I would say my first try on making this project it was pretty successful! The laser cut the pieces exactly how I wanted and some of the tabs looked much better than what I was expecting. The Solitare cards cut perfectly, The letters in each of the tabs are pretty readable and some of the really small parts cut very well. However I also had a few issues.
There was a lot of engraving and it the laser didn’t do any of them and the print took over 40 minutes to cut. The lab had a little paper with how some engravings will look depending on the settings you put. I followed it and it basically kid of ruined some of the parts. So if you see that in the lab I wouldn’t follow it its not very accurate at all. Also some of the parts were extremely small and got basically burnt. Even some of the buttons on the paint went missing because when they got cut they fell inside of the laser. After the 40 minutes were done my reservation was almost over and someone needed to use the laser as well so I had to leave it like this. I know that for my next try I will do better engravings and probably have a better look.
For my question:
Do you think I should leave it like this or do the engravings?
I think that you should try to do the engravings and see how the project looks. The detail could either improve your project or make it seem too busy and it is hard to determine without seeing it. Opinion: I think using wood as your main material is really cool because it kinda captures the old vibes of the computer better than other more modern-looking materials like acrylic.
I appreciate how you overlapped the different windows to show depth in something otherwise thought of as 2d. As for your question I would say you could add the engravings for the clouds on the desktop but not much else just because the desktop was the only thing I didn’t immediately recognize.
I love this interesting concept of re-creating something so familiar. I agree that the raster engraving would add another aspect to this design. Adding the grass and clouds on the desktop would be the most powerful raster to add in my opinion.
My opinion is you should do the engravings, as I believe it will add even more depth to your piece. Also, I appreciate how you were able to prop up the cantilever layers.