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Parametric laser-cut panels

Design Project 3 weeks Medium build

Each student designs one panel under 12" × 12" from a parametric pattern in Fusion. Together the panels become an installation. Change a number, get a new panel.

A grid of square laser-cut plywood panels on a wall, each with a different geometric pattern that shifts gradually from one panel to the next.

Overview

A parametric design is one where the shape is the output of a set of numbers. Change the numbers and the shape changes while the rules stay the same. This project asks you to write the rules for one panel and then explore what the numbers can do.

Each panel is a square or a shape inside a 12" × 12" limit. The pattern on it, cut through or engraved, comes from a Fusion sketch driven by user parameters: hole diameter, spacing, count, rotation, a gradient from one edge to the other, a wave amplitude, a spiral pitch. Three parameters minimum, and each one has to make a difference you can see.

Then the class arranges the panels into one installation. Panels that share a rule but differ in values look like a family, so the wall reads as one piece even though nobody designed the whole thing. Plan the arrangement together early, so neighbouring panels relate to each other: one parameter sweeping across the wall, or a pattern that continues from one panel into the next.

Skills needed

  • User parameters in FusionDriving a sketch from named values and testing the extremes.
  • Rectangular and circular patternsPattern count and spacing as parameters, and patterns that reference each other.
  • Designing for the laserMinimum bridge width, kerf, cut order, and keeping the sheet from falling apart.
  • Exporting a clean DXFresource comingOne sketch, closed profiles, 1:1 scale, nothing outside the panel.

Assessment

  • Parametric model. The parameters do what their names say, the model does not break across a sensible range, and the three renders prove it.
  • Pattern. Something happens across the panel: a gradient, a rhythm, a focus. A uniform grid of identical holes is the starting point, not the finish.
  • Laser craft. Clean cuts, no burn-through, no broken bridges, edges sanded, char cleaned.
  • Installation. Your panel relates to its neighbours on purpose; the parameter card is accurate.

Process marks come from the model and renders, Product from the panel, Impact from the installation and how the class worked as a group.

Deliverables

  • A Fusion file with at least three user parameters that visibly change the pattern
  • Three renders of the same file at different parameter values
  • The cut panel, under 12" × 12", cleaned and finished
  • Your panel installed in the class arrangement, with a card giving your parameter values

Materials

  • 3 mm plywood or MDF, one 12" × 12" blank per student plus one for tests
  • 220 grit sandpaper, optional stain or paint
  • Standoffs, magnets, or a French cleat rail for the installation
  • Calipers

Steps

Week 1: Rules

  1. Look at perforated screens, mashrabiya, Islamic geometric patterns, halftone images, reaction-diffusion patterns, and other laser-cut panel projects. Sketch five pattern ideas on paper and write next to each one which numbers would control it.
  2. Pick one. In Fusion, create the user parameters first: names, units, defaults, comments.
  3. Sketch the panel outline and one repeating element, dimensioned to the parameters. Pattern it with Rectangular or Circular Pattern, using parameters for count and spacing.
  4. For a gradient, drive the element size from its position: a dimension that references the pattern index, or a second pattern with a different parameter value overlaid.

Week 2: Explore and prepare

  1. Push every parameter to its limits. Find where the model breaks and either fix the rule or note the valid range on your card.
  2. Choose three settings that look different and render them.
  3. Check bridge widths with the measure tool. Compensate for kerf if any part has to fit anything.
  4. As a class, lay out the wall on paper. Decide what sweeps across it. Set your final values.
  5. Export the DXF. Cut a 50 mm corner as a test in the real material and check for burn-through.

Week 3: Cut and install

  1. Cut the panel. Sand the char off the face. Finish if you want to.
  2. Mount on the rail or standoffs in the agreed position.
  3. Print the parameter card and put it beside your panel. Photograph the wall.

Stretch options

  • A panel whose pattern continues seamlessly into both neighbours.
  • Two layers of plywood with offset patterns and a gap, so the moiré changes as you walk past.
  • Drive the pattern from an image: brightness to hole size, using a script or a spreadsheet of values.