Making a low poly cuttable file.

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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

plasmanewbie wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 10:53 am Had a look at your process David and that is pretty cool, hopefully it works for him.
Plasmanewbie - for something this complex, this would be a very time consuming process indeed. It is a very repetitious process:
select a facet, create a sketch, project facet onto sketch plane, save as dxf, and repeat hundreds of times.

This seems like something that could be automated using an AI algorithm. I'm not the guy to figure it out, but I expect it could be done by a competent programmer.


David
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

Another option might be to reduce the facet count so as to end up with a smaller number of faces to save as dxf.
cat 1.jpg
cat 2.jpg
cat 3.jpg
cat 4.jpg
cat 5.jpg
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

cat 6.jpg
cat 7.jpg
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by Jb_engineering »

Wow david, great info as usual. Il definately be looking into this further.
Thanks again.
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

Jb_engineering wrote: Sun Mar 09, 2025 4:27 am Wow david, great info as usual. Il definately be looking into this further.
Thanks again.
Chris - have you downloaded Fusion 360 to get started on your new project, or was this just something for the back burner? In any case, good luck and let us know if you have questions or run into any problems.

As you can see, this would be a "time intensive project" after you have spent the time to get up to speed with Fusion 360. I you do intend to follow thru with this, then I suggest you start off with the Fusion 360 tutorial lessons from Arnold Rowntree.

David

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSRKJgTSS4c&t=1s
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by Jb_engineering »

i have downloaded fusion.it is something im going to try to learn. its going to be difficult, but will be worth it in the end, as i will be able to then create work that isnt already out there in the form of a file. also will save me some money as some files are alot of $$$$.
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

Jb_engineering wrote: Tue Mar 11, 2025 4:31 am i have downloaded fusion.it is something im going to try to learn. its going to be difficult, but will be worth it in the end, as i will be able to then create work that isnt already out there in the form of a file. also will save me some money as some files are alot of $$$$.
Chris - great to hear you are on the Fusion 360 path! I know there are several members using it, and Tom just recently went thru some of Arnold Rowntree's Fusion 360 tutorial lessons on Youtube. I think he made pretty good progress and is now modeling and 3D printing some new projects.

Lots of fun to be had!

Let us know if you have any specific questions or run into any problems and we will try to help.

David
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

Also - I would say that you could probably come up with a few 3D designs of your own for animals, etc. The biggest problem with those cats we were working with is the very large number of individual facets per part. I think you could probably find some existing 3D models for animals (rounded, not all the flat facets) and do some manual slicing to come up with modified 3D models with a more reasonable number of facets.

David
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by Jb_engineering »

I think the deer head i did last, had around 40 pieces, but then most of them had atleast 3 bends on them. So i think its a matter of figuring out which parts can be connected in the design side of it.
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2459052
low poly dog 1.jpg
low poly dog 1.jpg (51.85 KiB) Viewed 5097 times
low poly dog 1.jpg
low poly dog 1.jpg (51.85 KiB) Viewed 5097 times
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1174081
low poly dog 2.jpg
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low poly dog 2.jpg
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3003775
low poly cat.jpg
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low poly cat.jpg
low poly cat.jpg (15.36 KiB) Viewed 5097 times
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2777475
low poly cat 1.jpg
low poly cat 1.jpg (32.45 KiB) Viewed 5096 times
low poly cat 1.jpg
low poly cat 1.jpg (32.45 KiB) Viewed 5096 times
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by Jb_engineering »

Been having a play with fusion, its not going to be something i learn over night 🤭, just need to figure out a good way of braeking apart the 3d model aspect now.
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

Jb_engineering wrote: Fri Mar 14, 2025 10:58 am Been having a play with fusion, its not going to be something i learn over night 🤭, just need to figure out a good way of braeking apart the 3d model aspect now.
I went over the basic steps with screen shots earlier in this post. It's just a few steps.
Import solid model
convert from mesh to body
project each facet shape onto a new sketch
save as dxf

repeat for each facet

Let me know if you have any specific questions or perhaps you have a specific 3d model you wish to work with. If so, post the link here so I can go over it with you.

David
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

By the way Chris - Fusion 360 has loads of capabilities and tools. I know just enough about some of them to accomplish what I need to do. Most of my stuff is very simple and related to either cnc plasma cutting or 3d printing, so I have barely "scratched the surface" as far as learning to use Fusion 360.

For what you are wanting to do - you really don't need to know much about Fusion 360. Only enough to follow some simple steps to convert a 3D model to 2D dxf drawings. Once you have installed Fusion 360 - I think if you follow along with some of my screen shots you can probably learn that process in several hours.

Let us know if you run into any problems or have specific questions.

David
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

project faces 1.jpg
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

Jb_engineering wrote: Wed Mar 05, 2025 2:32 pm Hi guys, has anybody had any experience with creating low poly files, from an image, into a cuttable file. I have seen videos of it being done on an app named blender. Just wondering if anybody has any alternatives?
Thanks.
20250225_151818.jpg

Chris - take a look at the thread I just created. It's a method I just came across to turn a 2D image into a 3D solid model automatically. It might be just what you are looking for.

David

https://www.plasmaspider.com/viewtopic.php?t=37726
makerlab 1.jpg
Here is one I tried. It came out pretty nicely I think.
ai figure 1.jpg
original image
jesus.jpg

result
makerlab 2.jpg
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Re: Making a low poly cuttable file.

Post by adbuch »

makerlab 3.jpg
makerlab 4.jpg
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