Engraved / Laser-Cut Wall Artwork

I've prepped files for laser cutting, but never been involved with pricing or arranging for the work.

Looking at the Epicurus file (I'm using Rhino 6) I have a couple of comments:

- From my experience it's normal to provide a 2D file consisting of closed curves (linework). The material thickness is specified in the written order and so there is no need to model the thickness of the finished product. You can include notes as to thickness and material in the file if that's helpful.

- The thickness as shown in the model is much thicker than seems practical, if it was intended to be the actual thickness. But since I think that the file for cutting would be just curves, this doesn't matter; it's just a comment regarding the finished product.

- There are a few "floating" pieces in the model that aren't attached to any other part of the model. It seems that for a wall hanging that it would be best to extend these pieces to a nearby part of the overall piece, so that the final product is just one piece. Otherwise during installation one would have to figure out where these loose pieces go aqnd how to mount them.

Hello to all the friends,

Godfrey thanks a lot for your comments. These images has been made by a graphist in Slovakia through the software Adope Illustrator or CorelDdraw. Frankly I do not know how to use these software programs. Godfrey do you want to send you the files as AI & EPS to examine where it has the "floating" pieces as you mentioned them ?

Hi Elli Elli, I'll see what I can do. I won't be at my computer for a few hours but at the very least I can indicate the floaters in the stl files and also show them on a jpg. Not sure if I can convert to AI or EPS so I'll look into that at that time.

Elli here's the fruit of my efforts....

It might be that the things most useful to your graphist are these two jpgs showing the "floaters" in red. The images on the left are the meshes that were in the stl files that you attached; the images on the right are of curves that I created from the meshes. These images are in the attached zipped folders, along with conversions to ai and dwg. Each ai file has the meshes and the curves as shown in the jpgs. Each dwg file has the curves, scaled up to 35" (889 mm) in height.

Asklepios.zip

EPICURUS.zip

I don't use Illustrator or Draw either, so hopefully this helps. I included the dwg files as that's a format that I'm more familiar with for this use.

I hope this helps!

It also looks like some of the outlines are quite thin when it comes to holding the piece together structurally. That's probably another adjustment the artist will have to make. It's quite a complicated project and, as you say Cassius, it would help to have some fairly simple but accurate graphics to work from. There are actually two design problems to solve: 1) the design of the portraits, and 2) designing the outlines, creases and shadows in a way that they will hold the cut material firmly together in one piece (or as few pieces as possible).

Fascinating project! And by the by, my family is in Iowa all week. Clears my schedule, and I'm hoping to return to the ring project this afternoon!