Page Comparison

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Material options

	METHOD	MATERIAL	COST ($/sf)	TIME: file prep (hr)	TIME: fab (hr)	TIME: assembly (hr)	TIME: total	MATERIAL RECYCLABILITY
Image Modified	Horizontal laser-cut topo - 25 layers	1/16" chip with plywood base	$30	8	5	10	23	yes
Image Modified	Horizontal laser-cut topo - 25 layers	4ply museum	$62	8	5	10	23	yes

File preparation

1. You'll need a file with horizontal contour lines at a vertical spacing that matches the thickness of your modeling material.
   
   1. If your base file contains contours at a different resolution, use the RhinoTerrain plugin (available in the Software folder on Goliath) to make a 3D mesh from the given contours.
      
      
      
      
   2. You can either:
      1. Contour the mesh and the buildings together,
         1. Then clean up the resulting contour curves (delete building contours which are below the surface of the topography, and remove topography curves which are inside buildings).
            
            
            
            
      2. Or, use the drape command to create a NURBS surface from the topography mesh,
         1. Then use the buildings to make holes in the new NURBS surface,
         2. And use the new NURBS surface to trim away the subterranean parts of the buildings.
         3. Then contour it all together. By trimming the surfaces, you avoid having to trim the contours as in option (i).
            
            
2. Put the resulting contours on your CUT layer, then copy them up (along the positive Z axis) one level. Put the copies on your ETCH layer.
   
   
   
   
3. Lay out each layer pair (one CUT, one ETCH) on laser bed-sized (18" x 32") sheets of material. Small layers can be nested inside larger ones to save material.
   
   
    
   1. Label your sheets to keep track of stacking order. 

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