Exporting Nets Possible?

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handplane
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Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2012 3:41 pm

Exporting Nets Possible?

Post by handplane » Tue Oct 16, 2012 11:33 pm

Is it possible to export the nets (unfolded 2D representation)? I only see File > 3D Export.

This would be very useful to laser cutters which can cut these shapes out and also lightly score the folds.

Mark

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robertw
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Post by robertw » Sat Oct 20, 2012 9:00 am

The intention was that nets would be printed out directly, so no there's no explicit option to export the nets. However you can install a PDF printer (such as PDFCreator), which allows you to print straight to a PDF file, after which you may be able to bring the PDF into another package.

What about sending them straight from Stella to the laser cutter? What would you need from Stella in order for that to work?

Rob.

handplane
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Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2012 3:41 pm

Post by handplane » Sun Oct 21, 2012 7:53 pm

Hi Rob,

I gave that a try. I can indeed print to a PDF and then import that into Illustrator. Then I embed it and ungroup it. It seems to get collapsed to one layer (not surprisingly). However I can select similar line weights and reassign layers fairly easily.

Not as clean as direct export to .AI but certainly workable. Thanks for the suggestion.

In terms of printing directly - my access to these laser cutters is using public computers (I don't own the machine). So that computer wouldn't have Stella on them.

I'll add net export to the wishlist. I would definitely pay another $14 upgrade fee for that feature :)

Thanks,
Mark

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