MatterCAD – Design Your 3D Elements In C#

Any programmer wanting or needing to mannequin customized 3D components has in all probability stumbled throughout OpenSCAD, a program that lets you generate components utilizing fundamental scripting.  OpenSCAD is an excellent software and for some time we used it solely in designing components, however we missed the flexibility to make use of a totally featured programming language.  Finally we began making a homegrown utility that might enable us to put in writing an element utilizing C# – we name the utility MatterCAD.  For our design workflow we use MatterCAD to output a .scad file which we are able to then open in OpenSCAD.  OpenSCAD is used to do the visualization and to do the ultimate outputting of a printable .stl file.

Over time MatterCAD has continued to advance to the purpose have been it’s in all probability helpful and steady sufficient to be made generaly obtainable.

Options:

MatterCAD is designed to make the creation of components simpler with two predominant options.  The primary function is the flexibility to deal with every half, or assortment of components, as distinct objects within the code.  Treating every half as an object permits data to be saved concerning the half – attributes like its bounding field, place and transforms.  The opposite predominant function is a wealthy set of positioning instruments, similar to ‘align’ and ‘set heart’.  With these positioning instruments you’ll be able to outline components relative to one another or to a selected coordinate place on the earth.  For instance you’ll be able to align the underside of an element with the Z 0 aircraft of the world, that manner you’ll be able to make sure that half will all the time keep at Z 0 whatever the adjustments you make to its design.  With ‘align’ you can too format components relative to different components.  Once more, once you change the scale or place of 1 half, all of the components which can be aligned to it merely transfer to their appropriate positions relative to the one which has modified.

• Primitives
  • Field
  • Cylinder
  • NGonExtrusion
  • RotateEtrude
  • Spherical
  • Stable
  • Sphere
• Operations
  • Union
  • Distinction
  • Intersection
• Transforms
  • Align
  • Rotate
  • Scale
  • SetCenter
  • Translate

Sources You Will Want:

You’ll be able to obtain the supply code from our bitbucket account.  The file you will have is MatterCadCommandLine.zip

Additionally, you will want an IDE (built-in improvement surroundings) to edit the code.  We recomend you utilize MonoDevelop.  MonoDevelop is accessible for Home windows, Mac and Linux.  It’s also possible to use VisualStudio in case you have it however it’s not as straightforward for everybody to get.

You’ll want to have a look at the API for MatterCAD.

And at last you will want a duplicate of OpenSCAD to view your half and to output it to an .stl for printing.

Work Move:

Here’s a fast breakdown of the process we take when creating a brand new half.  That is assuming you might have already downloaded MatterCAD and an IDE (built-in improvement surroundings) like MonoDevelop.

1. Go into the ‘MatterCadCommandLine’ listing
2. Copy one of many folders, we’ll use the TrackConnector folder (choose it and hit copy paste)
3. Rename the folder to the brand new half you wish to create.  We’ll use ’10mmBox’ for now
4. Go into the brand new folder (double click on ’10mmBox’)
5. Open ‘MatterCad.sln’ (this could launch MonoDevelop)
6. Open ‘MatterCad.cs’ from throughout the MonoDevelop
7. Choose the contents of the TrackConnector() perform and change them with ‘return new Field(10, 10, 10);’
8. Construct and Run this system (we’ll assume you make a debug construct for now)
9. Again in your file supervisor, go into the ’10mmBoxbinDebug’ folder and open the file ‘TrackConnector.scad’ with OpenSCAD (you can provide a differnt output file identify in Important() later).
10. Now to enhance the design you’ll edit the code, run this system once more after which simply reload (F4) the half in OpenSCAD.  Wash, Rinse and Repeat (try this again and again :).

Pattern Script:

Here’s a quite simple script.  It’s a observe connector for a picket prepare set.

utilizing System; // we'd like some usings to get began
utilizing System.Diagnostics;
utilizing MatterHackers.Csg; // our constructive stable geometry base courses
utilizing MatterHackers.VectorMath; // helper math capabilities

namespace SimplePartScripting
{
    static class SimplePartTester
    {
        static CsgObject TrackConnecor()
        {
            // CsgObject is our base class for all constructive stable geometry primitives
            CsgObject whole; 

            // we create a field object and identify it bar, the "hyperlink" is the identify it's going to
// have in OpenSCAD
            CsgObject bar = new Field(20, 5.8, 12, "hyperlink");  

            // we set it is heart to the middle of the coordinate system
            bar = new SetCenter(bar, Vector3.Zero);            // and we make the entire = bar, the one object now we have presently
            whole = bar;            // now we make a cyliner for one aspect
            CsgObject leftHold = new Cylinder(11.7 / 2, 12, Alignment.z); 

            // place it the place we would like it
            leftHold = new SetCenter(leftHold, bar.GetCenter() + new Vector3(12, 0, 0)); 

            // and make one other one on the opposite aspect by mirroring
            CsgObject rightHold = leftHold.NewMirrorAccrossX(); 

            // that is the way in which we really determine what boolean operation to make use of to place them collectively
            whole += leftHold; 

            whole += rightHold; 

            return whole;  // and move it again to the caller
        } 

        static void Important()
        {
            // an inside perform to save lots of as an .scad file
            OpenSCadOutput.Save(TrackConnecor(), "TrackConnector.scad");
        }
    }
}