OpenSCAD Lesson 1 Teacher's Notes OpenSCAD ... - Thingiverse
OpenSCAD Lesson 1 Teacher’s Notes Upon completing lesson 1, students should be able to accomplish the following:
view a model at different angles create, cubes, cylinders, and spheres given the command sheet shift objects with the translate command given the Command Sheet make different sized objects by changing the numbers in the command begin being able to predict what will happen to a model if a number changed
Note: Being able to correctly enter numbers on the first attempt is not practical or necessary. The CAD process will be a constant “guess and check” process. Students should be encouraged to make many educated guesses and constantly be adjusting numbers to get the model they like.
Note: When designing, students will always be able to have access to a command sheet for correct spelling and syntax. Trying to memorize these takes more work than necessary, and memorization of these common commands will come with time.
Lesson plan recommendations: 1. Run through slides, but frequently jump to OpenSCAD to demonstrate the commands. 2. When you get to the slide titled “Lets Make a City That Looks Similar to This …”, jump to the CAD software. Build the city and have them watch or follow along. The code for how to make the city is shown below a. Show them how you don’t always position or size things correctly at first, but you look at what directions need changes and adjust until it looks good b. Demonstrate the use of // commands or % commands to help find where objects are. c. Make a couple typos and show them how to find the mistake. 3. Have each of them work on the 3 tasks on their own and help troubleshoot.
OpenSCAD Lesson 1 Teacher’s Notes Page 1 of 2
OpenSCAD Lesson 1 Teacher’s Notes Troubleshooting tips Problem Something isn’t showing up
Something isn’t the right size They say that something needs to be rotated My sphere or cylinder looks blocky or pointy
Suggested solution Check the console window (underneath the viewing window) for yellow highlighted warnings or red highlighted errors Check to make sure the commands are correct syntax (spelling, caps, parenthesis, brackets, and semicolon). Make sure syntax agrees with command sheet. Put % on each command to see if the solid is hiding Try modifying each number until a number is changing the right dimension We haven’t learned rotations yet. All the tasks can be solved without rotations. Smaller spheres look like that, you can add an argument such as cylinder (r=2, h=25, $fn=20); to adjust the roundness. The higher $fn is, the more round the circle/sphere is, or they can make a larger sphere/cylinder. This will be discussed in the next lesson.
//Tutorial 1 //basic solids and translation //City
cube([70,50,5]); translate([5,5,0]) cube(10); translate([5,35,0]) cube([15,10,35]); translate([25,10,0]) cube([10,15,25]); translate([25,33,0]) cube([10,10,25]); translate([27,11,15]) cube([6,30,5]); translate([53,18,0]) cylinder(r=15, h=15); translate([45,40,0]) cylinder(r=5, h=20); translate([60,40,0]) cylinder(r=5, h=20); translate([60,40,20]) sphere(r=5);
OpenSCAD Lesson 1 Teacher’s Notes Page 2 of 2
view a model at different angles create, cubes, cylinders, and spheres given the command sheet shift objects with the translate command given the Command Sheet make different sized objects by changing the numbers in the command begin being able to predict what will happen to a model if a number changed
Note: Being able to correctly enter numbers on the first attempt is not practical or necessary. The CAD process will be a constant “guess and check” process. Students should be encouraged to make many educated guesses and constantly be adjusting numbers to get the model they like.
Note: When designing, students will always be able to have access to a command sheet for correct spelling and syntax. Trying to memorize these takes more work than necessary, and memorization of these common commands will come with time.
Lesson plan recommendations: 1. Run through slides, but frequently jump to OpenSCAD to demonstrate the commands. 2. When you get to the slide titled “Lets Make a City That Looks Similar to This …”, jump to the CAD software. Build the city and have them watch or follow along. The code for how to make the city is shown below a. Show them how you don’t always position or size things correctly at first, but you look at what directions need changes and adjust until it looks good b. Demonstrate the use of // commands or % commands to help find where objects are. c. Make a couple typos and show them how to find the mistake. 3. Have each of them work on the 3 tasks on their own and help troubleshoot.
OpenSCAD Lesson 1 Teacher’s Notes Page 1 of 2
OpenSCAD Lesson 1 Teacher’s Notes Troubleshooting tips Problem Something isn’t showing up
Something isn’t the right size They say that something needs to be rotated My sphere or cylinder looks blocky or pointy
Suggested solution Check the console window (underneath the viewing window) for yellow highlighted warnings or red highlighted errors Check to make sure the commands are correct syntax (spelling, caps, parenthesis, brackets, and semicolon). Make sure syntax agrees with command sheet. Put % on each command to see if the solid is hiding Try modifying each number until a number is changing the right dimension We haven’t learned rotations yet. All the tasks can be solved without rotations. Smaller spheres look like that, you can add an argument such as cylinder (r=2, h=25, $fn=20); to adjust the roundness. The higher $fn is, the more round the circle/sphere is, or they can make a larger sphere/cylinder. This will be discussed in the next lesson.
//Tutorial 1 //basic solids and translation //City
cube([70,50,5]); translate([5,5,0]) cube(10); translate([5,35,0]) cube([15,10,35]); translate([25,10,0]) cube([10,15,25]); translate([25,33,0]) cube([10,10,25]); translate([27,11,15]) cube([6,30,5]); translate([53,18,0]) cylinder(r=15, h=15); translate([45,40,0]) cylinder(r=5, h=20); translate([60,40,0]) cylinder(r=5, h=20); translate([60,40,20]) sphere(r=5);
OpenSCAD Lesson 1 Teacher’s Notes Page 2 of 2
