The Sphere House

Documentation/Media

Used Maya to model the structure and subsequently used Illustrator to lay out the final assembly cuts to submit to the Laser Printer.

How it was done / more details

After quite some trying to decide how to name, extrude and connect each ring segment of the Sphere I finally changed strategy to notched connections and came up with a naming convention to recognize each piece when they are laser cut.

The Maya MEL script I used for the initial setup lines can be found HERE and the "methodology" used HERE.

I then exported the Maya file into Rhino then into Illustrator and finally to the Laser Printer itself using 1.5mm thick clear plexy glass bought at Canal Plastics.

Initially my idea was to assemble the whole Sphere but the job was too big... It would take 12 hours to cut the entire sphere. I had to simplify the project and submitted only 1/8th of the sphere.

Figured out that joining pieces together in the real world is a lot harder than it seems. With software it is so much easier!

Here are 2 videos of the 2 Spheres Eduardo actually built:

First Sphere

Second Sphere

Interview with Eduardo Longo