3D part design with OpenSCAD # 79: Adding shell to the tapered text module.

1 min read
By Bob
3D part design with OpenSCAD # 79: Adding shell to the tapered text module.

Since I can make letters as large as my printer will allow I thought it would be useful to make them hollow so I could add a transparent top  layer or two and use them to make an led sign, so I added a way to do that.

Here is the code:

/*[Beveled Text]*/
  Shell=false;
  Text="1234";
  Font="";
  size=6;//[1:.01:200]
  taper=.42; //[.01:.01:50]
  height=1;//[1:.01:20]
  Spacing=1;//[1:.01:12]
  length = len(Text);
  Offset=0;//[.01:.01:50])

module beveled_text(){
  intersection(){
   roof(method="straight"){
   offset(delta=Offset) 
 text(Text,size=size,font=Font,halign="center",valign="center",spacing=Spacing,direction="ltr",$fn=100);
}
   cylinder(h=taper,d=length*400,center=true,$fn=4);
 }}

render(){
difference(){
 scale([1,1,height])
 beveled_text();
 if (Shell){
 translate([0,0,-2.5])
 scale([1,1,height])
 beveled_text();
 }}}
 

I will probably make some modifications so I can adjust the wall thickness on the fly but -2.5 gives about 3 lines of wall thickness, I will need to make some prints to see how strong it is.