Making 3D Art with 2D Plywood

If you have a CNC router or laser cutter - this video is for you. I show you how I cut up 14 sheets of birch plywood from Craft Closet and created the largest piece of artwork that I’ve made in my life! I used SolidWorks to create the three dimensional design and then exported cross sections as DXF files to Inkscape. From there my Glowforge cut out the shapes for me and I put them together like LEGO! Hopefully this might inspire you to make some art like this just like I was inspired from Bobby Duke Arts to make this!
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This project wouldn’t have been possible without my Glowforge laser cutter and I highly recommend it! If you are interested then click the link below to get some savings and your purchase will also help support me: Glowforge Laser Cutter - glowforge.us/r/DOXUSKMY
Music:
►‌ Always on My Mind (Instrumental Version) - Paper Twins
►‌ Slipping - AGST
►‌ Sick Days - Dylan Sitts
►‌ Reality - AGST
►‌ Micro - Ash Sculptures
0:00 - Introducing My Awesome Art!
0:12 - Inspiration For the Project
0:52 - The Birch Plywood I’m Using
1:49 - The Design
2:30 - Manufacturing Process
3:16 - Design Secret #1
4:32 - Design Secret #2
4:48 - Design Secret #3
5:10 - Design Secret #4
6:23 - Wall Art… Assemble!

[@mounirbousli4323]

niccceee

[@artefactoshechoamano3723]

Hello. Please I would like to know what kind of material you use. I think plywood or laminate is too heavy to hang on a wall. Thank you.

[@vincentdejong1818]

Hi Brian, I am currently looking to do a project that is pretty similar to your example here. I had a few technical questions that I hope you could help me with: 1. how did you go about slicing the object (simply pattern and delete parts? or is there a solidworks plugin for that?) 2. how did you export your parts to dxf (manually 1 by 1 or is there a way to export them all in one go?) I'd appreciate any feedback, I've been stuck trying to figure this out for weeks now. Cheers, V

[@makolofavour8053]

This is great work, i'm really impressed. What I would like to know is how you mounted it on the wall? Can you share that?

[@engineeredrelics]

It's mounted with a sort of french cleat design. The back of the slats have an angled cut in them which can hook onto some angled wood that I screwed into the wall. It works to hang, but because the art is so hollow, you can see the mounting strip in the back - I'd love to fix that and find another way to hide that mount.

[@ytaelshamy5090]

how do you lay every piece side by side to decrease the area of wood required as much as possible? when I do a solidworks design, I struggle laying every piece manually in the drawing before saving as dxf file. and it takes too much time. Is there any add-in to solidworks or even another software that can do that automatically (automatic arrange) ?

[@engineeredrelics]

That is a great question and I don’t have an amazing answer because I also brute force the part packing myself. If I’m laser cutting I usually do the packing in Inkscape because I just find it easier to copy and move things to prepare for exporting, but it could be done in SolidWorks too. Now that you ask though, I wonder if there is an extension that can be downloaded for Inkscape which could do the packing, there is a lot more user made programs for it.

[@xxx350z722]

Awesome work and well done .. can u share the file with us ?

[@ms_kaur3232]

Heya. Which software did you used to create that 3D modelling?

[@engineeredrelics]

I use SolidWorks to do my 3D modeling, I use it in my work as a mechanical engineer and I love pushing it to make art! It does have upfront costs to acquire though, so in terms of functionality Fusion360 could design everything I’ve made on my channel, and it’s free! But there are other options out there as well.

[@joseperes777]

Design is easy...but how did you exported all cross sections to DXF file and have it all nicely organized on sheets with numbers?....when I export to dxf file it exports all pieces together...in the view I have in the screen....I tried to use Slicer Fusion360..it nicely organizes all together but it doesn't allow me to eliminate section I want to eliminate....I want to do it all in SOLIDWORKS but can't find the option for exporting all cross sections into nicely organized dxf file

[@engineeredrelics]

I want to find a solution for that as well, an automated one would be incredible. But for this I brute forced it by exporting them one at a time... It took a good amount of time to organize and number them like that. Let me know if you find a SolidWorks solution!

[@7badtothebone]

Hey Brian! I love all your content! I am very impressed with your work! I love it man keep it up! It’s been a while since we were working together!

[@engineeredrelics]

Oh thank you so much! I want to get back to making more content, I do miss it... Wicked Stingray by the way :)

[@7badtothebone]

@@engineeredrelics Thank you very much! I hope you’ve been doing well, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you! Do you still hang out with any of the Velo guys anymore? Cheers man!

[@joselhytday1924]

Dear Brian; I love your design! I would like to make 2 of these side to side for a large blank wall I have. I personally love the spaces between each plank, because I want to incorporate pictures in it. Even though I have made and worked with layered laser cut art pieces in my glowforge I have never worked with 3d parametric software or files. Is it possible to purchase the file from you? You have inspired me to work on it and I hope we can work something out. Thank you so much.

[@engineeredrelics]

I'm glad you like the design! I don't have the files packaged up nicely with instructions and such, but I have all of the SVG cut files for my glowforge which I could pretty easily provide. My email is in the about section of my channel, if you are still interested send me an email there and we can figure out a handoff.

[@KarelKubela]

Nice job. But I think the spacing is too wide. It would be a little bit nicer, when the spacing between the pieces is the same as the thicknes of the plywood. And another thing I do not like are the black edges. it would be better to sand the edges to show the wood. But it is only my personal opinion! 👍🏻

[@engineeredrelics]

I very much agree on your spacing comment, the waves just aren’t as visible on mine until you get to shallow viewing angles. Thank you for your feedback :) There is always room for version 2!

[@vmro816]

NAHH.. estan bien separadas entre cada una, muy delgadas las partes y 5 soportes??? el chiste es que no se veann., eso parece repiz¡'sa fea