Cut a lamp that throws your artwork across the wall.
Upload an SVG. Shadowbox Studio designs every panel of the box, checks each joint and bridge for strength, and hands you LightBurn files nested on your laser bed, ready to cut.
Every picture below is the studio's own output, made from the example designs it ships with. Nothing is mocked up.
Step 1
See your artwork on the wall before you cut anything
Upload any SVG. Dark shapes become shadow. The studio traces the light ray by ray through walls at their real thickness, adds the LED's blur and falloff, and scores the result against your drawing.
Drag across the picture to compare your drawing with the simulated wall.
Step 2
Put the box anywhere on the design
Drag the box onto the darkest part of your art and it disappears into the shadow. The light, the four walls and the shadow are worked out again for wherever it sits. Set how wide the shadow should be on your wall, in centimetres, and the box keeps its size.
Drag the box. Every position here is a separate run of the generator.
Step 3
Four outlines, framed or open, jointed or bent
A framed box lights a clean rectangle of wall. An open box lets the walls' top edges follow your silhouette, with the LED on a stack of discs. Corners are finger-jointed, glued, or one kerf-bent strip that wraps around.
Step 4
Every piece checked before you burn any wood
The manufacturing check reads every panel: wood that floats free gets bridges, wood too thin to survive the laser is marked, and weak joints are explained with what to change. Pick a check to see where it is on the walls.
Step 5
Open the file. Press start.
The download is the finished job: parts nested on a sheet your laser takes, cut and engrave layers already assigned with starting speeds, kerf already compensated, every part labelled. There is nothing left to draw.
- LightBurn project per sheet, layers set up
- SVG sheets for any other laser software
- Card liners for bent corners, when you use them
- Simulation and settings report to keep with the job
What it handles for you
Light and shadow
- Ray-traced preview
- Through the real wall thickness, with LED blur and falloff
- Match score
- How much of your drawing the wall will show, and where it differs
- Shadow size
- Set the width on the wall; reach and brightness follow
- Brightness at the edge
- Know before you hang it whether it needs a dark room
- 3D view
- Turn the finished box and watch its shadow move
- Light position
- LED height, light hole, and the post for open boxes
Strength
- Automatic bridges
- Floating pieces tied on, at a width you choose
- Thin wood
- Anything under your minimum is marked before it chars through
- Finest detail
- The smallest wood the far edge of the shadow will need
- Weak joints
- Corners with too little solid wood, and how to fix them
- Specks
- Pieces too small to hold are removed and shown as lit spots
- Per-panel review
- Every part listed with its own issues and size
Cutting
- Nested sheets
- Parts laid out on your bed size, with cut length and job time
- LightBurn layers
- Cut and engrave layers with starting speed and passes
- Kerf compensation
- Holes and edges adjusted for your beam width
- Engraving
- The part of your art hidden by the box, engraved on its face
- Living hinges
- Kerf-bent corners with the slits fitted to the art
- Any thickness
- Joints and the simulation follow your sheet thickness
Putting it together
- Finger joints
- Walls interlock, with tabs into the front and back panels
- Labelled parts
- Each piece says which wall it is and which face points out
- Keyholes
- Cut into the back panel; it hangs on two screws
- Light liners
- Black card strips that stop light leaking through bends
- Box placement
- Drag it on your art, or mark it in the SVG with
id="box" - Your units
- Work in millimetres or inches
Pricing
Design and preview for free. Pick a paid plan when you're ready to cut.
Online payment is being set up. Choose a plan and your account is switched over by hand.