Indeed, STL only stores really basic information, while more and more is expected: curved surfaces, material, densities, heads, settings and so. Note: newer formats are slowly emerging, like the AMF, (appropriately named "Additive Manufacturing File Format"). In fact, STL files can easily be generated by homemade programs to create mathematical shapes. The STL file can even be opened with a text editor to show that it is a dumb list of triangles, that themselves rely of a set of points (known as 3D vertices). it is only an approximation of the 3D object, wit a mesh of 3D triangles, also called a wireframe. The most common file format to give to a slicer is STL, which is a primitive but powerful way to encode a 3D geometrical shape.īut. Virtual 3D designs are fed to printers through a slicer, which computes the many commands to move the printer motors and temperatures. That approximates what we think is a perfect sphere. You can bypass this section when you do not care or if you get feel lost, but it may help understand better.Ī 3D sphere! Actually it is a mesh of triangles Openscad usually not a good tool for artists. My only attempt at art was the arguable bird-o-matic generator, which create simplified bird shapes with a few geometric shapes )Īn attempt to generate bird shapes from one single design Now reciprocally, Openscad fails badly with organic shapes though: it is not the right tool to design a mascot, statue, or non-abstract art. As we said, compared to other 3D modelers, it shines when a number of iterations are required before the optimum geometry is obtained, because everything is controlled by numbers that can be tweaked extremely easily and at will (when it is programmed correctly). It is no surprise that Openscad is best suited to mechanical designs. It is thus easy to find the "optimum" geometry, weight or robustness for real life applications.ģ) a text-readable design, and easily recyclable components or behaviors when you want to make a wall thicker or a hole larger, and the whole design adapts to the new numbers automatically. In any case these fail to help learning Openscad quickly in my humble opinion.ġ) precise placement of object (as all objects have explicit numbered coordinates and sizes)Ģ) easily modifiable design, e.g. There is a nice raw cheat sheet also but it has no link to the respective functions (what a pity!). The navigation is also sometimes difficult to the point goggle is more useful. The official manual is OK but it does not really work as an introduction. It will be a breeze to use up to a productive level, especially if you do not want to invest time in a new and hellish interactive user interface! And if you are already a programmer with no industrial goal then you really should give it a try. I guess it depends on people, but I am sure there are people that are not programmers that can think alike. It may or may not suit your mind, but with time I am able to "see" the shape I describe, not as text but directly as shapes. So first, what is Openscad? Within the CAD family, it is a 3D modeler: a software that helps you to create 3D objects. There are many such tools, but this one is used extensively in the 3D printing community, not only because it is free but because is it really efficient for some kind of objects.
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