Laser Cut Desk Organizer
For this organizer, the plan was to make a customizable container where a user can choose a polygon shape and size, add text, and add a fractal decoration. It would be comprised of a lid and a body. The body would have dynamic hinging to allow it to effectively wrap around the lid, creating an enclosure in one piece.
Initial Shape and Size Choices
All of the pieces of the desk organizer were required to fit onto a piece of provided stock. Error detection was put in place in the code to ensure that, no matter what shape is chosen, the pieces will not end up larger than allowable. The stock size restricts the shapes to be in between a triangle and a hexagon, giving four total shape options.
Within these limits, the user determines:
- How many sides the polygon has
- The length of each side of the polygon
- The height of the container
Designing the Body
- Create lines for the upper and lower limit of the body
- Hinges
- Each hinge splits the body into n sides of the polygon
- 16 total lines form a single hinge; each line composed of 5 segments spaced out evenly
- The challenge was to determine proper spacing that would allow the material to act like a hinge while also not breaking: too big a gap meant it was too stiff; too small a gap meant it was structurally weak
- Each hinge is centered around where a point in the shape would be, generating a rounded corner
- Tabs to connect the body
- Geometrically draw out the slot shapes at the edges of the body
- Generate slots for the nuts and bolts meant to keep the lid attached to the body
Designing the Lid
- Generate the shape
- Find tab location
- Get angles for polar coordinates based on shape
- Find the distance to each vertex and convert to cartesian coordinates
- Locate the midpoint of each side for tab placement
- Generate tabs in proper orientation
- Use a base vector to determine the unit vector of each side
- Generate a normal vector at the center of the unit vector as the height of the tab
- Using these vectors, tab points can be plotted
- Fractals/Text/Decorations can be added at specific coordinates on the lid
Final Outcomes
Process Video
