Re: text output
- bill of material
- assembly instructions
- G-Code for cutting out parts
- SVGs w/ curves as opposed to polylines
What would be the mechanics of that?
From where are you getting the extra information from a drawing
produced in the manner that openscad generates shapes? Openscad drawing
is part of the total project. Seems a bit like the tail wagging the dog
if you want to clutter up the process with what appears to be a load of
extra features. Surely it is better to have some project software, to
oversee and connect the various requirements together. Instead of being
concerned about what you can get out of openscad, be more concerned
about what you can put in. It is a plain text file, write code to
generate that from what you have, as an alternative to extract
information from openscad. You know exactly the size and position of
things in openscad when you create them, it is not as easy to find out
where they after you've created them it is difficult to measure
distances after an object is created.
On 21/09/2021 23:53, William F. Adams via Discuss wrote:
Short version, would someone please re-open:
https://github.com/openscad/openscad/issues/3400
See below for my argument on why.
Ray West asked:
re:
- bill of material >> - assembly instructions >> - G-Code for cutting out parts >> - SVGs w/ curves as opposed to polylines
What would be the mechanics of that?
As you're defining the parts/assemblies, one has all the numbers/calculations for all this available, so writing it out then is simple and direct.
From where are you getting the extra information from a drawing produced in the manner that openscad generates shapes?
As a part of the design/programming process:
https://community.carbide3d.com/t/cnc-finger-joint-box/8880/126
Openscad drawing is part of the total project.>Seems a bit like the tail wagging the dog if you >want to clutter up the process with what appears >to be a load of extra features.
Or, one is directly and naturally extending things w/ a single tool so as to simplify the process.
Surely it is better to have some project software, to oversee >and connect the various requirements together.
There are more of those than are easily counted --- I think all that effort would be better served w/in OpenSAD, and that it would be simpler and more direct if this feature were added.
Instead of being concerned about what you can get out of openscad, >be more concerned about what you can put in. It is a plain text file,>write code to generate that from what you have, as an alternative to >extract information from openscad. You know exactly the size and >position of things in openscad when you create them, it is not as >easy to find out where they after you've created them it is difficult >to measure distances after an object is created.
My solution for that sort of thing has been to write modules which return values, then to re-use those modules both for making the 3D part, and for writing out the dimensions at need.
What would be involved in re-opening:
https://github.com/openscad/openscad/issues/3400
and assigning a bounty to it? I have a side gig, and I'm willing to donate some percentage of money from it until such time as it's either enough to get someone to add this feature, or something else happens.
There are lots and lots of work-arounds and other projects addressing this sort of thing --- I've even broken down and started on one of my own:
https://community.carbide3d.com/t/previewing-g-code-using-openscad/35153
https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview
but my life would be simpler, and I believe OpenSCAD more capable, and flexible, and simpler to use and more accessible to a wider audience for more complex projects if there was simply a facility for optionally writing out one or more text files w/ user control of the extension, w/o the clutter of "ECHO: " on every line.
If security is the issue, then let's allow a limited number of letters/characters to begin lines for a given extension --- for .nc (G-Code) I only need %, (, G, M, T, X, Y, Z --- presumably folks could manage w/ a similarly safe set of characters for other purposes.
Please look at this from the viewpoint of the end-user --- there are folks who are able/willing to download one easy to install application and to run it on a single file --- complexity and support increase exponentially, and the number of folks willing to use a design file drop off precipitously when one adds the requirements of post-processing a log file --- moreover, it's a tedious replication of effort to have to code a design in parallel, such as when one is accessing the .json file from the Customizer:
http://tug.org/TUGboat/tb40-2/tb125adams-3d.pdf
and a real pain for me at least to have to code in some other tool, which is a testament to how well-suited OpenSCAD is for this kind of work --- it just needs one small modification of an existing capability (writing out to a Log file) to open up an endless array of new capabilities.
As noted, I'm willing to donate a Shapeoko 3 Standard w/ Z-Plus to a developer who is willing to take on this task, and once the issue is open on GitHub I'll start putting money into it if that's not enough.
William