What is Ligno3D Designer?

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Ligno3D Designer, or L3DD for short, is an intuitive tool for designing faceted objects like houses, furniture, decorations, sculptures, spiral staircases, gazebos, geodesic domes, caskets, show cases, coffins, tents, regular and irregular solids, jewels and crystal models. It excels in the design of symmetrical objects and things that have few right angles. Aimed initially at the woodworker, it instantly translates objects designed in perspective 3D into accurate 2D plans of all the object’s faces. With the help of a table saw you can build objects as simple as a dodecahedron, or as complex as a free- form sculpture, from panel material like plywood, MDF or Perspex (see Physically Building Objects).

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The above dome is a ‘squashed’ hemisphere and its triangular faces are not all identical. Part of L3DD’s construction plans for this dome look like this:

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Note the face numbers, adjacent-face numbers, vertex numbers, accurate edge lengths, interfacial angles and inter-edge angles. Provided the plans are accurately reproduced in your chosen panel material, you will be amazed at how well all these faces fit together in the flesh.

L3DD does not try to compete with full-blown CAD (computer aided design) software such as AutoDesk’s AutoCAD®, nor with computer 3D vector graphics packages such as 3D Studio MAX®. It is a relatively simple and straightforward 3D program that addresses the accurate design of objects that would otherwise be very difficult to build by traditional means. Unlike most other CAD programs, L3DD is easy to learn, very fast, highly agile and fun to use. Although primarily intended for designing single objects, L3DD can also handle 3D scenes made up of multiple objects (for a good example, open the L3DD project file ‘GreekTemple.lig’).

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So, how does one go about constructing a plywood soccer ball, for example, or a giant faceted human head? L3DD opens up a whole new field of possibilities for the home handyman with nothing more than some panel material, power tools, and a good deal of patience. Boring boxy furniture can now be a thing of the past, as L3DD widens the craftsman’s horizons to exotic and exciting shapes. The limiting factors are now the power of your imagination, your skills, and the precision of your tools.

L3DD also has applications in education, industrial design, engineering, architecture, manufacturing and marketing. It can be used to advantage in the teaching of 3D geometry, topology, 3D perception, crystallography, and in the design of objects for commercial manufacture. Its 3D shapes can be exported as .STL or DXF CAD interchange files.

L3DD does not yet cater for smoothly curved objects using spline surfaces. When the cost of computer-controlled multi-axis cutting machines (or ‘3D Printing’, for that matter) comes within the grasp of the home handyman, then Ligno3D Systems has ambitious plans for supporting the would-be digital sculptor!