Physical making is a cornerstone of SALA’s learning experience. We challenge students to be hands on with their designs, engaging in the 3D realm to investigate and critique their ideas. We have a number of digital fabrication tools available for our students to use. Below are guides on how to set up your files, the materials to use, and other helpful tips.
Room 4A, in the basement of Lasserre Building.
SALA students can book the CNC router by contacting the workshop staff. Bookings can be viewed on the online booking system (UBC VPN required). Jobs typically take one to four hours, and the drawing revision process can take up to a week. Please meet with one of the workshop staff as early as possible to show your file and discuss the best strategy for milling your job.
Fees for CNC time are $11/hour with a $5 minimum charge. This includes file processing time.
You must provide your own materials. Generally they are wood products or acrylic. Lightweight MDF is the most common choice for site models. The maximum horizontal dimensions are 45″ x 80″ (1,143mm x 2,032mm). Sizes of up to 48″ x 96″ can be cut by prior arrangement. The maximum thickness is around 10″ (254mm). The maximum thickness for 2D cuts is about 2.5″ (63mm).
The toolpaths are created in Rhino so, generally speaking, you can use any vector file type that Rhino can open.
Requirements for all files
- Create a new file for digital output. You can easily do this by saving your file under a new name.
- Delete everything that isn’t required.
- Remove layers that aren’t required.
- Explode all blocks and remove the definitions. AutoCAD users can use Overkill to get rid of unnecessary lines. AutoCAD or Rhino users can use the Purge command to get rid of unused blocks and layers.
- Ungroup everything.
- Change the units to inches.
- Scale the model to the size you want your output to be.
- Remember to meet with staff to discuss your job.
2D setup instructions
- Use only polylines and splines. No surfaces for 2D cuts.
- Make sure everything is at z = 0.
- Create a rectangle the size of the material you are going to cut. The material sold in the shop is either 24″ x 32″ or 30″ x 30″. Position the rectangle so that one corner is at 0,0. Align the model so that the longer side is along the x axis.
- Arrange your parts inside the rectangle such that there is a 1″ border around the outside and 3/4–1″ between parts. This is necessary to maintain the integrity of the material during milling.
- Ensure that all part outlines are closed. That means that the end of the outline is at the same point as the beginning with no gaps or overlaps. If you use VectorWorks, make sure that Grid Snap isn’t overriding object snap. Turn Grid Snap off to be sure you are really snapping to the beginning of your line when you close it.
- Make sure that there are no lines buried under other lines. This will confuse the toolpath program.
- If there are places where you want to cut on the inside of a closed curve, put these on a separate layer than the cuts on the outside of such a curve. If there are lines that will be etched into the surface, put these on a separate layer.
- Create a separate file for each panel that will be cut.
3D setup instructions
- The material that will be cut will be rectangular when looking down in Top view. The entire area of the rectangular material must be covered with a surface when viewed from above. The cutter will plunge through any gaps.
- Delete objects that are inside or beneath other objects.
- Trim any objects that extend past the footprint of the material.
- In Rhino, call the command BoundingBox (you can just type it at the command line), select all, and press enter twice. This will create the smallest possible box around your entire model. Select All again and move and/or rotate the whole works so that a
topbottom corner is at 0,0 and the model is in the +x,+y quadrant. Delete the bounding box. Align the model so that the longer side is along the x axis. Now your model will be in the correct position for milling. - The deeper a bit has to cut (i.e. the greater its length), the greater its diameter will be. Instances with large vertical drops (whether 2D or 3D) will require larger diameter bits and will give less resolution. Therefore you will get better resolution with thinner materials if you are making 2D cuts or by eliminating tall buildings if you are doing 3D cuts.
- If you are milling a site that has large buildings, you can just create a flat footprint and make the building in the workshop and glue it on. This will speed up the job, save material and allow smaller bits to be used for the finishing pass.
One Graphtec is located in Room 5 of Lasserre.
There is no fee for use; however, you must take an orientation course first.
The pen plotter works on thin materials like paper or card stock. It has a maximum size of 175cm x 95cm.
It can draw intricate shapes. You can attach your favorite pens and you can even attach a small spring-loaded knife to cut very thin material. You can also align it using printed registration marks to cut paper from a printer or plotter.
File setup is covered in the orientation course.
These devices can quickly and accurately engrave or cut material using energy from a carbon dioxide laser.
Etching works by sweeping the laser back and forth and firing it only where it needs to mark the material. Etching can use bitmaps or vectors of any width.
When cutting, the laser follows the line firing continuously.
Material can be scored by following the lines as if to cut, but at a lower power setting. This is often faster than etching but produces only thin hairlines.
The laser cutters are located in Room 4 of Lasserre.
The laser cutters are available to SALA students at a variety of times through the week. There are morning, afternoon, and evening slots. Check the online booking system (UBC VPN required) for available slots.
The cost is $1.40/min at Lasserre, and $0.90/min at Macmillan, with a $5.00 minimum charge. Fees also apply to file processing time.
You must provide your own materials and tape. Generally these are paper, wood or acrylic up to 1/4″ (6mm) thick. When using the Epilog laser, the maximum horizontal dimensions are 18” x 24” (400mm x 710mm). When using the Lasserre laser the maximum horizontal dimensions are 23” x 39” (600mm x 1000mm). If the material is warped, the laser might not cut through everything. The flatter the material, the better the cut. Limited stock of material pre-cut to size is for sale at the laser cutters for convenience (availability is not guaranteed).
Because of toxic fumes, do not cut:
- MDF
- PVC = polyvinyl chloride (e.g. white plastic plumbing pipe)
- ABS = acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (e.g. black plastic plumbing pipe)
- PVA = polyvinyl acetate
- Polystyrene (e.g. Styrofoam)
- Polyurethane
- Polycarbonate (e.g. Lexan)
- Polyester film including PETG or DURALAR (The thin sheets they sell at DeSerres with the blue covering.).
- In general, anything sold at Home Depot will not work, even though they will tell you that it’s acrylic. It will only melt and turn brown.
We can laser cut from Rhino or Illustrator. See below to download the Rhino template, or use the following settings in your drawing.
For all file formats: Create a new, separate file for each job to be sent to the laser cutter. Ungroup everything. Delete everything (objects, layers, etc.) that is not required. Convert bitmaps to grayscale. Organize your drawing by layer, with all cuts on one layer named Cut, all scores on one named Score and all etches on one named Etch. Change the units to inches and scale it to the desired size.
Optimize your drawing: If all shapes are joined, the machine will cut an entire shape before going on to the next. Similarly, shapes can be laid out adjacent to each other so that they share a single common side. This saves time and space. Do not, however, lay out shapes with two lines in the same place. This will cause extra burning. Etching should be placed in as compact an area as possible.
For Rhino files:
- Use the Purge command to get rid of unwanted blocks and unused layers
- A template file for Rhino with the proper layers, colors and line weights can be found here. Copy and paste your drawing to the appropriate layers
- Draw a rectangle that is the size of the laser bed (Trotec, 23”x39”; Epilog, 16”x28”). Make the line purple and put it on a new layer. It is a good idea to draw a second rectangle the size of your material. Place your work within this rectangle.
- Set the Cut layer to red, Score layer to blue and Etch layer to black
- Etched objects should have the line weight specified, all other lines should default to hairline
- To insert a bitmap for etching, use the PictureFrame command. Illustrator is better for submitting etches.
For Illustrator files:
- Ensure that you are in RGB colour space
- It is best to have an artboard the same size as the your material
- Orient the job to landscape
- Ensure that red lines are 255,0,0 with line weight of 0.06pt and remove all fills. Ensure that blue lines are 0,0,255 with line weight of 0.06pt and remove all fills. Ensure that black lines are 0,0,0 and at whatever line weight you wish.
- Trotec has difficulty with certain line types:
- Make sure there are no transparencies.
- Fills and dashed lines must be converted to outlines. Instructions here.
- Save as an Illustrator (.ai) file for best results or as a .pdf file for less reliable results. It is very important to downsave to Illustrator version CS. Later versions can cause problems.