How do you all design screen panels to be cut out for candle holders and such? Kind of like the free “Moon Lantern” from the week of making giveaway. Just curious. I haven’t tried to design my own yet
There are many ways to do this. I have been reading up on Islamic art patterns and get inspired by them. I got a picture of a pattern I like and I hand traced the outlines and figured out the geometry of the repeating pattern. In the post I link to I have the raw vector lines that I used to make the patterns so you can download that and see how I did it.
Do a search on tessellations and you will get all kinds of interesting patterns to work with.
Another possibility is to do a script, like Processing or Javascript.
I used this site and code to make some interesting stuff. https://maker.js.org/
Here are some links to an older post that references the Processing. I installed the Processing platform and got some great images.
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I will look into those for sure. Thanks!
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Another another option is to realize that this is a wheel, and reinventing it might not be something you care to invest in. There are literally thousands of free designs that fit the bill.
851 are here:
https://3axis.co/laser-cut/patterns/
68 pages of patterns here:
https://filecnc.com/search?controller=search&orderby=position&orderway=desc&search_query=pattern
more:
https://www.freepatternsarea.com/?s=screen
more:
https://dxf1.com/index.php/category/77-cut-panels
A virtually unlimited supply on google images:
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Awesome, thank you!
Honestly I kind of just wasn’t sure what to search for haha
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I draw the initial box or shape of the opening size then I start drawing the image I want to to have cut out over it-making sure to overlap the original square around the edges. Once I have the design I select all the pieces that make it up and make a compound path out of it, then I just use pathfinder and cut it out of the original shape. Here is a test panel I made for a new project. I’m using illustrator btw.
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Nice! I’m going to play with some stuff later I think, sucks working full time and not being able to spend more time with my forge haha
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Trust me, I know. I sit at work all day thinking about going home and creating! 
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Me too, then crap happens at home and I get like an hour if I’m lucky. Family needs to leave me alone, trying to get a side hustle going here lol
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Important Point- candles burn as easily as wood, but candles that use LEDs can have electronics to act like fire, except cannot burn down wood holders (and you can design tops for them!)
I built a couple of basic patterns for such holders and then I can apply any design to them and have a different item.
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Oh I was going to get the small battery powered candles, no way I’m putting a real flame in something!
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I would love to flip through your portfolio. Honestly, everything you upload here has been outstanding!
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Thanks for these resources. This is very helpful to people like myself that can’t reinvent the wheel.
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Ooh, I love the curlies!
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