Yesterday (OK, on the 8th - I’ll acknowledge being late with this one), we looked at using 2D shapes from another application. What if we’ve got a 3D file from another application and we want to open it in OpenSCAD?
Well, it turns out we can do that - and it uses the same feature.
For the next step I need you to download a file. Specifically, this model of a duck (go to ‘download all files’ on the page and it’ll download a zip archive). Extract the zip file and copy the file (in ‘files’ in the archive) called Rubber_Duck.stl into the directory you’ll be working in today.
Now create an OpenSCAD file (say, day09.scad) and enter the following code:
import("Rubber_Duck.stl");
F5 / Preview and you’ll see a model of a duck. Cool, right?
Now download this model and extract horse.STL into the same directory.
Change the code above to read:
import("horse.STL");
… and this time we have a horse.
I only really want to cover one thing today; the idea of taking a 2D projection of a 3D shape. What’s a projection? Well, imagine you’re standing in front of a projector and you place your hand in the beam of light; you get a shadow (a 2D shape) from a cross-section of your hand (a 3D shape). It’s a bit like that.
Let’s give it a try:
difference() {
cube([60, 130, 2], center = true);
linear_extrude(height = 3, center = true) projection() import("horse.STL");
}
F5 / Preview (this might take a while)… and you’ve got a horse shaped hole. Fun, huh?
Try rotating the horse a bit (and trying different sized cuboids) to see if you can get a “horse thrown sideways through a door” effect.
You can download the code from today’s exercise here