Comment by WillAdams

4 days ago

A tool for using Python in OpenSCAD:

to make DXFs and G-code:

https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview

The next big step is a house-cleaning one, need a vendor-agnostic system for numbering tools:

https://forum.makerforums.info/t/what-tooling-are-folks-usin...

Been learning a lot in the process: brushed up on trigonometry and so-forth using _Make:Geometry/Trigonometry/Calculus_[1] and various other books, some of which I am still reading through; lots about programming, esp. useful was John Ousterhout's _A Philosophy of Software Design_[2] and the next stages are Bézier curves/NURBS, a system for single line fonts (which may get extended into an interactive METAFONT programming system), and a mastery of conic sections _and_ algorithms sufficiently efficient that the 1" x 2" x 1" test case which took ~18 minutes to calculate on an i7 and which generated a ~127MB toolpath file can be done a bit more reasonably.

The big thing it makes me thing about is whether I should try to get a Master's and then go on to get a PhD (but that's a hard sell w/ the finance committee when I'm 59 and still making house payments).

1 - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58059196-make https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123127774-make https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61739368-make