Wave Laptop Stand (Making 3D Shapes in Illustrator)

Step 2 Transferring to the Computer

As I mentioned in the intro, This entire object was painstakingly designed in 2D. I know in theory that it could be done much faster in a CAD program, but I didn't know how. To design in 3D, one would need to:

• Design the 3D shape of the object.
• Figure out how to create slices through the object.
• Programmatically cut out interlocking slots for each intersection of the slices.
• Export the resulting shapes as 2D outlines.

If any readers know how this would be done, please leave some info in the comments! [Note: See great comments at the bottom of this instructable from users trialex and theBull on how Google Sketchup might be used to do this design.]

Anyway, back to this design method. I decided to design from the side view, first. The image below shows the cross sections that I came up with. You can see the gray trapezoid around the whole thing, showing a flat bottom and an angled top for where the laptop would rest. Within that, I drew two shapes. The fat one is the plane through the center of the stand, running front-to-back. The thinner shape is the shape of stand along the left and right edges. Let's call these the "spines" of the stand.

I added vertical lines for where I was going to want all the cross-sectional slices (the ones that will run left to right.) Each of these lines would then be used as guides to make the actual cross sections.

Comments

[ydeardorff]

Im interested in knowing how to make a 3d object, then assigning a scale to it, and then having it made to be printable via some program.

i dont have a laser cutter, But let me know more about this if you would. especially how you got the 2d drawings into 3d, then back out to 2d cut outs.

Im very intrerested!!!!

[CFELDMAN]

no es dificil hallar el cada sección, para imprimir. seriamente si le interesa, contacteme. saludos