Laser Slicer Addon

November 22, 2019June 21, 2021 New Media Supply 1 Comment Modeling

With the Laser Slicer Addon we can make slices of our mesh. While the addon is written for use with a laser cuter, here a few ideas to use it without. First, your mesh will be sliced into edgeloops that are not connected to eachother. Because of this, there is not much yet we can do untill weconvert it to curves or greasepencil. Below two examples on how we can use the addon without laser cuter.

First: slice your mesh

There is one thing a bit tricky in the addon and that is that the Thickness (see Material Dimensions in the Laser Slicer Addon) is not going higher than 50. The result of this is that the amount of slices are often to high. To solve this, we go to the Properites panel > Scene Tab > Unit. Now, turn down the Unit Scale until and look at the number of sliced in the addon. You want approximated 30 slices. All other settings I don’t mind, expect to define an export file. If you don’t like to give in an export file all the time, you can do it once and save your startup file. So the next time you use the addon, all you need is the thickness and the Unit Scale.

Converting to Curves

Once the mesh is sliced, we can convert it to curves, because there is not really that much we can do with the mesh as it is now. To convert the mesh to curves, simply select the object, and in the menu on top of the viewport go to Object > Convert to Curve from mesh.

We have now curves, and you can now bevel them in the properties panel. To do that, you go to properties panel > Object Data > Geometrie > Bevel > Depth.

Next, we can convert them back into Mesh if you want. So you simply select the object, and in the menu on top of the viewport go to Object > Convert to Mesh from curve.

Converting to grease pencil

Instead of converting the mesh to curves we can also convert the mesh to greasepencil. Though, before we can convert the mesh to greasepencil, we need to convert the mesh to curves first. And then we can convert the curves to greaspencil. And you probably know that we can use quite some effects when working with the grease pencil, like glow, thickness, ting, wave, etc.

One thing is tricky when you fill the strokes. And that is when you view the strokes from top, you look though them. To solve this, go to the properties panel > Object Data > Strokes > Stroke Depth order > 3D location.

Where to download the Laser Slicer Addon?

Best is to check this post on Blenderartists if you want to have an up-to-date link for the download. Installing the Laser Slicer Addon is straight forward, like other addons.