OpenSCAD: International Ruler of Mystery

[henryhbk]

@MikeH

I believe (but have not confirmed) that the Onshape Featurescript takes into account the material thickness when it generates the tabs and slots. You would have to modify the original Onshape CAD file if your material thickness changes, but that should be as simple as changing the value for the thickness in the CAD file.

The aspect of the Onshape Featurescript (FS) that I find useful is that create the skeleton of the box (say) with overlapping sheets of material

What’s been your CAM workflow from OnShape to laser compatible file? I haven’t found a great way to get complex 3D shapes out (exporting sketches is easy).

[MikeH]

@henryhbk

What’s been your CAM workflow from OnShape to laser compatible file? I haven’t found a great way to get complex 3D shapes out (exporting sketches is easy).

I don’t have a laser yet, so haven’t developed a workflow yet. That said, in Onshape you can right click on the face of a part in a Part Studio and Export to DXF from the resulting drop down list, so that’s I expect to use that workflow in my cutting and/or engraving. I expect to do a lot of these and that’s one reason why DXF import into GFUI is important to me as is the capability of importing multiple DXFs into one GF cut or engrave file. I know that the DXF(s) can be collected into an AI, Corel, Inkscape, or Affinity Designer file and exported as SVGs from there, but that adds unnecessary steps to my mind and means that both DXF and SVG files need to be archived for the same GF project unless they are just one-offs.

@dan - please move DXF imports up on the hopper priority list

[markevans36301]

@MikeH

@dan - please move DXF imports up on the hopper priority list

YES, at this point it would be the single best thing your code crew could do for us. I’ve been asking and as a pru holder I know it would be a big time saver for anyone using any type of cad.

[henryhbk]

@MikeH

That said, in Onshape you can right click on the face of a part in a Part Studio and Export to DXF from the resulting drop down list, so that’s I expect to use that workflow in my cutting and/or engraving

Yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing (and then pumping through AI to convert DXF to SVG). I didn’t know if there was something better (via the app store) like Fusion has which makes a more coherent laser file export. My 3D printing workflow is so mature at this point via OnShape I haven’t dove into laser output yet.

[dan_berry]

I’m just going to throw this out there, because I found it to be a somewhat interesting product…

I could have done some design work based on mechanical drawings in Fusion 360, but frankly sometimes F360 is just such a resource hog I hate it.

If you have Windows 10, there’s an app called Wedge which is a 2.5 CAD package. It’s actually not a bad lightweight parametric CAD, and it even does saves as either SVG or DXF (and imports DXF too). It’s free and might be worth a look for some people, anyways.

[MikeH]

@henryhbk

I didn’t know if there was something better (via the app store) like Fusion has which makes a more coherent laser file export.

There is this 3rd party app for nesting which might be useful, but you’d probably still need to do the DXF=>SVG conversion.

App Store - Onshape

This one lets you create separate slices from a solid part, probably something like that globe made out of discrete slices of corrugated cardboard in one of the GF intro video from 2015.

App Store - Onshape

and it’s free.

[gernreich]

Thanks!

[gernreich]

I tried the original code in openscad and the svg output is only 5 inches long. Any ideas? defaulting to mm instead of inches maybe?

[dan_berry]

If you run the code, unedited, it should be a 6-inch 152 mm ruler.
Are you trying to produce one of a specific length?

• Or are you saying that the physical size showing in GFUI is depicting a 6-inch ruler in 5-inches of space? (ie.- a scaling issue)

[gernreich]

The original unedited one ( w/bling ) Sorry I was talking about the 17 inch earlier. But the original 6-inch ruler shows up in the GFUI as a little over 1.5 inches in length

[gernreich]

Around 3.8 appears to be the ratio

[dan_berry]

Well to make a 17" ruler with my original code, all you need to do is change “W” this code:

// RULER DIMENSIONS TO CREATE
// I recommend NO LESS than 3/4-inch high for 6-inch wide rulers
// and NO MORE than 1+1/4-inch high for 12-inch and longer rulers.
W=17; H=1+1/4;
RulerWidth = in2mm(W); RulerHeight = in2mm(H);

What version of OpenSCAD are you using?

[gernreich]

version 2015.03-3

[dan_berry]

Yeah, that’s too old of a version. There was some bugfixes relating to generation output.
I’m using a 2017.01.20 version.

Try this Mac X development version:
http://files.openscad.org/snapshots/OpenSCAD-2017.08.03.dmg

…or this Windows 64-bit version:
http://files.openscad.org/snapshots/OpenSCAD-2017.01.20-x86-64-Installer.exe

[gernreich]

yup opps, I already got the latest snapshot Testing now

[gernreich]

You called it! Exports perfectly now Thanks!

[amg5842]

Has anyone made an engineering scale? I’m being lazy so if anyone has a file and is willing to share it, it would be greatly appreciated!!! I want to use it for school but I don’t want to buy one.

[jamesdhatch]

@amg5842

Has anyone made an engineering scale?

I posted this in your other post requesting a file.

Printable Rulers

They do have an engineering scale you can download and print to acrylic or other material of choice.

[rbtdanforth]

I have these from a while back.by setting your snap to strong and the specific numbers you need it is quick and easy.

[ForgeAhead]

So nice Dan! I purchased wooden rulers and wonder about your settings. “My” rulers look like they are the same thickness. Any advice is appreciated. ~GF Newbie