April 13, 2016
OpenJSCAD radial wire organizers
STL Files
  • Clip Example 2
  • Clip Example 1
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Download STL

OpenJSCAD is a programmatic way of creating 3D objects with two advantages over my preferred method, Blender.

  • It’s easier to create measured objects, so it’s ideal for 3D printing parts that require precision for things like screw holes and attachments.
  • It has an API for taking in variables that can dynamically affect the final model. So users can create useful, custom models without needing to be able to code or be a modeler.

My C-Clamp visualization – JSFiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/fv41wqu9/3/

For my first project using OpenJSCAD I wanted to create something that would organize all the wires in my house. I often use zip ties but my biggest issue with that method is that it’s time consuming and wasteful to temporarily remove one of the cords. My solution was to create a script that asks for an array of wire diameters and then computes a radial clip that holds the wires neatly away from each other. I like this project because I think it’s a great example of the power of both openJSCAD and 3d printers to create something that wouldn’t be possible to mass manufacture because of the different sizes and combinations of wires, necessary. It was also an interesting math problem, getting the clips holders to organize around a circle, point towards the center and move in or out depending on the size and number of the wire holders required the code to be very dynamic. Using an html5 canvas on JSfiddle to quickly plot things out was a big help. For instance, to get the C shaped clamp that holds wires, I need to plot points along the out edge in the right order. I ended up with a string of dots that allowed me to quickly visualize what I was coming up with.

To use it, just download the radial-wire-clip OpenJSCAD file and drop it into the “Drop your .jscad file here” box on the OpenJSCAD parser. After that, the ‘clip sizes’ field takes a list of floating point numbers, separated by commas. They should be the diameters of each wire it will hold, in millimeters.

 

Clip Gallery

OpenJSCAD code

References

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