Something different to test your cutter with.

I've been looking for the dimensions used on those triangle grid panels used in the old Skylab space habitat. Today I finally found them! It's called an isogrid and I found a PDF of a long document full of lots of text and equations, none of which matters to me because what I was after is in a simple drawing on page 42 of the PDF - the dimensions of the isogrid panels used in Skylab.

Here's the files to download.

http://www.PartsByEMC.com/pub/Skylab-isogrid-panel.jpg

http://www.PartsByEMC.com/pub/Skylab-isogrid-unit.zip

3D Formats included, COB, IGS, DXF, SAT
2D Format DWG

I made one "star" unit with the arms long enough to overlap. There's a text file in the ZIP with some info and the dimensions to lay out an array of these units to join into a single object.

Lay out a large panel of these and you'll have something that's lightweight, very strong, and looks very futuristic and SciFi even though it was designed in the early 1970's. The design might even be well suited for constructing lightweight yet strong frame and gantry components for CNC machines. Cutting it with plasma, waterjet or laser will certainly make less waste than the originals that were (most likely) cut with a NC mill.

Skylab-isogrid-panel.jpg

Since the R&D from which this design came was publicly funded, the design is public domain and these 3D and 2D models are also public domain.

Attached Images

• Skylab-isogrid-panel.jpg‎ (81.2 KB)