Grillage Fabrication

(A double-post from the Discussion section, but this post should probably live here...)

All,

I put together a utility definition to create a grillage (waffle) surface for laser cutter fabrication. Please feel free to use it (at your own risk...). I plan to make improvements to this base configuration in the future.

Features:

_Specify the uniform spacing for each of two (A = above, B = below) orthographic cut planes;
_Specify the rotation (angle) of the orthographic cut planes to the reference surface;
_Fine tune the start of A or B cut planes by shifting each independently;
_Specify rib height and notch thickness;
_Automated layout of the rib sections for fabrication including notches and labels;
_Visual 3D reference guide for construction;
_A "defaultGrillage" state has been saved under the "Solution" menu for quick start-up;
_A "generate_grillage_layout?" on/off toggle to allow for faster operation.

Limitations:

_The reference surface must always be shrunk;
_The grillage (for now...) is generated from a vertical extrusion downward. A surface with extreme geometry may not work well, if at all;
_If the outline of the reference surface is such that a section plane will cut the surface in two locations the automated layout will not function correctly;
_The notches are generated as rectangles with the intention that the user will want to cut the notches on a separate pass from the rib sections;
_Without any clusters, the canvas looks pretty scary. The resulting output of the definition is located all the way downstream (but should be clearly labeled).

View some screenshots from my album Gillage Making.

Download the definition file here: grillageFAB_v1.rar

Happy cutting.

-taz

Tags: fabrication, grillage, waffle

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Arthur Mamou-Mani on July 27, 2010 at 3:52pm

Hi Taz,
I am just starting to use the grillage definition and actualy had a red component when selecting my surface. I don't get any flat profiles generated unfortunately.
Could it be a version problem?
Did you ever come accross this?
many thanks,
Arthur

same with closed polysurface:

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Permalink Reply by Arthur Mamou-Mani on July 28, 2010 at 1:35am

Hi,
I tried again with a different file/computer and got the end part to be not working instead of the first part.

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Permalink Reply by Edion86 on September 7, 2010 at 3:39am

Hi Tas, every link seems to be broken... could anyone please re-upload them??
I've done one my shelf but i wanted to compare to learn about my mistakes XD.

Attachments:

Ribs4Closed Surface.ghx, 243 KB

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Permalink Reply by beleveslis giorgos on September 7, 2010 at 9:19am

sorry guys, every link-attachments seems to be destroyed, could someone please reupload?
thanks in advance!

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Permalink Reply by Justin Brouillette on December 4, 2010 at 2:31pm

I agree. Love to try it out but I can't download any of the files. Please repost.

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Permalink Reply by Wiktor Kidziak on January 8, 2011 at 6:58pm

Is there any chance the definition file could be uploaded again?

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Permalink Reply by Q-Bizz on January 13, 2011 at 5:32am

same thing here, please reupload the definition.

thank you guys!

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Permalink Reply by enlai hooi on April 12, 2011 at 2:33am

Hey taz, i would be interested to look at your grillage definitions, however, the link appears to be broken. when its fixed, let us know! its a great thing to have in your kit!