OpenSCAD Utilities

This is yet another generic OpenSCAD library to help with creating meshes/objects/surfaces in OpenSCAD. Currently this library is mainly consumed by myself for some of my work in OpenSCAD. I've put some effort to generalize some of the modules/functions for reuse by anyone. Issues and PR are accepted!

How to use

This project is broken down into a few individual files, all of which can be used independently. You can simply download the scad file(s) that you need for your project and include it via use. Below lists each file and the modules/functions it contains.

Cloners (cloners.scad)

Most of the functionality in these functions mimics the cloner functionality found in Cinema4D.

Grid Array Cloner (grid_array_cloner)

Clones children objects in a 3D grid array. When using this module, you can access the $i or $i_xyz global variable which you can use to modify each clone object (see example #3 shown below).

Parameters

Parameter name	Description	Default value
count	Number of clones per axis	[1, 1, 1]
size	Distance between each clone	[1, 1, 1]
clones	Either "iterate" or "random". Controls how children will be cloned when using multiple children	"iterate"
seed	Seed value used for random child selection (when using "random" clones mode)	123456

Examples

use <cloners.scad>
use <random.scad>

// example 1
grid_array_cloner(size = [2, 2, 2], count = [3, 3, 3], clones = "random") {
    color("Red") sphere(r = .5, center = true);
    color("Yellow") cube([1, 1, 1], center = true);
    color("Blue") cylinder(r = .5, h = 1, center = true);
}
translate([0, -2, 0]) linear_extrude(height = .1) text("example 1", size = .8);

// ...

View source for other examples

Radial Cloner (radial_cloner)

Clones children objects along a circle. When using this module, you can access the $i global variable which you can use to modify each clone object (see example #2 shown below).

Parameters

Parameter name	Description	Default value
count	Number of clones	1
r	Radius of circle to clone around	1
start	Angle of circle to begin cloning around	0
end	Angle of circle to end cloning around	360
align	Whether or not to rotate the child along the circle	true
clones	Either "iterate" or "random". Controls how children will be cloned when using multiple children	"iterate"
seed	Seed value used for random child selection (when using "random" clones mode)	123456

Examples

use <../cloners.scad>
use <../random.scad>

// example 1
radial_cloner(count = 6, r = 3, clones = "random") {
    color("Red") sphere(r = .5, center = true);
    color("Yellow") cube([1, 1, 1], center = true);
    color("Blue") cylinder(r = .5, h = 1, center = true);
}
translate([0, -2, 0]) linear_extrude(height = .1) text("example 1", size = .8);

// ...

View source for other examples

Linear Cloner (linear_cloner)

Similar to the grid array cloner except this only works in one direction. When using this module, you can access the $i global variable which you can use to modify each clone object.

Parameters

Parameter name	Description	Default value
count	Number of clones	1
size	Distance between each clone	[0, 0, 1]
clones	Either "iterate" or "random". Controls how children will be cloned when using multiple children	"iterate"
seed	Seed value used for random child selection (when using "random" clones mode)	123456

Examples

TODO

Vertex Cloner (vertex_cloner)

Clone children elements at defined coordinates in 3d space. When using this module, you can access the $i global variable which you can use to modify each clone object.

Parameters

Parameter name	Description	Default value
points	Array of coordinates in space to clone children on to	[]
clones	Either "iterate" or "random". Controls how children will be cloned when using multiple children	"iterate"
seed	Seed value used for random child selection (when using "random" clones mode)	123456

Examples

TODO

Random (random.scad)

Various functions to generate random numbers, vectors, and matrices.

Random Double (rand_double)

Returns a double between two numbers (inclusive).

Parameters

Parameter name	Description	Default value
low	Min value	0
high	Max value	1
seed	Seed value used for random number generation	123456

Examples

use <../random.scad>

translate([rand_double() * 2, rand_double(0, 2), 0]) sphere(size = [2, 2], center = true)

Random Color (rand_color)

Returns an array of RGBA values that can be passed to color(). When defining contraints you will want to stay within [0,1] since values are defined as a floating point number.

Parameters

Parameter name	Description	Default value
constrain	Define min and max values for each color channel. The first element defines min values for RGB respectively. The second element defines max values for RGB respectively.	[[0,0,0], [1,1,1]]
alpha	Define the alpha value of the color. This is not randomly defined.	1
seed	Seed value used for random number generation	123456

Examples

use <../random.scad>

color(rand_color()) sphere(size = [2,2], center = true);

color(rand_color(constrain = [[.5, .5, .5], [1, 1, 1]])) sphere(size = [2, 2], center = true);