Thijs Roumen, Yannis Kommana, Ingo Apel, Conrad Lempert, Markus Brand, Erik Brendel, Laurenz Seidel, Lukas Rambold, Carl Goedecken, Pascal Crenzin, Ben Hurdelhey, Muhammad Abdullah, and Patrick Baudisch

Assembler³  is a software tool that allows users to perform 3D parametric manipulations on 2D laser cutting plans. Assembler³ achieves this by semi-automatically converting 2D laser cutting plans to 3D, where users modify their models using available 3D tools (kyub), before converting them back to 2D. This workflow is 10x faster than using the traditional approach of editing 2D cutting plans directly. Assembler³ converts models to 3D in 5 steps: (1) plate detection, (2) joint detection, (3) material thickness detection, (4) joint matching based on hashed joint "signatures", and (5) interactive reconstruction. Once reconstructed, we expect users to store and share their models in 3D, which can simplify collaboration and thereby empower the laser cutting community to create models of higher complexity.

An overview of the assembler³ algorithm: here at the example of one of the plates of the VR headset. 1. plate detection determines what are plates and what is scrap using the nesting order of paths and assigning plate vs scrap in alternating order. 2. Joint detection identifies joint candidates by detecting patterns of left/right turns in the paths. 3. Material thickness detection has every joint candidate vote for a material thickness, the dimension most commonly voted for by the joints determines the material thickness. 4. Joint matching and, for fast retrieval, storage in a hash. 5. Interactive reconstruction in a 3D environment (kyub) see the video for a preview of that.

3D reconstructed models found online and reconstructed using assembler³