From a phrase to layouts: a frame from words and three sizes with the production files

How to use it

1. Open the order, the «Prepare for the workshop» stage, the «Cutting layouts» tool, and press «From a phrase or a photo to layouts» (the button used to be called «From a phrase to layouts»). The same window opens from this button on the Tuning fork and in «My studio», the «My cutting layouts» list: choose the order first.
2. In «What to do» write the task in your own words, for example: «draw three arches of a 20x20 profile 20 cm apart, 3 mm plastic at the back, a cutting layout by the contour, a layout in curves of the profile, mark the windows and a print layout at 1440 dpi».
3. Fill in «Width», «Height» and «Depth»: they are always in sight. Add the rest in «What else is known». A picture of the frame is optional. If you added one, it appears in the frame as a thumbnail with the file name, beside it the buttons «Replace» and «Remove».
4. Press «Read the phrase». Aura fills «Options» and marks where each field came from: «from the phrase», «read by Aura» or «default». What is missing, for example the sizes, is highlighted.
5. Check and correct the parameters, tick the files you need in «Which files are needed» and press «Build the layouts». Aura draws the frame and shows the specification.
6. Press «Download ZIP» to get every file, or choose how the plastic is cut and the format and press «Add to «Cutting layouts»».

Width, height, depth and gap

• The width and the height are the outer edge of the profile of one item. For an arch the height is from the bottom to the top of the half circle.
• With several items the width is that of one item, and «Gap between the items, mm» sets the distance between neighbours. The line under the fields says what the total width will be. Tick «Width of all together with the gaps» when you know the total width: Aura shares it out between the items.
• The depth goes to the specification. Without it the depth of the profile is taken, for example 20 mm for a 20×20 profile.
• Aura reads a number without a unit as millimetres, and a size up to 20 without a unit as metres: «height 2.4» is 2400 mm.

Parameters: what Aura understands in a phrase

• Aura understands the number and the kind of items («three arches», «2 frames»), the profile («of a 20x20 profile», «profile 40×20», «tube 30 by 30»), the gap («20 cm apart», «gap 150 mm», «with a step of 0.2 m», «side by side»), the sizes («1.2 m wide», «1000x2200»), the plastic at the back with its thickness («plastic 3 mm», «polycarbonate 4 mm», «PVC», «acrylic»), the window margin and the dpi. The phrase may be written in Russian.
• When the phrase names files («make a cutting layout by the contour», «mark the windows», «print layout»), only they are ticked in «Which files are needed». Otherwise all four are.
• When the rules did not read every number, Aura finishes reading the phrase. Such fields are marked «read by Aura» and are worth checking. It is free.
• Any field can be corrected by hand. No file is made until you press «Build the layouts», and if a parameter changes after that, the frame has to be built again.

How Aura builds the frame

• An arch is a rectangle with a half circle on top across its whole width, a frame is a rectangle. The frame is closed, with a bottom bar.
• The centre line of the profile runs half the profile's width inside the outer edge, the window the whole width of the profile. An arch of 1000 × 2000 mm of a 20×20 profile gets a window of 960 × 1960 mm.
• Without crossbars every item has one window. With a picture of the frame with lines Aura traces it like «Layout in curves» with «Centre line», stretches it to the total width and the height, and the openings between the tubes in the picture become the windows. If the picture has no lines, Aura takes its outer contour.

How Aura reads the picture

• After you choose a file, the frame shows the picture itself whole, its name and the words «Picture uploaded». «Replace» opens the choice of another file, «Remove» takes the picture away and the layouts are built by the sizes. The picture looks the same in «3D from a picture» when it came from this window.
• In «How to read the picture» the default is «Auto». On a technical drawing or a sketch with lines Aura follows the lines as before: the openings between them become the windows.
• A picture with no clear lines, such as a pastel stained glass, a triptych or a soft drawing on a transparent background, has no lines of a frame. Aura then takes the outer contour of every item, lays the profile inside that contour and makes one window per item. The pattern inside stays a picture for the print, the pieces of the stained glass do not become separate windows. The specification says so in a line of its own.
• If the items stand side by side in the picture and «How many items» says more than one, Aura parts the common contour at the dips of its top edge, or equally. The gap between the items comes from the card.
• «Lines» makes Aura follow the lines only. If the lines are pale, clear «Pick the brightness threshold automatically» and move «Threshold», and for light lines on a dark background tick «Swap the object and the background». «Outline» takes only the outer edge of the object.
• If nothing is found in the picture, Aura says what to change and the button «Build without the picture» appears under the message. Everything you typed stays in the form. This window never takes pendants, neither on success nor on an error.

Which files you get

• «Plastic cut to the contour»: the outer edge of every item, the file plastic-cut. It is cut on a milling machine or a laser.
• «Profile in curves»: both edges of the profile, the line along its middle (layer AXIS) and the windows (layer WINDOW) at full size, the file profile-20x20-curves. It is a welding template: it can be printed on a plotter 1:1.
• «Windows with a margin»: all windows in their places (windows) and every window in a file of its own, grown outward by «Window margin outward, mm», 10 mm by default. The opening itself is in the same file as the layer WINDOW.
• In the ZIP every file comes as PDF (for CorelDRAW and Illustrator) and DXF (for the machine), all 1:1 in millimetres. The file names are in Latin letters so that machine software reads them.
• «Add to «Cutting layouts»» adds three layouts to the order: the plastic with the chosen way of cutting, its material and thickness, the profile and the windows with the way of cutting «Plotter». The format can be chosen: DXF, PDF or SVG.

Print layouts and dpi

• Every window gets a PDF the size of the window with its margin. The cut line runs along the edge in the separate colour CutContour, which print-and-cut plotters understand. The designer places the artwork in this file.
• The resolution from the phrase, for example 1440 dpi, is written in the file's properties and in the specification. The specification also says how many pixels the artwork of a window needs at that resolution.
• 1440 dpi is usually the printer's print mode. The artwork for a large window is prepared at a lower resolution, otherwise the file would be huge.

Specification

• On the screen and in the file specification.csv (opens in Excel): the items with their sizes, the profile with its length along the centre line in total and by pieces (legs, bottom, arc with its radius), the plastic by pieces with area and thickness, the windows with their sizes, sizes with the margin and pixels for print.
• The profile lengths are measured along the centre line of the profile: the length of the blank without the joints.

Parts and layers from a photo

• In «What we build» choose «Parts and layers from a photo», upload a photo or a picture of the item and give «Width», «Height» and «Depth». The contour of the item is stretched to the width and the height. Free, no neural network.
• The first layer is the whole silhouette of the item, it lies at the back. Every next layer is the closed areas inside the one before, nearer to the viewer: a stack like a layered plywood panel. Light is taken as nearer, and dark if you choose «Dark is nearer».
• «Layers by depth» sets the number of layers, 3 by default. «Layer thickness, mm» is optional: without it the depth is shared by the layers equally, a depth of 30 mm in three layers gives 10 mm each. The phrase «in 3 layers of 10 mm» fills both fields itself.
• Every separate closed area of a layer is a part. Parts smaller than «Do not cut parts smaller than, mm» (20 mm by default) are not cut: they are the pattern and the noise of the photo, not parts. How many were left out is written in the specification.
• The result can be seen «Flat», the layers in their colours over the photo, or as «Volume»: the layers as a stack, the «Turn» slider turns the view and «Move the layers apart» separates them to see each one.
• The ZIP holds every layer whole (layers/layer-1-10mm.pdf and .dxf), every part alone at its own size (parts/layer-2-part-1.dxf), the picture of the layers layers-preview.svg and specification.csv with the layer, the part, the size, the area and the thickness. «Add to «Cutting layouts»» adds every layer as a layout of its own with its thickness and material.
• If there are more layers than tones in the picture, the extra layers come out empty and Aura says so. Lower the number of layers or choose «Dark is nearer». For a photo on a busy background cut the item out first with «Cut out onto a transparent background».

A 3D model from the photo in the same window

• Once a photo is uploaded, the window shows «Make a 3D model from a photo». The button opens the usual «3D from a picture» of «3D parts» over the window: the photo, the name, the width, the height and the depth are already passed, the size is set by the height.
• It is paid at the price of a 3D model: the price is shown in the «3D from a picture» window before the start, and the kulons come back if no model comes. The parts, the layers and the files stay free.
• The model appears at once in «3D parts» of the order and in «My studio», section «My 3D parts», and fills in within a few minutes. The window shows the link «Open the part», and the window with the photo and the layers stays open.

Frequently asked questions

• Why does a stained glass picture give no window per piece of glass? The pieces are a pattern for the print, a window is an opening of the frame. Aura takes the outer contour and makes one window per item. If you need windows along the lines of the drawing, choose «Lines» or trace the picture in «Layout in curves».
• How does «From a phrase to layouts» differ from «Layout in curves»? «From a phrase to layouts» builds a frame from words and three sizes and makes the whole set of files with a specification at once. «Layout in curves» traces a ready picture and has more tracing settings and splitting into parts.
• How does it differ from the templates of «New drawing»? The drawing templates show a construction in views from the front, the top and the side with the sizes for assembly. «From a phrase to layouts» gives files for the machine, the plotter and the print.
• Why is the window margin outward? An insert or a print lies on the profile, so it is larger than the opening. If you need another margin, change «Window margin outward, mm».
• How do «Parts and layers from a photo» differ from «3D from a picture»? Aura makes the parts and layers itself and for free: flat parts in curves cut by a milling machine or a laser and stacked. «3D from a picture» builds a model with volume by a neural network, paid, for 3D printing.
• Is it paid? Reading the phrase, the parts, the layers and every file are free. Only «Make a 3D model from a photo» is paid, at the price of a 3D model, shown before the start.

Related guides

• Structure drawings: arch, circle, backdrop, podium
• Cutting layouts: files for a milling machine, a laser and a plotter
• Layout in curves: a contour from a picture at size for a milling machine and a laser
• 3D parts: a part made to size and an STL for the printer
• Workshop task, purchase and timing