LaserCutter
Similar to BoxMaker (which is written in Java a long time ago), this ruby gem generates PDFs that can be used as a basis for creating a "snap-in" boxes with notched sides on a typical laser cutter, by providing dimensions, material thickness and output file name.
For more detailed comparison with BoxMaker and motivation behind this project, please see the section at the bottom of this README.
One of the design goals of this project is to provide a highly extensible platform for creating laser-cut designs, where alternative strategies can be added over time, and supported by various command line options, and perhaps a light weight web application. If you are interested in contributing to the project, please see contributing for more details.
laser-cutter supports many flexible command line options that allow setting dimensions,
stroke width, page size, layout, margins, padding (spacing between the boxes), and many more.
Web Front-End
There is a web online application that uses this gem and allows you to generate PDFs with a friendly UI.
Please visit http://makeabox.io.
Dependencies
The gem depends primarily on Prawn – a fantastic PDF generation library.
Installation
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
gem 'laser-cutter'
And then execute:
$ bundle
Or install it yourself as:
$ gem install laser-cutter
Usage
Usage: laser-cutter [options] -o filename.pdf
eg: laser-cutter -s 1x1.5x2/0.125/0.125 -O -o box.pdf
Specific Options:
-w, --width WIDTH Internal width of the box
-h, --height HEIGHT Internal height of the box
-d, --depth DEPTH Internal depth of the box
-t, --thickness THICKNESS Thickness of the box material
-n, --notch NOTCH Preferred notch length (used only as a guide)
-m, --margin MARGIN Margins from the edge of the document
-p, --padding PADDING Space between the boxes on the page
-k, --stroke WIDTH Numeric stroke width of the line
-z, --page_size LETTER Page size, see --list-all-page-sizes for more info.
-y, --page_layout portrait Page layout, other option is 'landscape'
-O, --open Open generated file with system viewer before exiting
-W, --write FILE Save provided configuration to a file, use '-' for STDOUT
-R, --read FILE Read configuration from a file, or use '-' for STDIN
-l, --list-all-page-sizes Print all available page sizes with dimensions and exit
-M, --no-metadata Do not print box metadata on the PDF
-v, --[no-]verbose Run verbosely
--examples Show detailed usage examples
--help Show this message
--version Show version
Common Options:
-o, --file FILE Required output filename of the PDF
-s, --size WxHxD/T/N Combined internal dimensions: W = width, H = height,
D = depth, T = thickness, N = notch length
-u, --units UNITS Either 'in' for inches (default) or 'mm'
Examples
Create a box defined in inches, and open PDF in preview right after:
laser-cutter -s 3x2x2/0.125/0.5 -O -o box.pdf
Create a box defined in millimeters, print verbose info, and set page size to A3, and layout to landscape, and stroke width to 1/2mm:
laser-cutter -u mm -w70 -h20 -d50 -t4.3 -n5 -zA3 -y landscape -k0.5 -v -O -o box.pdf
List all possible page sizes in metric system:
laser-cutter -l -u mm
Create a box with provided dimensions, and save the config to a file for later use:
laser-cutter -s 1.1x2.5x1.5/0.125/0.125 -p 0.1 -O -o box.pdf -W box-settings.json
Read settings from a previously saved file:
laser-cutter -O -o box.pdf -R box-settings.json
cat box-settings.json | laser-cutter -O -o box.pdf -R -
Future Features
- Extensibility with various layout strategies, notch drawing strategies, basically plug and play model for adding new algorithms for path creation and box joining
- Support more shapes than just box
- Create T-style joins, using various standard sizes of nuts and bolts (such as common #4-40 and M2 sizes)
- Supporting lids and front panels, that are larger than the box itself and have holes for notches.
- Your brilliant idea can be here too! Please see contributing for more info.
Comparison with BoxMaker
It's important to note that the author believes that BoxMaker is a greatly useful piece of software generously open sourced by the author, and so in no way this project disputes BoxMaker's viability.
In fact BoxMaker was an inspiration for this project. Laser-Cutter library attempts to further advance concept of programmatically creating laser-cut boxes, provide additional tuning, options, strategies and most importantly – extensibility.
Unlike BoxMaker, this gem has a suit of automated tests (rspecs) around creating the geometry.
In addition, we welcome new feature contributions, or bug fixes from other developers, and in that
regard rspecs offer confidence that functionality still works.
BoxMaker's algorithm tries to ensures that the same notch length is across all sides, but sacrifices symmetry as a result. So you may have a front panel's left and right edges be simply non symmetric. And that might be entirely OK with you :)
laser-cutter's algorithm will create a symmetric design for most panels, but it might sacrifice
identical notch length. Depending on the box dimensions you may end up with a slightly different notch
length on each side of the box.
The choice ultimately comes down to the preference and feature set, so here I show you two boxes made with each program, so you can pick what you prefer.
Example Outputs
Below are two examples of boxes with identical dimensions produced with laser-cutter and boxmaker:
This is how you would make a box with Adam Phelp's fork of BoxMaker (which adds flags and a lot of niceties):
git clone https://github.com/aphelps/boxmaker && cd boxmaker && ant
java -cp BOX.jar com.rahulbotics.boxmaker.BoxMaker \
-W 1 -H 2 -D 1.5 -T 0.125 -n 0.125 -o box.pdf
And laser-cutter:
gem install laser-cutter
laser-cutter -s 1x1.5x2/0.125/0.125 -O -o box.pdf
.
Contributing
- Fork it ( https://github.com/[my-github-username]/laser-cutter/fork )
- Create your feature branch (
git checkout -b my-new-feature) - Commit your changes (
git commit -am 'Add some feature') - Push to the branch (
git push origin my-new-feature) - Create a new Pull Request