FabLab Chemnitz Boxes/Papercraft

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - Conical
Box Maker - Elliptical Box
Box Maker - Elliptical Cone
Box Maker - Generic Generator
Box Maker - Lasercut Box
Box Maker - Living Hinge
Box Maker - Mehr Boxes
Box Maker - Path To Flex
Box Maker - Schroff
Box Maker - T-Slot
Box Maker - Tabbed
Can Generator
Cut-Craft Boxes
Cut-Craft Cylinder
Cut-Craft RollerBot
Grid Strip Creator (qlocktwo)
PlyCutter
Quick Joint

Origami Patterns

Origami Pattern - Bendy Straw
Origami Pattern - Circular
Origami Pattern - Kresling Tower
Origami Pattern - N-sided Hypar
Origami Pattern - Support Ring
Origami Pattern - Template Effect
Origami Pattern - Waterbomb

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Collar
Estucheria - 4 Point Base Box
Estucheria - Airplane Type Linear Case
Estucheria - Automatic Bottom Case
Estucheria - Double Railing Case
Estucheria - Girdle
Estucheria - Linear Case
Estucheria - Swiss Bottom Case
Extruder
InkPACKING
Leather Case
Playing Cards
Polygen
Polyhedra
Robot Boxes
Sheet Metal Conus
Simple Frame
Tab Generator
Tuckbox
Zoetrope

Papercraft Flatteners

DXF 2 Papercraft
Papercraft Unfold
Paperfold

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - Conical

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - Elliptical Box

More info: https://www.instructables.com/id/Generating-elliptical-boxes-using-a-laser-cutter-a

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - Elliptical Cone

Example Output

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - Generic Generator

Example Output

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - Lasercut Box

Example Output

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - Living Hinge

Source: https://www.reidb.net/LaserLivingHinges.html

See also

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - Mehr Boxes

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - Path To Flex

Source: https://github.com/thierry7100/Path2flex

Draw some path (it may be closed or open contour!)

Adjust some line stuff

Example 2

Example 3 (Buggy)

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - Schroff

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - T-Slot

Source: https://github.com/kchimbo/inkscape_tslot_boxmaker

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Box Maker - Tabbed

This plugin is based on a lot of different git projects like combmaker.py

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Can Generator

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Cut-Craft Boxes

Example Output

See also

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Cut-Craft Cylinder

Example Output

See also

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Cut-Craft RollerBot

See also

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Grid Strip Creator (qlocktwo)

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

PlyCutter

To make this work we need to install the plycutter module itself:

sudo dnf install gmp-devel mpfr-devel mpc libmpc-devel #required to build gmpy2
 
#install plycutter dependency:
pip install git+https://github.com/tjltjl/plycutter.git
 
#or by cloning:
git clone https://github.com/eridur-de/plycutter.git
cd plycutter
sudo python3 setup.py install
plycutter #test the command if it is available and if it works

Finger-jointed/Tabbed Boxes

Quick Joint

Source of documentation: https://github.com/JarrettR/QuickJoint

This is an Inkscape extension to help rapidly prototype 3D assemblies using a laser cutter, CNC router, waterjet cutter, or similar 2D process. It can quickly add box tabs to objects.

Notes

works only for straight line segments!
works for objects like rectangles too

Draw some line or polygon

Use extension to add tabs or slots

Example with 6 lines (sides):

added to all sides:

Origami Patterns

Origami Pattern - Bendy Straw

$grafik.png$

Example Output

Origami Patterns

Origami Pattern - Circular

Example Output

Origami Patterns

Origami Pattern - Kresling Tower

Example Output

Origami Patterns

Origami Pattern - N-sided Hypar

Example Output

Origami Patterns

Origami Pattern - Support Ring

Origami Patterns

Origami Pattern - Template Effect

Origami Patterns

Origami Pattern - Waterbomb

Example Output

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Collar

Source: https://github.com/obzerving/Collarz

The Collar extension can be used by papercrafters to design a truncated regular polygon. The user inputs the number of sides for the overall polygon shape, the width of the "collar" at the top and at the bottom, and also the height of the collar.

The output of the program provides the side, top and bottom pieces—with gluing tabs where needed—as well as untabbed pieces that are used for cutting the decorative/wrapper paper to cover the outside of the object

More details: https://github.com/obzerving/Collarz/blob/main/How_to_use_collarz.pdf

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Estucheria - 4 Point Base Box

See also

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Estucheria - Airplane Type Linear Case

See also

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Estucheria - Automatic Bottom Case

See also

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Estucheria - Double Railing Case

See also

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Estucheria - Girdle

See also

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Estucheria - Linear Case

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Estucheria - Swiss Bottom Case

See also

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Extruder

Source: https://github.com/obzerving/Extruderz

Inkscape extension that generates paper model of an extruded shape

Given a closed path of straight lines, this program generates a paper model of (1) another copy of the closed path; (2) an extrusion (or more if it exceeds the maximum length) represented by a strip with tabs and score lines; and (3) strips for covering the tabbed strips. See the file How_to_use_extruder.pdf for details. Inkscape 1.1 Papercraft Extruder Extension from Installation to Design Space is a video tutorial on using the extension.

Draw some polygon (closed polyline)

Run the extension

Get the result

See also

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

InkPACKING

This plugin creates useful boxes for packing your desired products.

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Leather Case

A Inkscape extension to generate the pieces for a leather case that can be laser cut. The leather case is intended to be used with up to 5 mobile phones.

Actually it's the job to find out how this looks alike in reality.

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Playing Cards

Source:

Sample Output

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Polygen

Source: https://github.com/obzerving/Polygen

More info: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/obzerving/Polygen/main/How_to_Use_Polygen.pdf

Draw target path

Draw your "silhouette" path and the centerline about which you want it to revolve. This must be an open polyline

Run the extension

Get the result

You need to duplicate the surfaces yourself

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Polyhedra

The options

archimedean dual
- A Catalan body or dual Archimedean body is a body that is dual to an Archimedean body. For example, the rhombic dodecahedron is dual to the cuboctahedron. The Catalan solids - of which there are 13 - are named after the Belgian mathematician Eugène Charles Catalan.
archimedean
- convex polyhedra with the following properties: their side faces are regular polygons, all the vertices of the body behave completely identically to each other, and they are neither Platonic solids nor prisms or antiprisms.
platonic
- polyhedra with the greatest possible symmetry. Each of them is bounded by several congruent plane regular polygons. Another name is regular solids. There are five Platonic solids.

Example Output

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Robot Boxes

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Sheet Metal Conus

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Simple Frame

Source: https://github.com/redentis/inkscape-extensions

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Tab Generator

Source: https://github.com/obzerving/Tabgen

About

Inkscape extension for putting tabs and scorelines on closed paths and objects like rectangles or other polygins. Given a closed path of straight lines, this program generates a paper model of tabs and score lines for each straight edge. You may not use bezier curves. Please convert them to polylines, for example using Convert To Polylines or Approximate Curves by Straight Lines (Flatten Beziers)

Example output

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Tuckbox

A similar generator for card boxes like Tuckbox is https://www.templatemaker.nl/de/cardbox

Tuckbox is not a well written extension for laser cutting output. But you can simply do the following to make laser files:

Create a tuckbox
Select all and colorize it to blue
Duplicate it, colorize it red, ungroup all, run union all for the duplicate selection, remove the fill color. You get the outline like this:

The outer contour will be processed by laser twice (first engraving, then cutting). It consumes more time but it basically works

Paper/Cardboard Boxes

Zoetrope

Zoetrope maker.

Prints disk of given diameter and number of images around the outside.
Also includes a pulse trigger ring to trigger a strobe.
- Width and phase of the pulse can be defined.
Prints a distorted and undistorted image reference sizes
- for use in a paint program to distort the source inages to fit onto the Disk.

Papercraft Flatteners

DXF 2 Papercraft

DXF 2 Papercraft is a small Inkscape wrapper for dxf2papercraft

Documentation page: https://dxf2papercraft.sourceforge.net

We can use Purge Duplicate Path Segments to remove duplicate lines to cleanup the generated output.

Tested to work with DXF version "R12 Binary DXF". You can use ODA File Converter to convert down to this older format. See DXF/DWG Importer for some hints.

Example Output

Papercraft Flatteners

Papercraft Unfold

This tool converts a STL/OFF/PLY/OBJ into binary STL Format. The STL then gets unfolded (flattened) to make a papercraft model.

It utilizes https://github.com/osresearch/papercraft and https://github.com/admesh/admesh

Avoid importing STL files with a lot of surfaces. Larger files require intense computing power. It's better to use simplified low-poly models (with a decent amount of triangles). See Simplification and remeshing of STL parts

3D STL preview	Papercraft Unfold output

Usage

Manual steps

PaperCraft Unfold tool compilation on Windows (and Linux)

The folowing steps how to compile unfold binary which is used for the upper mentioned Inkscape plugin.

Start Cygwin (Windows) or use your regular bash shell (Linux)

On Linux we can easily compile using gcc and make. For Windows executable we can use cygwin with installed gcc and make libraries.

Compile

cd /c/
git clone https://github.com/osresearch/papercraft
cd papercraft
make
cp C:\Babun\.babun\cygwin\bin /c/papercraft/
explorer .

Papercraft Unfold supports option to generate labels for edges. We can make separate compilations to have both variants. (variable: static int draw_labels = 0;)

Start cmd shell

cd C:\papercraft
unfold < Bunny-LowPoly.stl > bunny.svg
#or explicitely with extension .exe
unfold.exe < Bunny-LowPoly.stl > bunny.svg

Check output and compare with input

Bunny-LowPoly.stl	unfold < Bunny-LowPoly.stl > bunny.svg	bunny.svg

Papercraft Flatteners

Paperfold

About

Paperfold is another flattener for triangle mesh files, heavily based on https://github.com/felixfeliz/paperfoldmodels by Felix Scholz aka felixfeliz.

Possible input files are STL, Wavefront OBJ, PLY and OFF. (possible import file types with OpenMesh in principle: https://www.graphics.rwth-aachen.de/media/openmesh_static/Documentations/OpenMesh-8.0-Documentation/a04096.html)

Prepare to install openmesh

To run this extension you need to install OpenMesh bindings with python pip. When installing Paperfold by installing MighyScape, this will already be done for you on Linux systems. Else:

Ubuntu

sudo apt install cmake
sudo apt install g++
sudo apt install python3-dev
pip3 install openmesh

Fedora

sudo dnf install cmake
sudo dnf install g++
sudo dnf install python3-devel
pip3 install cmake
pip3 install pybind11
pip3 install openmesh

Windows

Windows requires CMake executable
Install MS Visual Studio Community Edition → If you receive an error like "NMake Makefiles does not support platform specification, but platform x64 was specified." In case the instalation fails you can also try to install precompiled Windows binaries from https://gitlab.vci.rwth-aachen.de:9000/OpenMesh/OpenMesh
Install openmesh bindings
```
pip3 install openmesh
```

How it works

The algorithm of paperfoldmodels consists of three steps:

Find a minimum spanning tree of the dual graph of the mesh.
Unfold the dual graph.
Remove self-intersections by adding additional cuts along edges.

Reference: The code is mostly based on the algorithm presented in a by Straub and Prautzsch (https://geom.ivd.kit.edu/downloads/proj-paper-models_cut_out_sheets.pdf).

Please also have a look at DXF 2 Papercraft and Papercraft Unfold.

Example with a Ruby model file

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1315127/files

STL preview	Unwrapped by Paperfold

Differences between poly facets and triangles

There is a great difference which comes fromt the input file. If you use polygonal input file, the unfolded mesh looks better because it has less useless folds and glue tab numbers. There is no algorithm to remove fold lines for coplanar adjacent triangles which form a polygon facet.

	Triangle mesh file (model saved stl)	Polygonal facets (model saved as .obj)
3D mesh preview (Blender)
Unfolding

Hot tips

Add some joints to your paperfold using Joinery
- https://clementzheng.github.io/joinery
- https://www.instructables.com/Joinery-Joints-for-Laser-Cut-Assemblies
...or add tabs using Tab Generator
Simulate using Origami Simulator
- https://origamisimulator.org
- https://github.com/amandaghassaei/OrigamiSimulator
generate cool model files from more complex 3d models using a vertice reducing tool:
- https://github.com/ipepe/3dless-com