3D printing SDK

environment for reproducible builds of your models, for a 3D printers.

features

• Docker-based SDK definition, for stability
• support for different build types:
  • precise prints
  • speed (shorter print time)
  • strength
  • hallow
  • waterproof
  • solid
  • transparent
• support for different materials:
  • PLA
  • PET-G
  • TPU
  • PLActive
  • silk
• extensible interface for:
  • new materials
  • new build modes
  • new printers
• automated dependencies tracking for OpenSCAD
• VCS_HASH generation at build time
• support for pre-build:
  • STL files
  • OBJ files
• convenient .gitignore template
• out-of-source builds
• parallel build support
• m3d -- Model 3D library of helper functions for OpenSCAD
• per-model customization of:
  • printer type
  • filament type
  • build mode

usage

this section covers basic usage of the template.

creating new project

use ./export_template script, to generate a new template. location is specified as a parameter to the script.

if this is an empty directory, new setup with reasonable defaults, is prepared. if project files already exist, only build gets updated - user defined elements are not touched.

once template is ready, put all your OpenSCAD (*.scad) files there. type ./make to build everything.

project defaults

project.config file defines default for project, namely:

• PRINTER_3D
• FILAMENT
• MODE
• COPIES (how many times given object should be duplicated, when slicing)

per-file overrides

it is possible to override default settings from project.config, on a per-file basis. having file named foobar.scad create foobar.config and add any number of settings from project.config. values, that are not explicitly provided will be taken from project.config.

this option is best suited for a multi-part builds, eg.:

• having waterproof PET-G hull (multipart - thus default)
• TPU solid gaskets
• PLA model stand, print for quality

building

run ./make to trigger build for material, slicer settings and printer, defined in project.config. note that 1st time you run it, SDK will be created, so it will take some time. after that, image will be cached and using it will become much faster.

note that you can pass -j$(nproc) option to ./make to enable parallel building. to see what exact commands are executed pass VERBOSE=1 to ./make.

to build just one, particular target, it's enough to pass name of it to ./make. targets are named after OpenSCAD/STL/OBJ files, just without an extensions. eg. having foobar.scad (along with many others), target would be ./make foobar.

if you do not want/need to use Docker, you can also use your own, local SDK. just use regular make instead of a wrapper ./make script. note however the scripts sets VCS_HASH value for OpenSCAD source files, thus it's up to the caller to set it manually, if needed. when calling manually, you should set it by yourself. you will also need some non-standard tools, that are available in sdk directory. to make them visible run PATH+=:sdk make.

selecting build mode

in order set specific mode for your build on a given printer, for a given material, go to config/printer/<your_printer>/filament/<your_filament>/mode/ directory. it lists all modes, provided for a given printer and filament combination (none.ini is default option).

in order to select a given mode globally, just edit project.config and put it there as MODE name (i.e. filename w/o .ini suffix). you can also set it on a per-file basis, as described in per-file overrides section.

selecting material

in order set specific material for your build on a given printer, go to config/printer/<your_printer>/filament/ directory. each directory there corresponds to a given material. choose one and set it as a default in project.config or customize per-file as covered in per-file overrides section.

customizing

this section covers how to extend functionality of the base package.

adding printers

go to config/printer/ directory. all supported printers are listed there. you can add new printer by creating a directory names after it. inside the directory printer.ini file is expected to be present, setting default settings for a given printer type.

adding materials

material settings are per-printer. inside config/printer/<your_printer>/filemant/ directory, create new directory, named after your material. put a filament.ini config for the material there. it will be used to create a final config file.

remember to also create mode/ directory and mode/none.ini empty file. this is a default print mode, that does not optimize for any special property.

adding build mode

mode settings are specific for printer+filament combination. inside config/printer/<your_printer>/filemant/<your_filament>/mode/ directory, create new file, named after mode you'd like to provide. create a <your_mode>.ini file there. list there only the options, that you'd like to be overwritten, compared to default printer.ini and filament.ini. you can use comments as well.

make sure to check other profiles, in order to keep naming consistent.

configuration priorities

note that you can (effectively) have the same parameters set in different places, namely for:

• printer
• filament
• mode
• per-file override each parameter is applied/updated in this exact order. effectively last override wins (i.e. per-file override step has a final say in all cases).

on top of that it is also possible to override any of parameters from project.config, using variables passed to ./make call, namely:

• PRINTER_3D
• FILAMENT
• MODE
• COPIES most noticeably it is useful to use a custom printer settings (i.e. overriding PRINTER_3D), without affecting default project's settings (these typically match project's author setup). it is thus easy to introduce multiple, non-conflicting settings, for each project member/user. it's enough to for each user to reflect set of filaments and build modes, used by the project's author, but for their own printer. this way everyone can use the same source files to build for different printers.

contributing

you're more than welcome to contribute. :) most likely you'll want to add your own printer. please keep naming conventions, following existing code. you also do not need to add all the possible modes and filament types. it's better to have less options, but tested and known to be working, rather than bunch of copy-and-paste, unreliable settings.

in order to contribute just file a PR with your changes.