Paraboloid OpenSCAD Script by Ablapo

Last crawled date: 4 years, 1 month ago

Ever wanted a elliptic paraboloid solid for OpenScad? Here it is!
What is a parabolic reflector good for?
Solar cookers, parabolic microphones, satellite dishes, spotlights reflectorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_reflector
Parabolic reflectors focus parallel rays at a focus point (e.g. sun rays).
And it can make circular rays at the focus point go parallel in one direction (spotlight).
It seems to be "similar" to the nose cone design of aircraft and model rockets, too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_cone_design
Usage :
paraboloid (y=50,f=10,rfa=0,fc=0,detail=44);
To create a paraboloid choose following parameters:
height (y); This defines the vertical height
focus length (f); This defines the distance of the focus point from the top
radius of focus area (rfa); You can have a focus circle (rfa>0) instead of a focus point (rfa=0)
center focus center (fc); Choose the center on top (fc=0) or center in focus point (fc=1)
fine structure (detail) ; defines the numbers of subdivisions - $fn