laser joint tool

Lucas_Reason

hi I recently learn about the laser joint tool from an online tutorial. however when I try to find/use it is nowhere to be found

alnis

You can find the tools here:

Laser joint FeatureScript:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/578830e4e4b0e65410f9c34e/v/75269c4a1a5ece98be1e2b6f/e/dfd5effddfd7f2ecce4b0246

Auto layout FeatureScript:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/576e01dbe4b0cc2e7f46a55d/v/731e73ac0b7b1e4334f13106/e/887d6e2324589bfd2058c3e1

Select the + Custom features button:


Then click the feature name:


Hope this helps!

Lucas_Reason

thank you so much you are a life saver

alnis

You can find the tools here:

Laser joint FeatureScript:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/578830e4e4b0e65410f9c34e/v/75269c4a1a5ece98be1e2b6f/e/dfd5effddfd7f2ecce4b0246

Auto layout FeatureScript:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/576e01dbe4b0cc2e7f46a55d/v/731e73ac0b7b1e4334f13106/e/887d6e2324589bfd2058c3e1

Select the + Custom features button:


Then click the feature name:


Hope this helps!

Lucas_Reason

thank you so much you are a life saver

jeff_brown304

This is exactly what I was looking for.  Thanks!

roderick_kimball

Does this require a professional account?  I cannot find the "add custom features" button.

alnis

@roderick_kimball custom features are available for all users. Could you make sure you are signed in to Onshape? If that still doesn't work, could you please send a screenshot of what you are seeing?

Mr_Hubbard

Hi @alnis

This is a great script thanks for making it. I would like to know more about the option within the laser joint script called allowances.

I'm having trouble getting a great fit with the boxes and I imagine this option has something to do with the amount of kerf taken out by the laser. Could you describe it in a little more detail to me?

alnis

Hi @Mr_Hubbard

I did not make this script---all credit goes to @lemon1324!

As for the allowance value: that is how much the faces are offset. So, if you had a part that was made perfectly, and the allowance is 0, then you would have no gap at all. A positive allowance adds extra space, for example for wood glue. A negative allowance allows you to make the parts intersect: this lets you have a tighter fit, especially if you're using a laser cutter that takes out material. If you set it to half of your laser's kerf width, but negative, it will make up the extra material you laser would cut away. You might need to play around with this value a bit by cutting some test parts to get the fit you want. Generally the value will be negative if you're using a laser cutter, waterjet, etc. that cuts directly along DXF lines.

Sorry for the late reply!

lemon1324

Thanks for the tag, @alnis.  So the "allowance" option is really intended to adjust specific things about the fit of a joint, not for kerf compensation - I wrote a feature for doing that that offsets all faces to accommodate kerf, here: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/57df36a88f63301089e8ac78/w/d336a806a8a6f0460f7bd440/e/157268905828b0fc910e365b

The advantage here is that the overall dimensions of your part and any holes you drilled etc are also all compensated to come out at the nominal size.

For "typical" hobby/school grade lasers I usually get good results in 6mm wood/acrylic leaving no allowance in the laser joint and compensating 0.008" kerf and 0.001" allowance in the kerf compensation feature.

alnis

Thank you so much for the info @lemon1324! So sorry I forgot about the kerf compensation feature... I know you mentioned it to me previously. Your custom features are awesome

kostiantyn_andriiuk

Looks awesome, but how to add it on iPad version?

justin_hardy

kostiantyn_andriiuk said:

Looks awesome, but how to add it on iPad version?

If you add it on the web it shows up on the ipad app.

Hirezz

Hi @lemon1324,

I want my tabs to be slightly longer than the thickness of the board so that burnt edges can be easily cleaned by sanding the tabs flush.

However, the Pin face offset feature doesn't always produce expected results, as you can see in document https://cad.onshape.com/documents/0af9f4b3cc178e59f5cb3c30/v/355b649f903f96648a0ed6b4/e/46c857de67462e6ad951460c

All five sides were joined in one operation. Some sides are correct (all tabs have correct offsert), some sides are partially correct (most tabs have offset), but some sides are missing the tab offset completely.