3D part design with Inkscape and OpenScad part18: hollow sphere + perforate

How to make a hollow sphere with Inkscape and openscad.

2 min read
By Bob
3D part design with Inkscape and OpenScad part18: hollow sphere + perforate

Here are the up to date Inkscape and Openscad files:

Inkscape2Openscad1.scad
Shared with Dropbox
200mmX200mmprintbed.svg
Shared with Dropbox

For the next example I'm going to make a hollow sphere and use the perforate module to make holes in it.

I made two circles in Inkscape one smaller than the other for my desired wall thickness :

Then I used Path>difference to make a ring:

Next I made a rectangle and used Path>difference again to cut it in half:

Then I added a star on layer2 for the perforation design:

I then converted both objects to paths, added more nodes, made them lines and exported the file as a dxf14 file to import into OpenScad. In OpenScad I used rotate extrude on the half circle on layer 1 to make the hollow sphere and the star on layer 2 with the perforate module:

As soon as I had the star pattern lined up on the sphere where I wanted it I used  difference to subtract the perforate layer from the rotate extrude layer:

Then I rendered it and saved the stl file and was ready to slice it for printing: