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laser_slicer

Laser slicer add-on for Blender.

laser_slicer

Description

The Laser Slicer cuts up a Blender object and exports the slices to SVG files for cutting on a laser cutter or other post-processing.

This project is a fork of the laser_slicer repo from Ryan Southall, thank you so much Ryan !!.

The intention of the fork is to:

  • Reorganize the code as per my personal preferences.
  • Add features I find useful for my personal workflow.

Setup

  • Either:
    • Download the zip file of the add-on.
    • Extract it in your ~/.config/blender/<VERSION>/scripts/addons folder (or equivalent).
  • or:
    • Clone this project in your ~/.config/blender/<VERSION>/scripts/addons folder (or equivalent).
  • Open Blender.
  • Go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons.
  • Refresh the list.
  • Activate the Laser Slicer add-on.
  • A new Laser tab will appear in View3D > Sidebar.

Usage

  • Select the object you want to slice.
  • Activate the side panel with n.
  • Select the Laser tab.
  • Adjust your settings.
  • Click the Preview button.
  • A new LaserSlices object will be created.
  • Tweak the settings until you like what you see.
  • Every time you click on Preview the LaserSlices object will be regenerated.
  • Click the Slice button. This time it will taka a little longer.
  • The LaserSlices object will be regenerated.
  • The SVG file(s) will be saved.

A tutorial video of the original project (not including this project's extra features) can be found at Ryan's blog.

Configuration

laser_slicer

Settings are separated by sections:

  • Material settings.
  • Cut settings.
  • 3D Preview settings.
  • Slice settings.

All of these sections have a Reset defaults button to restore factory settings for that section.

There's also a Reset ALL defaults button in the Laser Slicer (about) section.

Settings sections can be collapsed so only the settings you often change are visible. If you always use the same kind of material you can have the Material settings section collapsed.

Material settings

  • Thickness: Thickness of the material to be cut, used to calculate slice height.
  • Width: Width of the material sheet being cut, used to generate the SVG file.
  • Height: Height of the material sheet being cut, used to generate the SVG file.

Cut settings

  • DPI: Resolution of the generated SVG file.
  • SVG line color: Color of the generated SVGlines.
  • SVG line thickness: Thickness of the generated SVGlines.
  • Laser kerf: The width of the laser beam (See Definition of kerf in Wikipedia).

3D preview settings

  • Extrude slices: If active, generated slices will be extruded for previewing purposes.

  • Translate mode: How to move the resulting preview 3D slices to compare with original.

    • None: Generated object stays at the same position as source object.
    • Distance: Specify X/Y/Z distance from source in scene units.
      • X/Y/Z: Distance (in scene units) from original object.
    • Size: Specify X/Y/Z distance from source in object size units.
      • X/Y/Z: Distance (in object size units) from original object.

  • Translate preview: Move the resulting preview 3D slices to compare with original.

Slice settings

  • Slice gap: Leave an extra gap between slices (maybe to add spacers later).
  • Range: Select the vertical range of the object to slice (allows partial slicing).
  • Output: Name of the SVG file to be generated.
  • Separate SVG: If selected, separated SVG files will be created for slices.
    • Position: When Separate SVG is selected the position of the slice in the SVG file can be specified.