Great Dodecahedron

14 Jan 2026
lasercut attached svg file decoration polyhedra

Motivation #

The great dodecahedron is a simple enough polyhedron model for a multicolour result. It lends itself to an engaging colour choice: triangle faces of the same colour are in the same “slice-through” plane. Notice in the picture, the purple “sliced” plane.

For the multiple colours to work, the flat pattern is first printed with a colour paper printer (2D).

Then, it is lasercut. This step needs careful alignment with the pattern! Explained below.

Lasercut process #

You will need a calibrated cutting profile for the paper you chose to print on, including a “score” mode that prepares fold lines, but does not lasercut through the full thickness.

The processes used are:

• cutting paper (red lines in attached svg)
• scoring paper, for preparing a fold line (blue lines in attached svg)

Also when scoring, the printed colour ink will be vaporised and leave a white line of the original paper. When scoring too strongly, this white line can get too thick, and unsightly.

Try it yourself #

Here a link to the svg file.

Howto #

Coolour print the unfolded pattern with coloured triangles: Pull it out of the svg.

Then put the paper in the lasercutter, and to align the colour design to the cutting design:

• push one paper edge to fully touch one side of the cutting bed: this fixes the angle
• align the scaling first
• then align position

Scaling #

You want to make sure the scaling is correct, as the colour printer may have enlarged or shrunk the design slightly. On the printed out colour design, measure with calipers between two tips of triangles. Then measure the same point-to-point distance in your vector graphics editor. If the numbers differ, you just need to scale the vector design by their ratio, until they match.

Position #

Only after you’ve assured yourself that the scales match, align the lasercutter head to the paper in the bed, using one of the tips. Double-check by going over another tip on the paper with the head, and seeing if it matches over the cutting design’s corner.

If everything aligns correctly, cut! After cutting, the scored lines should be easy to fold, and just use paper glue in the tabs.

The final result (with some of the white lines visible on the edges)