Parametric design for stand

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

This was requested on Facebook:

Shapeoko and Nomad Users Group (Unofficial)

(in the unofficial Facebook Group — you’ll have to be a member to see it)

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Start by setting up the parameters:

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Then we begin drawing things up as a model in BlockSCAD:

The arch for underneath needs to be calculated in terms of the chord as the arch.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Since it’s easier to design something once one has some hard numbers we draw this up:

and do all the Boolean operations to arrive at:

PDF version: drinkstand.pdf (2.2 KB)

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Next step is to do the math to calculate the radius of the circle needed for the arch:

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Then we add make that into a suitably named module, then make a module for the column, adding rectangles for it and subtract the cutout for the crossing part of the base:

and one can have an option to preview as:

and the project is available at:

https://www.blockscad3d.com/community/projects/967296

Exporting the OpenSCAD code, modifying it to use the Customizer, and to project the DXF option so as to export a 2D file is left as an exercise for the reader.

[Sherpa (Jon)]

@WillAdams love these write-ups so don’t stop a quick question trying to get this in my head, what makes this a parametric design, and not say a “normal” design, is it simply the definition of parameters similar to fusions parameters that allow you to change box size height etc. Sorry if this is an obvious question.

Regards
Jon

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Yes, if you load up the BlockSCAD or OpenSCAD file and change the numbers the design will be recalculated which makes this a parametric design driven by parameters.