Tag: openscad

Back from Maker Faire SF Bay Area 2011!

I’m exhausted! 1  What a great time!

I got to spend time with my family, see some amazing stuff, meet some great people, and see some old friends.  I also ate some junk food!  Perfect weekend all around.

I got to meet several people for the first time – including beak90, DocProfSky, DNA.  A few people mentioned they liked my OpenSCAD tutorials, which just made my day.

  1. So exhausted I didn’t get to publish this post until just now… [↩]

I’m so giddy!

I can’t wait for OpenSCAD to finish rendering this new object I’ve fashioned out of a DXF file!

Toolpath was basically:

  • Inkscape importing PNG image
  • Convert image to SVG, reduce colors, simplify lines
  • Export to DXF
  • Incorporate extruded DXF into design

It will be mine.  Oh, yes, it will be mine. 12

 

  1. The precious. [↩]
  2. That’s a red herring.  It’s clearly a Doctor Who themed object. [↩]

What’s the best toolpath for SVG to OpenSCAD?

While I have one selfish motive for wanting a reliable toolpath for going from an SVG to OpenSCAD, I’d also like to do a tutorial on this. 1 2.

  • I can export an SVG from Inkscape to a DXF.
  • I can import that same DXF into OpenSCAD.
  • I can’t render the DXF or extrude it into a solid.

I just can’t seem to make OpenSCAD make heads or tails of that DXF.  Is this a problem with the DXF files produced by Inkscape?  A little bit of Googling tells me that Inkscape v0.48 (the one I’m using) exports in DXF R13 format which includes features that are not well supported by OpenSCAD.  My attempts at finding plugins that will successfully allow Inkscape to expert to DXF R12 format have not been fruitful.

  1. 3D Models with OpenSCAD on Make uses a toolpath that isn’t available in my version of Inkscape
  2. DXF R12 exporter, didn’t work for me
  3. DXF R12 exporter, didn’t work for me either
  4. Yet another DXF R12 exporter that did not work for me
  5. Link suggesting that something called “pstoedit” might be helpful in converting SVG’s to DXF R12’s.
  6. From Photo to Inkscape to DXF to OpenSCAD to MakerBot to Costume Jewelry is an excellent tutorial on the exact toolpath I would like to get working

After MUCH fiddling around I have discovered that the only DXF exporting plugin I can get to work is the one called “Better DXF Output”, NOT to be confused with “Better Better DXF Output.”  Unfortunately, I’ve installed so many of these little plugins I no longer recall exactly which combination of them might actually be working for me.  I’ll do a little investigation and post a short tutorial on how it’s worked for me.

Edit: I’m 85% certain this is the plugin that worked for me.  http://www.bobcookdev.com/inkscape/inkscape-dxf.html

  1. Selfish as in I already have an idea for how I would use this knowledge to make something cool. [↩]
  2. What could it be?  Hint:  It’s related to something that rhymes with “Doctor Who” [↩]

With great power

Comes abuse.  I’ve come to realize that OpenSCAD can indeed be abused.  It’s so easy to import several objects and manipulate them that I wish I had gotten around to learning OpenSCAD a long time ago.  You can do some pretty amazing (and scary) things with just the import and translate functions. 1

And, in retrospect, I probably could have whipped up that Voltron remix in a fraction of the time if I had OpenSCAD at my disposal…

Oh well, that just means the next time I’ll be that much better.

  1. I also scaled Disney’s head to an appropriate size, but it wasn’t compiled by OpenSCAD [↩]

OpenSCAD tutorial outline

They’ll continue, but I think the next one will come out on Friday.  So far I’ve covered the interface of OpenSCAD, 2D forms, and 3D forms.

My goal is to show people how to use OpenSCAD in a way that is intuitive and builds quickly on what was taught earlier, with a secondary goal of getting the reader to be able to make something useful as quickly as possible.  Here’s the rough outline/idea of where I’m going:

  1. OpenSCAD interface
  2. 2D forms
  3. 3D forms
  4. Union/difference/intersection
  5. Rotate/mirror/translate/scale
  6. Variables/module
  7. Linear and rotational extrusion
  8. Using other programs to make using OpenSCAD easier (Sketchup, Inkscape, Notepad++)
  9. Include/libraries
  10. Conditional and Iterator Functions

I know I’m leaving a lot out of that outline.  What would you like to see?

OpenSCAD tutorial, take II

So, I’ve been working on some OpenSCAD tutorials over at the MakerBot blog.

What did you think of them?  Are they too high-falutin’ or too basic?  Are they too serious?  What would you like to learn next?  I’m probably going to cover 3D forms next.  Do you want to see more tutorials?  What other things would you like to learn besides OpenSCAD?  (That will give me a good excuse to learn it too!)

Do you want to learn OpenSCAD with me?

I’m really just learning OpenSCAD right now.  I can make some basic shapes, put things together, and whatnot.  I was thinking about putting together some super super basic tutorials that would take a user from knowing nothing about OpenSCAD to knowing as little about OpenSCAD as I do.1  Is this something you’d be interested in?

Please leave a comment and let me know.  What would you like to know about it?  What would you like to learn?

  1. Perhaps even a little less! [↩]

ReplicatorG v0023 error

“This should never happen, deltaX in addValueSegmentToPixelTable in euclidean is 0.”

And, really, this is just one of MANY such errors.

Also, Marty was kind enough to slice it up in Zaggo’s Pleasant 3D software.  He took a look at the OpenSCAD code and didn’t see anything nasty in there.

I dunno.  Do you?