I'm a fan of
OpenSCAD. I'm also a gardener. My sharpie based plant labels were becoming difficult to read after a season on the ground. Worse though, some of the plants that I keep in my bog garden were becoming completely unreadable. Especially since they can sit outdoors in soggy or wet acidic peat moss for years before I decide that I need to remind myself exactly which cultivar I am looking at. So, having recently acquired the Prusa MMU upgrade for MK3, I naturally decide to 3d print the labels, so that they will never fade, and it will indeed be impossible for them to do so, since the lettering will be in a completely different color of plastic.
This brings us to the first bit of code, the 3d printable multi-material plant label written in OpenSCAD:
letter="<Main Text>";
smallText="<Small Text>";
length = 90;
textStart = 0;
height = 2;
module GetText(bigText, littleText) {
union() {
translate([textStart, 0, 1.7])
color("black", 1)
linear_extrude(height=.301, convexity=4)
text(bigText,
font="Bitstream Vera Sans",
halign="center",
size=7
);
translate([textStart, -8, 1.7])
color("black", 1)
linear_extrude(height=.301, convexity=4)
text(littleText,
font="Bitstream Vera Sans",
halign="center",
size=5// 3 is too small, doesn't extrude
// 4 is readable, but leaves gaps
);
}
}
// First extrusion
/*marker_one*/difference () {
color("white", 1.0)
union() {
//stem
translate([-length/2 - 100, -2, 0])
cube([100, 4, height]);
// tapered neck
linear_extrude(height) {
polygon(points=[[-length/2 -30, 0], [-length / 2, +10], [-length /2, -10], [-length / 2 - 30, 0]]);
}
//Broad flat area for text
translate([-length/2, -10, 0])
cube([length, 20, height], center=false) ;
}
// holes for text
color("black", 1)
union() {
GetText(letter, smallText);
rotate([180, 0, 0])
translate([textStart, 1, -2])
GetText(letter, smallText);
}
}
// Second Extrusion
/*marker_two*/union() {
GetText(letter, smallText);
rotate([180, 0, 0])
translate([textStart, 1, -2])
GetText(letter, smallText);
}
With this file in hand, I first replace <Main Text> and <Small Text> with something appropriate for the label. I then replace /*marker_two*/ with an asterisk and export the object to an *.amf file. I then repeat the process with /*marker_one*/, after deleting the first asterisk. So I have two *.amf files which I will then load into slic3r and convert into gcode.
I print a lot of these labels, and I only print one or two of each of them. So this turns out to be more labor intensive than I'd like.
After some research, I created the following powershell function to do the work for me. All from a single command.
function Get-3dMMPlantLabel {
Param($mainText, $smallText="")
process {
$template = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllText("PlantLabelTemplate.scad")
$output = $template.Replace("<Main Text>", $mainText).Replace("<Small Text>", $smallText)
$outputOne = $output.Replace("/*marker_two*/", "*")
$outputTwo = $output.Replace("/*marker_one*/", "*")
$outputOneFileName = "$($mainText)1.scad"
$outputTwoFileName = "$($mainText)2.scad"
$outputOne | Out-File $outputOneFileName -Encoding ascii
$outputTwo | Out-File $outputTwoFileName -Encoding ascii
& "C:\Program Files\OpenSCAD\openscad.exe" -o "$($mainText)1.amf" $outputOneFileName
& "C:\Program Files\OpenSCAD\openscad.exe" -o "$($mainText)2.amf" $outputTwoFileName
}
}
Get-3dMMPlantLabel "Swamp Milkweed" "Somewhere in OH"
It outputs two files: "Swamp Milkweed1.amf" and "Swamp Milkweed2.amf" in this example.
These are exactly what I need to orchestrate the 3d print in Slic3r.
Now if only I could automate the gcode creation in Slic3r. Maybe next Saturday.
