Living Hinge
Free, with no limitations
A living hinge lets rigid sheet material such as plywood, MDF or acrylic bend along one direction. The cuts are a staggered lattice of short slits. Living Hinge draws that lattice for you as a sketch on the XY plane, ready to laser cut.
Coming soon to the Autodesk App Store
Features
- Set the panel size, slit direction, slit length, bridge and line spacing
- Vertical slits let the panel roll left to right
- Optional panel border
- Optional DXF export, never overwriting an existing file
- Works offline, with no account
How to use it
- Open Utilities, then Scripts and Add-Ins, and run Living Hinge.
- Set the panel size and the slit settings.
- Click OK. A Living Hinge sketch is added on the XY plane.
- Leave Save DXF after drawing ticked to also save a DXF for your laser software.
Tips
- Test your settings on scrap first. The right slit length and bridge depend on your material and its thickness.
- The bridge is the uncut link between slits in a line. It sets how strong the hinge is.
Requirements
Autodesk Fusion on Windows.