04: 2D Design & Cutting

Lab July 3rd and July 5th:

Today’s lab was all about being introduced to Fusion 360 and then transfering our 2D designs to the laser cutter so that they could be cut into cardboard. We also were briefly introduced to the Vinyl cutter and were allowed some time to work on our final projects.

The first thing we did was download and open Fusion 360, which is a program that allows you to sketch both 2D and 3D designs. To keep things simple we began by creating a 2D sketch of a square with four notches of equal size. After we were happy with the 2D sketch we extruded it and transformed it into a 3D design. We were then allowed to experiment and design our own shapes.

This is the 2D sketch of the shape I designed:

This is what it looked like after extruding:

After we finished our designs we used flashdrives to transfer them to the computer attached to the laser cutter. We uploaded our designs to the program that the laser cutter uses.

Before cutting we ran through the safety procedure which included making sure the ventilation was on, that the laser was correctly positioned, and that the laser would be cutting over the material the entire time. After all that we were finally ready to cut.

After all the cutting was over and I had popped my shapes from the cardboard I was ready to assemble. At the end of the day I was left with a sculpture that could stay together with nothing but friction.