Exercise 3. Computer-controlled cutting

Labwork: Inkscape Parametric Design

I used Inkscape to make "building blocks that could be scaled.

Homework

I began by making a rectangle .15 inches wide and .5 inches long. The thickness of the cardboard. I determine this thickness by using a digital caliper. This would act a slot that the cardboard would fit into. I set the stroke style to .001 inches. This stroke style is used in vector cutting on the Epilog laser cutter. I then had to change the view to outline so I could see the rectangle (slot).

I utilized clone tiled feature in Inkscape to make 4 copies of the rectangle. I thought I should see five, but I only saw four rectangles. I tried again and earn the same results. I tried moving the rectangles around when I realized the first of the four clones were above the original. I tried changing the scale of the first slot and the clone slots changed accordingly.

Next I made a two inch square and centered it on the page in the horizontal and vertical. I moved my cloned rectangles (slots) down to the square and tried to center of the page. The vertical slots worked well while the slots in horizontal moved together. I move them individually to the proper locations.

I decided to test my slots and I change the scale of the original slot. The other slots changed but they were no longer symmetrical. I delete the slots and tried again. I had different but still unsymmetrical results again. I spoke with Richard Fletcher who pointed out to me to use rotation function on the set the individual rectangles. I tried to his suggestion and was immediately rewarded with success.

I then group individual slots and I added them to a key. I cloned the 4 slot group and combine a 4 slot clone to a rectangle. This time I centered the slots by using align and distribute function, but instead using the full page I used the biggest object. I cloned the rectangle. I check and made sure when I changed a the original slot or the scale of the original rectangle, the rectangle changed appropriately. It work. I made a tiled clone of the square with slots. I added this to the key.

Next, I made a two inch circle and centered it on the center of the page using the align and distribute function. I then used a four slot clone to fill in the circle. I group the two objects and check that I could change the slots and get the appropriate symmetrical results. I was successful. I made a tiled clone of the circle with slots. I added this to the key. Next, I made 2 x 4 inch rectangle and I added slots to it. I check for symmetry and tiled cloned it. I then added it to the key. Finally, I used my Inkscape Key to make 36 squares, 36 circles and 24 rectangles. I plan to cut these out with our laser cutter to make building blocks.