Playlist

Revit Toposurface	Watching
Archicad Mesh	Watch
AutoCAD Mesh	Watch
3D Contours	Watch
2D Contours	Watch
3D-print	Watch
Laser Cut	Watch New

The problems

The new laser cut feature in Cetopo aims to solve all laser cutting related problems for the user.

1. Creating a beautifull, accurate, and structurally sound model
2. Visualize the result
3. Nesting the parts to minimize wasted material
4. Encode the nested parts in the correct format

Some of these problems have traditionally required lots of manual labor, while others have required lots of material.

“3D-models just don't capture slope as well as laser cuts” -Unknown Architect

One of the scaffolding parts is highlighted here. It provides support for the parts on it, as well as helping with the assembly chore.

The solutions

1: The laser cuts created by Cetopo use an advanced algorithm to generate scaffoldings for your models. This saves a lot of material without sacrificing looks or structure.
2: Cetopo now has an intuitive visualizer for its 3D-products. It allows you to make informed tweaks to the parameters, thus ensuring an optimal result with the first cut. Expect more features to be added to the visualizer in the future!
3: Cetopo uses its own NFP based algorithm to compute good nestings for your parts. This saves a lot of wasted material, and saves you the painstaking effort of nesting it manually!
4: Cetopo allows you to choose line colors to help you conform to demands set by professional cutting services. This reduces the risk of misunderstandings, as well as loss of information due to translation.

The scaffolding (3mm transparent acrylic) locks the parts (1mm plywood) in place thanks to small notches on their insides. This makes assembly a straightforward and fun process. To see the end result, please watch the Laser cut tutorial video

How to enable

To enable SVG previews, start by going to the Map view. After that, select some area, and click the small icon in the top-right corner of the Image card. This will open up the image settings window. There you can change Format to svg. Do note the other settings as well. The Scale setting that follows allows you to define the scale of the image. The lines in the SVG are always the same thickness (when printed), so by changing the scale you can adjust how thick they look on your display. The Style, Color etc. Settings allow you to customize the look and feel of your previews.
When you are satisfied with your settings, click Save Settings to save them. Previews use the most recent saved settings.

Image settings

Try opening the image in a new tab, and zooming on it.

Tip

If you plan on creating a huge printed map, or think about modifying a map in some software, use SVG. Using the image settings you can download the layers (contours, houses etc..) individually.