[Request] Cookie Cutter from shape

[avxmw]

Erstmal danke für das alles, Spende ist unterwegs :)

X-Mas season coming up and I'd like to see a function to easily make a cookie cutter from a shape, either designed or imported. In a perfect world, including tracing from an image.

[henmedia]

@avxmw thank you, that is very kind of you!

Most of this is already there, just not behind one button:

• From an SVG: it comes in as a sketch body. In its properties, turn on Silhouette (it drops the inner holes) and set the fill to Stroke outside with 1 to 2 mm: that is the wall. Import the same SVG a second time with Silhouette as an area, about 2 mm high, for the base. Then pick Top edges in the edge panel and chamfer them for a sharper cutting rim. The sketch chapter has the details.
• From a shape you built in layerling: open the section view, cut through the shape and use "Section as SVG". That saves the outline at 1:1, and you import it again as above.
• From an image: layerling cannot trace images. Inkscape does it well and is free: Path > Trace Bitmap, then save as SVG and import it as above.

[avxmw]

just not behind one button

Yes, that is the "problem". Personally I'm aware and able to do all this, my wish is to enable ~6-10y old kids to do this themselves (aside from the tracing).

[avxmw]

Nothing really floating in this example.

Imho if the inner parts are lower than the outer edge the chamfering should be optional and turned off by default for these parts otherwise small gaps might apear trapping dough or making it more likely for small parts to break off.

From this

to this

(currently on the printer)
Looking closely at the "l" something seems to be wrong here as if it wanted to draw bars, but than changed it's mind. If I had designed that myself, I'd probably connected the "l" to the outer part, too.

[henmedia]

@avxmw thank you, the heart shows both points well.

• Edge on the inner walls: you are right. Inner walls that only press in do not need to cut, and the edge only leaves thin tips and grooves for the dough. They now have a flat top as soon as they are lower than the outer wall. If you want an edge on them anyway, set it under Properties on the Inner walls, as for the outer wall. Inner walls that cut through keep the edge as before. This comes with the next release.
• The l: the blue lines there are most likely the short bars that hold the inside of the l's loop to the l. The stroke is so narrow that they almost vanish in the two walls. Why the l itself gets no bar to the heart I cannot tell from the picture, and your font is one I do not have. Could you send a bug report from the editor (the Bug report link) or the .lyl file? Then I can see what happens there.

[henmedia]

@avxmw the flat top for inner walls that only press in is out now in layerling 1.122.0. If you want an edge on them anyway, set it under Properties on the Inner walls.

For the l, a bug report from the editor (the Bug report link) or the .lyl file would still help me see what happens there.

[avxmw]

Printed well, some parts just came out as a single line, but that's on me. Much more stable than the star+name yesterday, even with the l not being connected to the top.

Ausstechform-Alea.lyl.zip
(remove ".zip", just renamed, not double-zipped)

In case font is not included in that one, it is this: https://www.dafont.com/de/snowballs.font?fpp=50&psize=l&text=Alea
I splitted the text-object and removed the star-shaped parts as well as the inner thingies before merging to the heart and turning into cookie cutter.

[henmedia]

@avxmw thank you for the print and the file, that is a lovely result. Nice to see that the heart holds together well even with the free l.

The single lines come from spots where the script font is thinner than two nozzle widths, so the slicer can only lay one line there. A slightly bolder font or a larger cutter helps with that.

Thank you for testing all of this so patiently, it made the cookie cutter much better.

[raradek]

Hi all,
I like the idea to have a dedicated cookie cutter tool :) A few suggestions though:

• does it really fall into the "combine" menu? I feel the "modify" menu might be better suited as the tool basically "modifies" an item into a cookie cutter. Same as "surface texture" does.
• i see there are ways to make the cutter from a group of objects (per user guide - and thats probably why its in "combine"?) but i was unable to figure out the intended use and also dont see the actual usecase for it
• the whole thing feels more like it should be a sort of a parametrziable object rather than a tool with the shape being a parameter. But i see this would be a whole new concept - on the other hand it actually IS a new concept to the app so introducing a new UX to such tools might not be a bad idea if layerling wants to support such specific tools. Also if tools like this are kept in the main menu, they might clutter the menu soon.

Cheers

[henmedia]

@raradek thanks for looking at it so closely.

• Combine or Modify: it sits in Combine because it can take several parts at once and replaces them with something new, like Hull and Intersection next to it. You are right that for a single SVG it feels more like Modify. Either way, the command search (Ctrl+K) finds it as "cookie".
• Several objects: this is for a cutter shape you put together from parts. A child builds a gingerbread man from a few spheres and cylinders, or a star with a circle on top, selects all of it and clicks once. The cutter follows the outline of everything together where it stands on the workplane, so the parts don't need to be grouped first.
• A parametric object: partly it already is one. The result is two sketch bodies, and wall, height, rim and cutting edge stay editable under Properties. What it does not keep is the link to the shape it came from: change the shape and you make the cutter again. A tool that stays tied to its source would be a new kind of object for layerling, and that is not planned. To keep the menus tidy, Settings has a simple mode with fewer tools.

[raradek]

if i call the tool on several solids this is what i get:

They need to be grouped to produce the correct results - when grouped they are a single body so again i'd naturally place the tool in "modify" (the single body).

This all goes for several solids that intersect. If they dont then yes the tool creates several cutters in one click, but it also doesnt "combine" them in any way if im not wrong.

[henmedia]

@raradek you are right, that was a bug: parts that overlap should give one outline round all of them, and they only did once grouped. In layerling 1.119.1 they do, reload the page to get it. Your box and cylinder now get one wall round both, without grouping. Parts that do not touch still give a cutter each, in the same bundle. That is the combining part: several shapes become one cutter, which is why it stays in Combine.