Tag Archives: Open Source

100% Chance of AWESOME

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I rather enjoy writing WordPress plugins.  It started writing them out of necessity, but I’ve ended up writing several for frivolous reasons and fun.  One of my favorites is based upon the hard work of Rasmus.  Basically, it turns

“[wordpress_shortcode data=’Totally awesome=99|Merely awesome=1‘]”

into

[pdrpiechart data=”Totally awesome=99|Merely awesome=1″]

Which translates, as the title would suggest, into a 100% chance of awesome.

I dusted off this plugin (probably written about a year ago) because of the numbers associated with the MakerBot poll I recently ran.  I find it very helpful to view such data graphically.  Hopefully you will too.

Sketchup STL Importer Plugins

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As I’ve mentioned before, I do all of my 3D modeling in Sketchup.  It’s not open source, but it is free.1

Well, I’ve been monitoring the Capolight Electronics Blog lately – and it’s a good thing too.  Besides having some seriously amazing information about the thermal properties of plastic, he’s just posted about some useful importing/exporting plugins for Sketchup.  As easy as Sketchup is to use, it’s just not very good at exporting to STL.  I haven’t tried these plugins out – but I’m hopeful they will do the job.

If you try them out, please let me know how it goes!

  1. I suppose it’s really a “freemium” business model… [↩]

Google Sketchup STL Import Plugin

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I’m a big fan of Google Sketchup.  I know it’s not open source, but damn it sure is easy to use.  The other day I noticed this blog post about a new Sketchup STL Importer plugin.  Earlier I had posted about other useful Sketchup plugins, and this one will probably make my list too.  I’ve installed it, but not tried it out yet, so caveat emptor.

Help with a RepStrap alternative list

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I’m trying to put together a list of all of the RepRap/RepStrap alternatives out there. 1  Later I’ll put up the list with links to their instructions and where to get parts.  Here’s what I have so far:

  1. RepRap – Mendel, Mini-Mendel, Darwin, McWire
  2. MakerBot
  3. RepMan
  4. ShaperCube
  5. Profound Devices
  6. Tommilese

Am I leaving any out?  If so, please leave a comment.

  1. Mind, this is just a list of those open source 3d plastic FDM printers, where the plans and instructions are available.  It’s not meant to include those machines people are building on their own or converting existing 3axis CNC’s into a RepStrap. [↩]