HOW TO DESIGN STACKED SLICES

Jakob Sperry


Using stacked slices is a good way to make shapes that either need to be solid or have organic surface geometry. (see examples)


Here we will be talking about how to make existing models into stacked slices. This is either going to start from a model you have designed in Fusion 360 or from a model you have downloaded. For downloading files, Thingiverse.com is a good resource.

Before we start please go to this link and download slicer for Fusion.

https://apps.autodesk.com/FUSION/en/Detail/Index?id=8699194120463301363&os=Win64&appLang=en

Once you have that installed and a file designed we can jump into cutting it into slices. Click on slicer under the make tab in the toolbar. then select the body you would like to slice. 

In slicer, there are a few things to look at. First, we are going to check to see if the scale is correct. if you are importing from fusion make sure to select "Orignal Size" (circled in red), and pick the correct units. Next, you want to pick the construction technique. for this we are going to use stacked slices (circled in blue). Other techniques are be coved in different tutorials. 

In purple is where we are going to set the material size and thickness. When using the stacking method setting the thickness as accurately as possible is important, so get out some calipers. 

To make a new material press the plus button. 

Thin wood dimensions:

Height: 20

Length: 30

Thickness: .12 (set this to whatever you measure if you need the height to be accurate) 


Next, we have to indicate the slice direction. Press the slice direction button (circled in red) and manipulate the direction until you get what you like. Slicer is a very glitchy software so be patient and keep trying. 

Now we are ready to export the plans. Press the get plans button on the left side. on the bottom set the file type to dxf and the units to mm. Now export to your computer. 

Now we have to import this file into rhino and prep it to be laser cut. 

now we are going to make it 2d but we want the colors to stay, so make sure maintain source layers is checked. 

When we do this, all the lines are black, but they are still on different layers, we just have to set the layer color. On the right, there will be a Make2D folder and in that, there are different layers that you can change the colors of. Set Annotation and Hole to red and keep Frame and Boundary black. 

The final step is to pack the shapes better. Slicer tries to pack the shapes as best it can, but it is not very good at it. try to reduce the amount of wood as much as possible. This may look like not much of a difference but at NuVu the waste ads up. 

Now delete the boundary rectangle and export to laser cut!