<J25k98>
guess you need to detect that file from the OS and then call conditionally the scad via command prompt
<J25k98>
there is no internal parameter so you need to set this from an external source
<J25k98>
Often is is better to ask for a workflow solution instead of try to make scad follow your workflow idea.
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<sbts>
J25k98 Thanks for the response, I'm a hardware/software design guy who has been using OpenSCAD for a lot of years, but never had cause to import STL's before.
<sbts>
I currently have a model that may, or may not, have an STL available as an element for "display" purposes.
<sbts>
If the STL is not available, I want to replace it with a simple placeholder cube.
<sbts>
Hopefully that explains why I asked the question in the way I did.
<sbts>
FYI, I'm not on my normal machine, and am using the libera web client which seems to drop out.
<sbts>
I've got to monitor the logs to see your reply, so I apologize for any delays.
<J25k98>
sbts but somewhere it is decided if an STL is created?
<J25k98>
i mean you will get a warning if you try to open an non existing file
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<J25k98>
there is some experimental stuff where maybe it is possible to check if an object is there but not in the nightly
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<sbts>
The STL may or may not exist, for a variety of reasons, the OpenSCAD file is a model, but will be duplicated into new directories, and customized, potentially with a different STL, or no STL.
<sbts>
If there is no STL, then it needs to be replaced with a simple block to maintain the integrity of the model for printing.
<sbts>
The simplest example would be the STL is a particular type of mounting mechanism and the model is an enclosure.
<sbts>
If there is no STL, then the model just needs the hole closed (ie: a solid wall)
<sbts>
If there is an STL, it may be a DIN rail mount, or a QuadLock mount, or something else entirely
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<sbts>
I am aware it can be handled by modifying the OpenSCAD script, possibly with parameters.
<sbts>
The idea is to make it as "hands off" as possible
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<J25k98>
@sbts easiest is to create always an stl - if not the model then with the placeholder.
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<crazy_imp>
sbts: isn't the `-D foo=bar` flag what you are looking for? just use an external script to loop over all the stls you may want to use including the placeholder, pass them as variable argument into the openscad model, dump the resulting stl and now you have all variants
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<gbruno>
[github] Sparsh-N edited pull request #5984 ([Draft] Add search path and initial changes for MSVC based headless build support.) https://github.com/openscad/openscad/pull/5984
<gbruno>
[github] Sparsh-N edited pull request #5984 ([Draft] Add search path and initial changes for MSVC based headless build support.) https://github.com/openscad/openscad/pull/5984
<gbruno>
[github] Sparsh-N synchronize pull request #5984 ([Draft] Add search path and initial changes for MSVC based headless build support.) https://github.com/openscad/openscad/pull/5984
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<cart_man>
What is the easiet way to visualize a sign wave on a 2d cube? I can imagen it is using Polygons. Just not sure bow.
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<buZz>
a sine wave i guess? :D
<buZz>
you could import a drawing of that and linear_extrude it to difference out of your cube, or something
<buZz>
i'd say thats a easier route vs making it all in openscad
<buZz>
but both are possible i guess
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<InPhase>
cart_man: There are multiple things one can mean by a sine wave on a 2D cube. Which of those do you have in mind?
<InPhase>
cart_man: Like a sine wave going in one direction on top of the cube? A radial sinusoidal wave on top? Sinusoidal-like 2D texturing on all surfaces?
<InPhase>
cart_man: And what do you really mean by "2D cube" since that's a contradiction? Do you just mean a fairly flat cube?
<InPhase>
cart_man: If you scroll to my example image here, one in the back right is a 2-slit interference pattern on top of a fairly flat cube: https://github.com/rcolyer/plot-function
<cart_man>
InPhase: So a while ago there was some code I saw that had a 2d rectangle and a "differenced" sinewave polygon onto it. So the 2d rectangle now was sine wave cut out.
<cart_man>
InPhase: Whow okI have never seen this library
<cart_man>
InPhase: No this specific example was really just a 2d Rectangle with the polygon of a since wave "differenced" on it
<buZz>
a 2d rectangle is almost a cube ;)
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<InPhase>
cart_man: Like this? polygon([[30,0], [0,0], each [for (x=[0:0.5:30]) [x, 3+sin(x*5*360/30)]]]);
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<cart_man>
InPhase: Yes that was exactly it. I was wondering if it is possible to make that shape wrap itself around a cylinder SO that the cylinder end has this sinewave affect?
<cart_man>
I realize this might be pretty hard to do. But that is because I am pretty bad at this
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<InPhase>
cart_man: Like this? $fa=1; $fs=0.4; rotate_extrude() polygon([[60,0], [0,0], each [for (x=[0:0.2:60]) [x, 100+3*cos(x*4.5*360/60)]]]);
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<InPhase>
That's why I picked those three coordinate types for that library. A lot of things like this just fall out of those quite trivially.
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<InPhase>
cart_man: This is an alternative approach to produce the same output, but right up front as a single polyhedron: https://bpa.st/33KQ It's more performant, but negligibly so for this particular model.
<InPhase>
The majority I think would find the function plot easier to reason about in this instance. Although the CloseLoop call is more fundamentally flexible.
<cart_man>
That is exactly what I want Thanks! This was done with the Lib you linked earlier?
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<InPhase>
The first version. The second a different library.
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<cart_man>
InPhase: Btw if I wrap the first example in a module it crashes OpenSCad. WHy is that?
<InPhase>
Crashes? Doubt it. But you can't hide that function. It will end up being undefined inside the module.
<InPhase>
That particular library was written before the function literals developments. In lieu of having passable functions, it makes use of hard-coded function names, like PolarFunc1, and then one passes the index 1 for that one. And by "include" being used, the modules can access those functions at the top level of your scad file.
<InPhase>
This was the best available at the time it was written, and it just hasn't been rewritten to pass in a function.