I want to learn OpenScad! Anyone have any tips?

[truly_bent]

Ah. I see what's happening. The "Auto Reload" function must allow monitoring of any change in the external file and recompiling (well, re-interpreting anyway) the code as soon as it is saved back to disk.

(Edit: The OpenJsCad program doesn't render OME's screwthread file (.scad) properly. Not good news there)

(Edit: This "Auto Reload" isn't functioning i as expected. It seems to be constantly reloading/re-rendering the file. Think i'll stick to using the "Reload" button)

[truly_bent]

Albert;
Thanks for that OpenScad tutorial link. Good find.

[Roxy]

(Edit: The OpenJsCad program doesn't render OME's screwthread file (.scad) properly. Not good news there)

I just reported that bug you found. Let's see how long it takes them to get it fixed!

[Mjolinor]

I got fed up of waiting for it to draw any of the toroid files we were messing with a few weeks ago.

[truly_bent]

I found that when i used the OpenScad difference() function, that everything disappeared. F6 worked, but that takes too long. Found this discussion on GitHub related to the problem. Turns out that i had to enable "Force Goldfeather" in the Advanced options. Everything is okay now.

Just in case someone else has this problem.

(Edit: This has nothing to do with the OpenJsCad browser program)

[truly_bent]

Turns out that Chrome has a built in Javascript debugger. Anyone who has spent hours chasing down bugs knows the value of that Godsent! The OpenJsCad peeps have thoughtfully provided a "parser" site for debugging your .jscad files. Hit Ctrl+Shift+I (that's 'I' as in "eye") in Chrome and the debugger window pops open. Dump your .jscad file into the parser window and a "Debug" button appears right next to the "Reload" button. The debugger will automatically halt one step before your Javascript main() function.
Use:
- F11 to step into a function
- F10 to step over (around) a function
- F8 to run continuously again (to end or next breakpoint)

You can set breakpoints and watch variables, like any other debugger. Isn't Goggle a great company? You can probably do all the same stuff in Firefox, too. I use Firebug for any Firefox debugging, but for this OpenJsCad stuff, i'm sticking with Chrome.

P.S. Does NOT work with .scad files.

[truly_bent]

Roxy;

Did the OpenJsCad people get back to you on that bug you reported about the screwthread_v2.scad file not working in the OpenJsCad interpreter? If not, i think i may have found the "bug". From the OpenJsCad manual:

"An OpenSCAD (.scad) translator & importer is included in OpenJSCAD, following features aren't working yet:
- DXF import and manipulation (e.g. import_dxf, dxf-cross, dxf_dim functions).
- rotate_extrude() (Note: OpenJSCAD supports rotate_extrude() )
- minkowski() and hull() transformations (Note: OpenJSCAD supports hull() )
- $fa, $fs global variables.
- Modifier characters: #, !, %"

Turns out that the screwthread_v2.scad program has a hull() transformation:
...
for(i=[0:step:360-step])
hull()
for(j = [0,step])
rotate([0,0,(i+j)])
translate([D_maj/2,0,(i+j)/360*P])
screwthread_triangle(P);
...

I expect the translate() function is the culprit, but it could also be the rotate(). Have to dig a little deeper to be sure.

[Roxy]

Yes, one of the developers responded and said something similar to what you said about hull() not being fully supported in OpenScad but it is in OpenJScad. That kind of seems backwards because the code works in OpenScad, but it must have to do with the special case of the translate(). I haven't had time to take a look at it and really understand it yet.

[curious aardvark]

yet another reason to avoid openjscad than. I love the hull command. You can make just about any weird shape you want with it.

[Roxy]

I think hull() is supported. I think the issue is it doesn't have 'full' support yet. I suspect that is going to be fixed soon.