Simulation

Laser cut chairs and tables

Laser cut chairs and tables

Andrew

A while ago I came across this cool program for designing chairs and other furniture – Sketchchair. While you could easily scale the chairs (or other furniture) to be human sized, I tested it by making some dollhouse sized items.

My first foray into the program netted me a clunky gaming rocket chair:

Laser cut 'gaming chair' model made from hardboard.
Laser cut ‘gaming chair’ model made from hardboard.

My second pass was actually a model downloaded from the website, which has a good number of community submitted designs, but adjusted to the size I wanted and material thickness I had available:

Model chair laser cut out of thin acrylic.
Model chair laser cut out of thin acrylic.

The third model I made was a sweet 80s inspired table.

Laser cut acrylic table model
Laser cut acrylic table model
Screenshot of 3D view of the table in the SketchChair program.
3D view of the table in the SketchChair program.

The software will also run a simulation to see if the chair will be stable when someone sits on it.

Screenshot of a simulation of a human sitting on the chair.
Simulation of a human sitting on the chair.