Living Hinge Generator
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Read the writeup
Parametric lattice-hinge ("living hinge") SVG generator for laser cutting. Output is
millimetre-true — 1 user unit = 1mm with a physical width/height — so it prints
and cuts at real size.
All eight patterns at 50 × 200mm. Click one to download the cut file. The pictures are
display renderings — gold is the panel that stays, cream the slits the laser removes —
with the stroke thickened and painted onto the panel. A real cut file draws a hairline on
nothing at all, which a browser shows almost invisibly against a transparency
checkerboard.
Built for LaserMadeMusic, so an instrument
cut from flat sheet can have curved surfaces; the cutting and bending are shown there.
The rest of the build files — every instrument,
generator and tool, indexed.
The operating guide — every option, the library API, and
what each pattern is for.
Repository — the code, if you want to
change a pattern or read how it works.
Download everything as a ZIP — the source, the guide, all eight examples and the coupons.
Quick start
cargo build --release # once; puts the programs in target/release/
target/release/living-hinge --list # patterns and their defaults
target/release/living-hinge -p wave -w 80 -l 300 # 80 × 300mm wave hinge
target/release/living-hinge -p chevron -w 80 -l 300 --margin 10 # with a 10mm margin
target/release/living-hinge --help # every option
Every pattern is committed cut-ready in examples/ at 50 × 200mm, so you can
cut one without running anything. Those are the files the guide's per-pattern figures
describe.
Requires Rust (rustup). No dependencies beyond the standard library.
The tools were JavaScript until 2026-11-02; the Rust port redraws every shipped file
byte for byte.
Eight patterns
| Pattern | Defaults (mm) |
|---|
straight | pitch 3, bridge 2 |
dogbone | pitch 3, bridge 3, hole 0.5 |
wave | pitch 3, bridge 2, wavelength 13, amplitude 1, step 0.5 |
chevron | pitch 3, bridge 2, wavelength 13, amplitude 1 |
torsional | pitch 3.5, bridge 2, cap 1 |
honeycomb | side 5, gap 1.2 |
auxetic | cell 6.25, gap 1.5 |
crosshatch | cell 6.25, slit 4.5 |
Before you cut
Slits must reach the panel edges, or the hinge does not flex. That constraint wins
over your other numbers: --side and --cell are fitted to the panel width, so they
are targets rather than guarantees, and the report tells you what they became.
The stock is 3mm Baltic birch plywood, and the defaults are aimed at it. The tuning
numbers are still reasoned rather than tested, though: bridge width decides whether a
hinge flexes or snaps, and the right value depends on your kerf as well as your stock. The
coupons/ directory holds a bridge sweep for exactly that purpose — six otherwise
identical 40 × 120mm coupons varying only --bridge, so you can cut one sheet and
find out.
Files
| |
|---|
living-hinge.rs | the command-line program, built as target/release/living-hinge |
src/generator.rs | the geometry library it calls |
src/jsfmt.rs | writes numbers exactly as JavaScript did, so the files stay byte-identical |
src/lib.rs · Cargo.toml · Cargo.lock | the Rust crate around them |
living-hinge-guide.md · .html | operating guide; the markdown is the source |
NOTES.md | how to reach this generator from a later session |
preview.rs | draws previews/ from the cut files: the hairline thickened onto a gold panel |
panel-convention.rs | draws the guide's panel-convention.svg from real generator output |
examples/ | one cut-ready file per pattern, all eight, at 50 × 200mm |
coupons/ | bridge-sweep test coupons and cut instructions |
index.html | this page, generated from README.md; GitHub Pages serves it |
previews/ | display renderings of every pattern — not cut files |
Released under CC0 1.0.
