OpenSCAD: Sneaky handy tricks.

Offering one - Asking for 2 more LOL

Partial one as a bonus - I use function i2mm(I) = I * 25.4; in must of my scripts, handles inches to mm conversions for me.

For hexagons like a hexagonal button, use cylinder() with $fn set to 6, you could use $fn set to 8 for octagons etc., devious but works :)

The two I need help on, are,

a) How would I place hexagonal buttons in regular, offset rows/columns efficiently?

b) For making a floor have alternating color tiles (or the like) I know I could add x and y together, mod 2 if needed, then if even (or 0) pick one tile color, otherwise the other; is there a better way?

Thanks, all :)

Quote:

---

ss=4.8; // shaft sixe
sh=10; //socket height
ns=6; //number of sockets
wt=0.8; //wall thickness
shs=6; //number of sides of shaft
eg=1.3; // extra gap between sockets

difference() {
for (i = [0:ns-1]) translate([0,(eg*i*ss),0]) cylinder(d=ss+2*wt,h=sh,$fn=40);
for (i = [0:ns-1]) translate([0,eg*i*ss,wt]) cylinder(d=ss,h=sh,$fn=shs);
} // end diff

---

play with that.
It's actually a script to generate strips of bit holders I print them from tpu.

Now if you lose the difference.
You get a single line of script that can generate any size hexagons with any size gap between them.
And another 'for' loop and you can then generate vertical columns of the horizontal rows.
A little algebra will offset the different rows. There is a way to tell if a number is odd oir even and then do something with it.
I'd do the below work around :-)

Or - what i';d do because I'm lazy.
Create two unioned already offset rows inbetween a 'for' operation. so you just duplicate the two already offset rows - however many times you like.

If you use a dual diameter cylinder, you also create the top wide hexagon he has in the drawing.

Been doing tapered cylinders, for loops, rotates, translates, unions, diffs, minkowskis, all kinds of goodies, but the fact that I can brute force something doesn't always make it feel elegant or efficient.

Been coding since 70 or so, back when your home PC had 32kB of RAM if you could afford to max it out, still sometimes weirds me out that nowadays 8GB of RAM is a "minimal" amount... I try to be efficient despite that, LOL

Don't see much need for mark sense reader repair, keypunch fixing, etc., any more either LOL

see I'm not a programmer.

So I use openscad like an amazing wood working tool :-)
Totally different approach.

My scripts can be truly awful - but at the end of the day they all work. And that's all I'm after.

There are dozens of openscad commands and procedures I have never used.
Some because I simply do not understand what the 'manual' says.
Some because i just don't understand the maths behindg them.
Some because I don't think in 2d - so most 2d stuff doesn't fit in my brain.

And some simply because I have absolutely no idea 'why', let alone 'what' they are for.

take the 'children' command.
just ???????????????????????????????????
I'm sure it would be really useful - I just can't work out what or why or how it does whatever the hell it does.

But I do understand loops and basic algebra. And that's pretty much all you actuially need :-)

Some of the other stuff would probably be really useful - I just need someone who can explain it in human and not cyborg/programmer terms :-)

That person would NOT be me, sadly, I am, however, good at causing folks' eyes to glaze over and their brains to explode LOL

Just a guess but I don't think that would help you much.

Haven't used children() yet, maybe some day.

so how does the function thing work ?
Must be good for stuff other than converting inches to mm (why bother ? just use mm)

And how would you use the function you posted in an actual script ?

That's right - no clue what the function command does :-)

or to be fair - even that there was one :-)