Prepare parametric louver wall for CNC fabrication

Hey guys,

I’ve been designed a parametric partition wall for my home which needs to be fabricated using 18mm wood ply cut by CNC. However, I need to find the best fit for these outlines with provision for the spine to fit within a 2.4m x 1.2m panel with minimal wastage possible.

I have attached a few images to explain what I did manually. But I want to change the design while seeing the layout on the panel

.LV 01.gh (15.5 KB) lv 06.3dm (315.5 KB)

Any help with packing the outlines would be of great help. Thanks in advance!

view


Have a try opennest plugin.


LV 01_re.gh (65.0 KB)

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Thanks a lot Kim!
This works for the packing. But when I have holes for the spine to pass through on these surfaces, The plug in reads it as separate elements and clubs it together. I’m not able to place the opening and plank together.

Also, any suggestions on how do I number these planks?

You can also find the definitions in the example file where you found the plugin and you can check “Nesting Shape with Holes” and “Text for engraving” among them.

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Have a look at the attached script. You essentially use the Transform data coming out of Open Nest to orient all the internal geometry to the nested curves.

I set up a pretty basic numbering workflow for you too.

LV 01_re_DZ.gh (72.7 KB)

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For numbering, it depends on the CNC machine you’re working with and whether you want to use it to engrave labels on the parts, or if you just want numbers on each part on diagrams of the sheets, which you can use to tell you where to put taped on labels to help you assemble.

If you can do a tool change or have an auto tool changer, engrave the parts where it won’t be seen, and check this out: Bake single-stroke font text to Rhino

Same basic idea if you’re not going to engrave, except then single stroke fonts aren’t necessary.

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I find the old masking tape and sharpie workflow to be quicker!

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Not if your sheets look like these :wink:

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That sheet utilisation % is insane!

Last time things were that tight we made a spring loaded sharpie holder, no unsightly engrave marks!

But don’t you then get dark marks on your pieces from the sharpie? Do you sand that off? Or do you put tape on the whole sheet?

Oh you most certainly do. We were needing to label and draw cut lines onto hessian so clear labels were a good thing!

If I was doing this with ply I’d most certainly be putting the pieces through a drum sander afterwards… or better still, designing the thing so you don’t see the labels at all!

How? A smallish sharpie in a 3/4" collet?