is there a way to cut this?

[knight_toolworks]

this is a sign the fellow wants to make in 3d. he wants to use layers of plastic to get the 3d effect. the sign is 3' long. not sure how thick it would end up but maybe 3" but he wanted the edges to be beveled and align up. but thats impossible. you can't offset the cuts and have everything match. the only wany I can see to do it is glue it all up and cut it in 3d. that would be a lot of work sanding it in shape. since it would be acrylic it would be some work to sand it. (lucky that would not be my job)

[myxpykalix]

Steve,
Depending on what program you use i think it could be do-able.

First get the font you need. If you have a 3D program make the word lounge and extrude it to your height you want.

Then angle it to the desired angle in your Z plane and save that as a seperate object.

Keep in mind you won't be able to make undercuts so keep the top of letter heights close to surface.

Another possible way would be to copy the artwork as you see it.
Create an outline toolpath for the edges of the letters by red arrow and on the outside of the object as a whole and give it the accent marks you see in the picture to give it the illusion of bigger height.

Then raise the Z height of the model also. It won't be 2-3 inches but it won't be flat either. If it is for a sign that is up 10+ feet it might be ok.

[marysvillesign]

This is close to the outline & drop shadow question I asked at Vectic but with the acrylic twist. Here is my take and using bright neon acrylic colors.

[knight_toolworks]

I think what they are really after is to see the different colors that show with the layered material.
myself if we just cut a bunch of them out and just stack them the effect would be pretty nice.
but I need to find out how high the sign will be it may loose a lot of it is very high. this is a buddy of mine a artist/designer that did some cool things. We did the big paper airplane with tv's in the wings for that that thing redbull does the one where everyone tries to fly.

[mims]

I did something similar last year. Copied my curves down in the Z in Rhino by .5" and over some certain amount, then lofted them to give me the sloped effect. I offset and pocketed in the letters because we were going to add prismatic letters. I then used Rhinocam to raster using a ballend bit at a raster angle equal to the sloped angle. worked great and looked great.. good effect on .75" material. Would look really great with multi layered colored material.

http://www.mimsworks.com/images/alsm.jpg

[knight_toolworks]

that looks nice. I never 3d'd plastic before I guess it is doable.

[gene]

Eric,
Looks great , Can you tell more on how you did this?

[mims]

hi Gene, if you have Rhino it's easy.. no idea how to in other programs. I took the main letter curves and copied them to -Z and shifted them, like I mentioned above. When you make a loft it gives the sloping effect. You could also scale down the copy of the curves, and it would look like the letters were zooming back into the distance, etc. So that gave me my surfaces that I would then raster with a tapered ball end bit at the same angle.. the reason I did that is so the ridges, or areas like the sloped, angled line under the 'h' would toolpath better and come out cleaner, with virtually no cleanup. The top pocket is very straight forward. This whole thing is done from regular mdf, .75" thick.

another thing we almost did was to copy the curves down in the Z and scale them down... but shift them down below the original, as opposed to over to the right side. This would give an effect of it zooming out at you.. see images.. one I lofted with 3 curves, so it creates a curved path. Then all you do is Scale1D and just scale the Z to squish it down to whatever thickness you want.. the general effect when looking at the letters directly head on is the same whether it is 1" thick or 10' thick (not taking into account lighting).

[gene]

Thanks, I dont have rhino but i do have aspire. I follow the concept that you are using , so i will try to duplicate it in aspire. Thank you , Gene:)

[marysvillesign]

That is a effect I'm trying to mimic in Aspire as well. But I haven't 3d routed acrylic yet and don't know how it would polish. As far as Steve's original logo being done in Aspire, can a 2 rail sweep replace 3d modeling of the extruded shadow?

[myxpykalix]

Eric i was impressed with your sign also because in the photo it does trick your eye into thinking it is 3" thick. Greg Werner used this same technique in his "High Seas" sign.

To my eye the key here is the outline of the letters on the top which give it the definition on the face. good job

[mims]

thanks Jack, I actually cut prismatic letters to fit in the pocket, but once we saw it, we decided to just use the sign like this.. felt the prismatic letters made it too busy in this case.