

Just one minor thing: The auto arrange does not try to rotate the shapes to get even more onto one sheet - or am I missing something?

6

Is there maybe also a software to hollow the object? The inner of the skull does Not have to be massive. Maybe it is possible to reduce Materials with that also?

1 Like
7

good point, something like offsetting with overlaps in mind in fusion360. A script could probably be written for this.

8

Outline each shape with the outline function of lightburn. Shrink the outline path. Voila. But the material is still wasted… But in this case you have a big and a small skull xD

I made a stacked skull like this last year, Maybe I’ll upload a pic on Monday. I’m on vacation right now.

1 Like
9

In Slicer for Fusion 360 there are simplistic object modification methods: Hollow, Thicken and Shrinkwrap. Hollow seems to be what you’re looking for.

2 Likes