I would like to see measure functions, such as: * distance from point to anything * distance from line to anything * minimum and maximum distance between two CSG objects * Surface Area * CSG (top node) Volume To implement measure functions It seems like OpenSCAD needs the ability to give or get a CSG branch identifier so users can then have the ability to select those CSG objects. I am working on robot arm simulations using the animation features. To analyze the simulation I am using a large echo statement and then grabbing the console window text, pasting it in a spreadsheet, running a macro to clean up the text, and then creating charts from the data. This is tedious and I have seen a lot of discussion about a feature to “echo” to a .csv file or such, which would be great. It would be nice if this function worked like animation “dump images” and only dumped a single time cycle of data. Steve Amorosi

In my OpenSCAD scripts I use  ECHO commands like    echo ("BOM", "CROSS",...); and   echo ("BOM", "TEE",  ...); to track every time I create a CROSS or TEE. After the generation, I copy and paste the console to a file "inputdata/OpenSCAD.log". Using Linux, I do 1) grep 'ECHO: "BOM"' <inputdata/OpenSCAD.log >inputdata/BOM.csv This extracts the lines from file that relate to the ECHO statements dealing with BOM and puts them in "inputdata/BOM.csv". Any debug or information ECHO commands are eliminated in this step 2) sed -i s/'ECHO: "BOM",'//g inputdata/BOM.csv this cuts the 'ECHO:  "BOM"' text from the front of each line so that I only have to deal with the pertinent content of my ECHO statement. After that I use a utility that I created to turn the stream of ECHO statements into a Bill of Materials which I output as an HTML report and as a csv file that I can bring into a spreadsheet to do costing. This is all automated after the original cut and paste of the log file. It has been brought to my attention that if I ran the OpenSCAD generation step as a batch job, I could get the log into a file as part of the generation thus automating the entire process. I could also output the BOM into an Excel file which should allow me to add formulas and secondary sheets with pricing for costing to produce a fully costed BOM without manual intervention. As I have only 11 distinct parts, I have not attempted to add this yet but with the self-isolation caused by COVID-19, there is no telling what I will get up to over the next few days! Ron On 2020-04-07 7:58 p.m., Stephen Amorosi wrote: > I would like to see measure functions, such as: >  * distance from point to anything >  * distance from line to anything >  * minimum and maximum distance between two CSG objects >  * Surface Area >  * CSG (top node) Volume > To implement measure functions It seems like OpenSCAD needs the > ability to give or get a CSG branch identifier so users can then have > the ability to select those CSG objects. > > I am working on robot arm simulations using the animation features.  > To analyze the simulation I am using a large echo statement and then > grabbing the console window text, pasting it in a spreadsheet, running > a macro to clean up the text, and then creating charts from the data.  > This is tedious and I have seen a lot of discussion about a feature to > “echo” to a .csv file or such, which would be great. It would be nice > if this function worked like animation “dump images” and only dumped a > single time cycle of data. > > Steve Amorosi > > > _______________________________________________ > OpenSCAD mailing list > Discuss@lists.openscad.org > http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org -- Ron Wheeler Artifact Software 438-345-3369 rwheeler@artifact-software.com