I made this in OpenSCAD, but I need something more flexible than a .stl. The best way to remake this would be using a parametric modeler perhaps, but I am reasonable sure that any future changes will be small. I love OpenSCAD, but maybe that is because its my only experience modeling parametrically. I wish it was NURBS capable. Rhino is, and Rhino has Grasshopper. Does anyone use Grasshopper on a Mac? I would love to learn it if its worth the effort. In the meantime I would like to build this on regular ol’ Rhino for the purposes of CNC fabrication. Are there any best practices when copying a .stl mesh using rhino? Right now I’ve got it divided up into layers and am basically just using it as a reference and rebuilding everything using the values from my OpenSCAD code.
best,
-rev
while rhino without grasshopper is not parametrically, it has a history though which lets you change simple geometry. its not a deep tool meaning it quickly shows its boarders but basic things like the curves which lofts where made with can be edited.
boolean operations unfortunately do not work with history. but rhino has tools for exactly such work like here to move and delete holes including your chamfer for example. with SolidPtOn you can even change the dimensions, but be careful with this tool on complex geometry it can quickly eat up your model.
FreeCAD does have a Mac version and an OpenSCAD module https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/OpenSCAD_Module
Maybe its possible to get a parametric nurbs model from this in FreeCAD, based on the work you have already done?
EDIT, … it seems that OpenSCAD uses mesh representations exclusively, see “Limitations” section at the link above.
Yea, looks like I’m rebuilding in Rhino!
