Thingiverse
OpenSCADvent day 1 - extremely useful functions by spacebuck
by Thingiverse
Last crawled date: 4 years, 11 months ago
For day 1 of OpenSCADvent, I'm sharing with you handyfunctions.scad. Most of the time, when using translate() and rotate() in OpenSCAD, I'm only translating or rotating over a single axis. So I created these shorthand functions that leave the code shorter, cleaner, and more readable (in my opinion). They really, really help me write OpenSCAD code without disrupting my own train of thought, and I hope they help you too.
To use the handy functions:
Put this file in the /libraries/ subfolder of the OpenSCAD documents folder
Put use or include at the top of your OpenSCAD design
To translate along x, y, or z by n units: use dx(n), dy(n), dz(n)
To rotate around the x-axis, y-axis, or z-axis by n degrees: use rx(n), ry(n), rz(n)
To scale an object by a factor of n in x, y, or z: use sx(n), sy(n), sz(n)
To mirror a design via the x-axis, y-axis, or z-axis: use mx(), my(), mz()
To skew the x-axis along y-axis or z-axis by a ratio n: use skewxy(n), skewxz(n)
To skew the y-axis along x-axis or z-axis by a ratio n: use skewyx(n), skewyz(n)
To skew the z-axis along x-axis or y-axis by a ratio n: use skewzx(n), skewzy(n)
To fill the positive XY plane: use xy()
To fill the positive XZ plane: use xz()
To fill the positive YZ plane: use yz()
I've included some simple examples in handyfunctions_examples.scad. More elaborate examples can be found in my other things on Thingiverse, or just wait for the coming OpenSCADvent designs, which will be using this library.
To use the handy functions:
Put this file in the /libraries/ subfolder of the OpenSCAD documents folder
Put use
To translate along x, y, or z by n units: use dx(n), dy(n), dz(n)
To rotate around the x-axis, y-axis, or z-axis by n degrees: use rx(n), ry(n), rz(n)
To scale an object by a factor of n in x, y, or z: use sx(n), sy(n), sz(n)
To mirror a design via the x-axis, y-axis, or z-axis: use mx(), my(), mz()
To skew the x-axis along y-axis or z-axis by a ratio n: use skewxy(n), skewxz(n)
To skew the y-axis along x-axis or z-axis by a ratio n: use skewyx(n), skewyz(n)
To skew the z-axis along x-axis or y-axis by a ratio n: use skewzx(n), skewzy(n)
To fill the positive XY plane: use xy()
To fill the positive XZ plane: use xz()
To fill the positive YZ plane: use yz()
I've included some simple examples in handyfunctions_examples.scad. More elaborate examples can be found in my other things on Thingiverse, or just wait for the coming OpenSCADvent designs, which will be using this library.