On 06. okt. 2016 21:46, Torsten Paul wrote:

I think the problem is that it is hard to tell in advance what is a
simple/normal case that should "just work" and when it does not, you
wonder why...

I just implemented OpenSCAD export as an alternative in my profile
generator, here is the generated OpenSCAD source to extrude the Ford
logo, as an illustration of the technique:

http://arnholm.org/tmp/profiles/Ford_neg.scad

Carsten Arnholm

It looks very interesting, but I too find it of no use.  Is there a
drawing package that is has been modeled on (that I obviously have never
used before) that might explain how to use it.  The programmer seem
assume a lot of prior knowledge, and experience. It just appears to
randomly add points and lines once the initial line is drawn. Is it just
a proof of principle, not a finished product?  Nice .js work all the same.

Rob

On 07/10/16 04:30, jon wrote:

Rob,

You need Inkscape and the openSCAD extension:

• https://inkscape.org/en/download/addons/
• http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1065500

As Marius said earlier there is also an SVG import in latest inkscape -
turn it on in experimental in Preferences/Features/

On 10/8/2016 2:02 PM, Rob Ward wrote:

Referring to the polygon builder at http://daid.eu/~daid/3d/

I figured out how to use it, it is quite easy.

To draw a polygon, press the green plus button and click in the drawing
area repeatedly to lay out the polygon points.

To remove a point, press the red minus button and click one of the
points to make it go away.

To change the position of a point, press the mouse cursor button, then
point to one of the points drawn, press and hold left mouse button
(point turns red) and drag the point to the new location.

Making rounded corners. Let us assume you have a polygon with 4 corners.
To make one of them 'round', click it in the drawing (it turns red) then
press the button showing a curve with 3 point symbols (under the green
plus). Two "ghost points" will appear near the selected drawing point
and the curve will be distorted near that point. To change the shape of
the distortion, drag these "ghost points" (presumably the Bezier
handles) to new locations. To get a nice smooth shape the Bezier points
and the original point should be roughly on a straight tangent line
relative to the curve.

Screenshot 1 (polygon builder)
https://gyazo.com/ea2f78ac043499612fde635e5c4197ee

Obviously, the idea is that the "OpenSCAD code" window contains code for
an extended polygon producing the same shape, you just cut/paste the
generated code into OpenSCAD

Screenshot 2 (OpenSCAD)
https://gyazo.com/00ae59cd254035568d6a1283ddca7830

Carsten Arnholm

On 08. okt. 2016 03:02, Rob Ward wrote:

Thank you, Carsten.  The polygon builder is quite useful, if only as a
starting point for a more parametric approach.

Jon

On 10/8/2016 4:41 AM, Carsten Arnholm wrote:

Carsten: Nice work documenting this.

I had no idea about the nice curving options.

You seem to know quite a bit about this tool:

Do you know what the button on the right does (brings up the url and file
option)? And how to use it?

How do you add points that you want to be in between two other points
instead of adding the point at the end?

--
Extra Ham Operator: K7AZJ
Registered Linux User: 275424
Raspberry Pi and Openscad developer

The most exciting phrase to hear in science - the one that heralds new
discoveries - is not "Eureka!" but "That's funny...".- Isaac. Asimov

On Sat, Oct 8, 2016 at 1:41 AM, Carsten Arnholm arnholm@arnholm.org wrote:

On 08. okt. 2016 15:49, Jerry Davis wrote:

Hi Jerry,

Well, I had not seen the tool before, I am just able to guess :-) Now I
guessed what the file option is all about: You are supposed to pick up
an image file to use as background for manual sketching.

At first I tried an OpenSCAD source file ... I thought perhaps it could
read a polygon as well as write one, but then it complained that the
file I gave it wasn't an image. That gave me a hint it wanted an image :-)

So I tried the Ford logo image file (.png) and it worked
https://gyazo.com/094c5662fa9aea39373a0b9b811d9c10

The window that says "Paths" allows you to define several individual
paths (a.k.a. polygons) in the same sketch, click [New] to start a new
path. To do the Ford logo example manually it means 4 different
polygons/paths.

• outer contour of the letter "F"
• inner contour of the small loop in the letter "F"
• outer contour of the letters "ord"
• inner contour of the letter "d"

So in theory you could sketch the logo by tracing the image manually,
but it gets complicated/tedious and inaccurate. It is much better to use
an automatic tool when possible. For simpler stuff I guess it could
work, or if the image is not directly suitable for automatic analysis
(some are not).

Apparently, there is no way to use the GUI to add points in between to
other points, or at least I could not figure it out. You can always
insert the extra point by typing in the correct place in the tiny
"OpenSCAD code" window, then the curve will be updated correctly.
However, this to some degree defeats the purpose of the tool, because
you are then back to editing the source directly, just in a much smaller
window than usual....

I also tried pasting polygon code from OpenSCAD into the code window,
but that failed when the coordinates were outside the window range, the
polygon builder does not fit the coordinates automatically, and it does
not understand scale() or other transformations. It just not usable for
too large or too small coordinates. It also turns out that the
definition of "too small" and "too large" is unclear, I opened the
polygon builder in Firefox on both Windows7 and Kubuntu 15.10, for some
reason the x-range is [-72,72] on Kubuntu and [-88,88] on Win7, so when
I copied a polygon from polygon builder from Win7 to Kubuntu, parts of
the polygon were hidden under the toolbox and I could not reach it.

It is a nice idea, but with clear limitations.

Carsten Arnholm

yes, it is a nice idea. And I can live with some of the limitations.
I have been able to do some stuff with that tool, that eluded me until now.

I can now put in a rough idea of what I want to build, "smooth" it, and
achieve a reasonable result.

--
Extra Ham Operator: K7AZJ
Registered Linux User: 275424
Raspberry Pi and Openscad developer

The most exciting phrase to hear in science - the one that heralds new
discoveries - is not "Eureka!" but "That's funny...".- Isaac. Asimov

On Sat, Oct 8, 2016 at 8:36 AM, Carsten Arnholm arnholm@arnholm.org wrote:

On 10/08/2016 03:02 AM, Rob Ward wrote:

No idea, from what I see looking at the github
project, it's a simple but useful tool created on
a weekend 5 years ago. It's certainly not a finished
product, I don't even think it makes sense to push
it that way.

Would it be useful to deploy in a bit more visible
location and add the nice docs Carsten wrote in the
previous messages?
I guess we could ask Daid to clarify the license.

ciao,
Torsten.

cacb wrote

There is a resize tool on the bottom right of the text box. It's a big
clunky, you need to drag slowly.
You can also drag the toolbox elsewhere if you need to.

Admin - PM me if you need anything, or if I've done something stupid...

Unless specifically shown otherwise above, my contribution is in the Public Domain; to the extent possible under law, I have waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to this work. Obviously inclusion of works of previous authors is not included in the above.

The TPP is no simple “trade agreement.”  Fight it! http://www.ourfairdeal.org/  time is running out!

View this message in context: http://forum.openscad.org/Fusion360-and-OpenSCAD-tp18493p18622.html
Sent from the OpenSCAD mailing list archive at Nabble.com.