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Parametric laser-cut panels

Design Project 3 weeks Medium build

Model a wave or an object in Fusion, slice it into parallel ribs, cut them from 3 mm plywood and stack them on rods so the surface reappears in the air between them. One panel per person, under 12" × 12", assembled into a wall.

A wall of square panels, each made from dozens of parallel laser-cut plywood ribs on thin rods, their profiles rising and falling so a rippling surface runs across the whole installation.

Overview

You have seen this technique at scale: benches and reception desks made from hundreds of parallel CNC-cut ribs, each one a slightly different profile, so that together they make a surface that flows. Walk past and it ripples. Nobody drew each rib. They drew the surface and let the computer slice it. That is what parametric means here: the form is the output of a few rules and a few numbers, and the ribs are the machine’s job.

You are doing the same thing at desk scale. Model a surface in Fusion, a wave, a dune, a face in profile, a topographic patch, a sound waveform stretched into 3D. Slice it into parallel ribs at a pitch you choose. Cut the ribs from 3 mm plywood on the laser, thread them onto rods with spacers between, and the surface comes back as the envelope of all those edges, with air and shadow between them.

Each panel is one square under 12" × 12". Everyone building a panel agrees on rod positions and rib pitch so that panels sit side by side and one surface can run across many of them. Your wave continues into your neighbour’s panel, or breaks against it on purpose.

Skills needed

  • Modelling a surface in FusionA loft between splines, a sweep, or a solid object. Anything with a top surface you would want to run your hand over.
  • Slicing into parallel sectionsSplit Body with a stack of planes, one per rib, at a pitch you choose. Same tool as lamination, but the slices do not touch.
  • User parametersRib pitch, rib thickness, wave amplitude and wavelength, rod positions. Change one and the whole panel updates.
  • Designing for the laserRod holes sized for a friction fit after kerf, no rib narrower than 6 mm, cut order that keeps small parts from shifting.
  • Arranging and exportingArrange the ribs on a 600 × 300 mm sheet, project the outlines, export one DXF at 1:1.

Assessment

  • Surface. The form has intent. A wave with a reason, a shape that rewards a second look, a profile that reads from across the room.
  • Parametric model. The planes, ribs and holes all follow the parameters. Change the pitch and the ribs re-slice; change the amplitude and every rib updates. The three renders prove it.
  • Laser craft. Clean cuts, char sanded, holes a friction fit on the rods, ribs in order, nothing warped or glued crooked.
  • Assembly. Rods straight, spacers even, end ribs fixed, the whole thing rigid enough to hang.
  • Installation. Your panel meets its neighbours on purpose, and the parameter card is accurate.

Process is assessed from the model and renders, Product from the panel, Impact from how the wall works as one piece and how you helped it.

Deliverables

  • A Fusion file with the surface, the slicing planes and at least four user parameters that visibly change the ribs
  • Three renders of the same file at different parameter values
  • The finished panel, under 12" × 12", ribs numbered on the back, mounted on rods with spacers, edges cleaned
  • Your panel installed in the shared wall, with a card giving your parameter values and which neighbour it continues

Materials

  • 3 mm plywood or MDF, one 600 × 300 mm sheet per person plus test scraps
  • Two or three 3 mm steel rods or hardwood dowels, 300 mm long, per panel
  • Spacers: 3 mm plywood washers cut on the laser, or 6 mm lengths of aluminium tube
  • Wood glue or CA glue for the end ribs, 220 grit sandpaper
  • French cleat rail or standoffs for the installation

Steps

Week 1: The surface

  1. Look at parametric ribbed furniture and walls, topographic models, and the lamination post. Notice how far apart the ribs are and how much of the form survives.
  2. Choose your surface. Sketch it from the side and from the front. Decide which direction the ribs run; the profile that changes most should be the one each rib shows.
  3. Set up parameters in Fusion: panel_w, panel_h, depth, rib_t = 3 mm, pitch, rod_dia, rod_x1, rod_x2, plus whatever drives your surface: amplitude, wavelength, phase, or a scale for an inserted object.
  4. Model the surface as a solid: a loft between two or three spline profiles, a sweep, or a solid body you inserted and scaled. Give it a flat back face at the panel envelope.

Week 2: Slice it

  1. Make a rectangular pattern of construction planes across the panel at pitch spacing. Count = panel_w / pitch.
  2. Split Body with all the planes. Delete every other piece so each remaining slice is rib_t thick, or, cleaner, sketch each rib as the intersection: use Intersect with a rib_t-thick box patterned at the same pitch. Either way you get one rib per pitch, all parallel, all 3 mm.
  3. Cut the rod holes through every rib in one operation: a sketch on the back face with circles at rod_x1, rod_x2, diameter rod_dia + kerf, extruded through all bodies as a cut.
  4. Add a small number or notch to each rib so you can order them after cutting. A notch that steps 1 mm along the bottom edge per rib works and needs no reading.
  5. Push the parameters. Change pitch from 6 to 12; change amplitude. Render three versions. Fix anything that breaks, or note the working range.
  6. Create Components from Bodies, Arrange on a 600 × 300 mm envelope, project the outlines onto one sketch, export the DXF at 1:1. Check the sheet length against a ruler on the first print.

Week 3: Cut, assemble, install

  1. Test-cut one rib and one spacer on scrap. Check the rod is a snug push fit. Adjust rod_dia and re-export if it is loose.
  2. Cut the sheet. Sand the char off the faces you will see. Keep the ribs in order as they come off.
  3. Thread rib, spacer, rib, spacer onto the rods. Glue the two end ribs to the rods; leave the rest free so the panel can be adjusted or repaired.
  4. Check the surface with your hand and against the render. A rib out of order is obvious by touch.
  5. Mount on the rail in the agreed position. Print the parameter card. Photograph the wall with light coming from one side so the shadows read.

Stretch options

  • Slice the same surface in two directions and notch the ribs where they cross, so the panel becomes a self-supporting waffle.
  • Drive the surface from data: a sound clip’s waveform, a week of temperatures, an elevation profile of a hike.
  • A panel that is the negative of its neighbour, so a ridge in one becomes a valley in the next.