After much tweaking, I seem to have crenellated patterns for Grisbot that look like they just might print out on a laser cutter.

How do you go from a 3D side to a 2D pattern in Sketchup? Well, it’s not that big a deal to begin with because of course the sides are only an eighth of an inch thick. But the laser cutter cuts in 2D, so even an eighth of an inch is a distraction.

The solution is to click just on the top or outer surface of each side, then select copy, then paste. I’ll assume you know how to get in and out of groups in Sketchup.

(Perhaps to belabor the obvious: although the laser cutter only cares about 2D patterns, the outputted physical pieces will be 1/8 inch thick because the acrylic sheet upon which the pattern is being cut is 1/8 inch thick.)

I’ve never worked with a laser cutter before, but I talked to someone at StudentRND about a month or so ago, and he said it was possible to use Sketchup to create patterns for their cutter. I may need some kind of plug-in, however. We shall see.

StudentRND is open tomorrow afternoon, so that’s when I’ll drop by and see if everything I’ve done so far is garbage, or if it is salvageable, or if miracle of miracles I got it right the first time.

(Notice that I’m using the 2-Ls spelling for crenellated today, despite flagging by the Word Press spell checker. According to Google, 2-Ls has four times more hits than 1-L. So I’m going with the herd on this one.)