Panelization

Discretize any surface, solid, or mesh into fabrication‑ready flat panels inside BeeGraphy. Take a design from raw geometry all the way to nested, labelled cut sheets: choose a pattern, trim to the outline, size every panel, build the faces, and schedule production with material yield and cutting checks.

Main node groups

Input

Start with Shell Faces to split a solid or multi‑face shell into its individual faces. Every downstream node then panelizes face by face, so panels end exactly on the face edges.

Patterns

Panelize is the core node: it turns a surface (or boundary curves) into trimmed panels using Voronoi, UV grid, triangulation, or hexagonal patterns, driven by a target panel size. Mesh Panelize does the same for meshes (e.g. scans or imported models) by growing even regions over triangles and smoothing their borders. Feed the output of Mesh Panelize into Panelize’s Mesh Panels input (Pattern 4) to continue the workflow.

Optimize

Panel Size keeps every panel within a set minimum and maximum span: panels too big are split, panels too small are grown by pushing shared corners outward along the surface (never merged). Panel Structure checks the frame members and joints between panels, flags short members and sharp joints, and reports standard lengths. Panel Planarize moves corners so each panel becomes perfectly flat while neighbours still share corners and the result stays close to the original surface; it also measures planarity deviation.

Panels

Panel Faces produces the actual panel faces. Options include a gap between panels (they shrink so neighbours are a set distance apart) and a frame width (a border band inside each panel). Flat panels are filled directly; curved panels are cut from the surface so neighbours meet without gaps. Panel Perforation adds round holes, optionally graded by attractors. Panel Pipes previews a frame as tubes along shared edges and balls at corners. Panel Preview colours panels by panel index, flatness, size, or part type for quick visual checking.

Fabrication

Panel Schedule groups panels into part types (identical flat shapes, mirror images included) and outputs one row per panel with ID, part type, corners, area, perimeter, deviation, status, centroid, and unroll error. It also unrolls every panel flat for cutting. Sheet Report takes the nesting result and gives everything in one pass: engraving placement and text size for each part label, sheets used, yield, fewest possible sheets, cost, and a cutting check that warns about overlapping parts or parts over the sheet edge.

Example graphs

Solid to production
Shell Faces → Panelize (choose pattern and target size) → Panel Size (set min/max) → Panel Faces (add gap if needed) → Panel Schedule → nesting → Sheet Report. Add Panel Preview anywhere before the schedule to see the panels coloured by size or flatness.

Mesh model
Mesh Panelize on an imported mesh → feed its panels into Panelize with Pattern set to 4 → Panel Planarize → Panel Faces → Panel Schedule and Sheet Report.

Checker for fabrication
After Panel Faces, wire Panel Planarize to see which panels are still warped, then Panel Structure to confirm all frame members can be cut from standard lengths before generating the schedule.

Optional steps that add material or patterning (gap, frame, perforation, pipes, planarize, structure, attractors) are off by default, so a minimal graph stays simple.