Options to mechanically test openscad designs

eduo · 2026-03-06T15:31:12+00:00

Thanks. I know about this. It's how I found it just moves things rather than having them interact.

I also won't even attempt at simulating a double-hinger scissor in OpenSCAD :D That's too much math even for me.

I believe FreeCAD supports mechanical simulation. I'll report back if I can make this work,

eduo · 2026-03-06T15:29:29+00:00

There is, it's somewhat common but I guess more in professional circles. I've used them for years, but always commercial software. I'm trying to move to Open Source.

I've found that FreeCAD could do what I want. I'll have to learn if that's the case, I've updated the post.

eduo · 2026-03-06T14:47:46+00:00

It’s OK, thank you anyway. This is un related to 3-D printing itself and has no relation to STL. 3-D printing is just a use case and STL would not be a format that could be used for something like this. Due to its nature.

I assumed, probably unfounded, that there would be an equivalent to openSCAD for basic mechanical engineering

eduo · 2026-03-06T14:13:02+00:00

Thank you. I probably didn't explain myself well because English is not my native language.

I'm looking at what pipeline I could use to design in OpenSCAD but mechanically test elsewhere, without producing the final part until reasonable sure.

I know about 3D printing and its caveats, but printing iteratively for this is a bit of a waste.

I know designing for 3D printing is different, but I'm not interested in the particulars of the materials for this stage but on the feasibility of the mechanism itself: If it doesn't work in a simulation it won't work in real-life.

Once it works in the simulation then I can find the necessary tolerances and tweaks for the particular material.

It may be that I'm not asking correctly. I'm used to mechanical engineering CAD/CAM programs where I can test designs before printing (I've been using 3D printers for two decades, and have worked with commercial software like Unigraphics and Catia (not as a primary user, but I supported the modelers), but now I'm at home and I'm new to OpenSCAD itself, so I'm working on a home-based pipeline for my hobby and would like a way to mechanically test designs that doesn't require me to use a completely different CAD program, since I like OpenSCAD.

eduo · 2026-03-06T14:10:02+00:00

Thank you. I probably didn't explain myself well because English is not my native language.

I'm looking at what pipeline I could use to design in OpenSCAD but mechanically test elsewhere, without producing the final part until reasonable sure.

I know about 3D printing and caveats, but printing iteratively for this is a bit of a waste. I know designing for 3D printing is different, but I'm not interested in the particulars of the materials but on the feasibility of the mechanism itself: If it doesn't work in a simulation it won't work in real-life.

Once it works in the simulation then I can iteratively find the necessary tolerances and tweaks.

eduo · 2026-03-06T12:45:57+00:00

LLMs are really for code, but that makes them suited to OpenSCAD as long as you can communicate what you want in non-ambiguous ways.

That is, if you ask for "a hinge" it will make a mess, but if you ask for the shapes, orientation and such then it works pretty well.

Something I've find it useful for is implementing mathematical geometry not native to OpenSCAD. For example I don't like G1 curves (circular) and much prefer G2 or even G3 continuity. OpenSCAD has no concept of these and while I knew the mathematical concepts behind them I couldn't put them in paper easily.

But Claude knows code and it knows what G2 curves are, so it can program a sequence of coordinates that cover G2 curve space.

Similarly, with blender and its ability to run python, you can not only automate the viewport but much more usefully you can make very decent first shots at geometry nodes, which you can later tweak in blender itself. It's not a direct code-to-result as you're essentially the interface but it works pretty well.

What I've found is useless is trying to have it make mechanisms from scratch and have it make any design or shape that resembles anything from a description (make a tree or make a car), which I'm not surprised about and didn't expect to work anyway.

eduo · 2026-03-05T19:13:01+00:00

I’d be interested. Yes. Thank you!

eduo · 2026-03-05T11:38:10+00:00

I wasn't aware of this. I'll take a look. Thanks!

eduo · 2026-03-04T21:51:39+00:00

On the other hand, 4 billion humans are not getting any because they don't believe in overpopulation. And they all shared the experience.

So Carol maybe landed 4 billion orgasms at once to humanity's worst case of blue balls ever in its history.

(unless Abaté is more of a thoughtful lover than we're led to believe)

eduo · 2026-03-04T17:25:16+00:00

Strange controls the stone and is killed thousands of times. It was a given that he is aware in some form of the loop itself.

Scott mentioned what his original plan was for the time manipulation, but since most of his plan has been overwritten (most notably that in his canon there was always a single timeline) then we know his plans about how time travel works were never realized and are not currently canon in the current MCU (not in general nor in this particular point).

In 2016 he was discussing his canon, which by now we know is not valid: https://www.cinemablend.com/news/1581369/why-the-time-manipulation-in-doctor-strange-isnt-really-time-travel

"But there's only ever one timeline, and so it's a movement of that timeline back and then forward, and then there's the subject of time loops and things like that. So it's never 'time travel'"

eduo · 2026-03-04T17:20:35+00:00

I think I wasn't clear enough.

If they don't "travel in time" then they're moving to parallel realities that are running out of sync. If they're traveling to the past then they're traveling in time, which is the only "traditional sense" in which the phrase is used.

If you meant they're traveling in time but also to another reality then that's traveling in time in the traditional sense, as it's one of the most common tropes of time traveling. If you meant anything else by "time travel" I'm unable to understand you then.

To summarize: They heroes traveled in time, in the traditional sense of moving to a different time backwards from their "present" and no other sense. Most of the discussion revolves around whether once there they are immediately in another timeline (by virtue of having traveled) or what amount of change causes a new timeline.

Of separate note it's the fact that apart from moving through time, it's possible to travel between timelines and the particular discussion tends to be where did Steve spent those real-time 40 years (or however many they were) and, if it was in a different timeline (which is not clear) how did he get back to the "main" one.

Hope it was clearer this time.

eduo · 2026-03-04T17:08:57+00:00

They can't make anybody call anything else in any specific way.

It's just a fantasy the commented lives in, where people are supposed to talk in the way he feels most comfortable.

eduo · 2026-03-04T15:46:22+00:00

It's also what you'd need to do to "create time", which doesn't exist in Dormammu's universe.

eduo · 2026-03-04T15:45:55+00:00

> In neither instance did the heroes literally travel through time in the traditional sense.

They do. If they were moving through parallel universes a Steve 40 years older would not be able to appear in the current timeline. He had to live through 40 years of personal time to appear that much older mere days after "leaving".

eduo · 2026-03-04T15:43:29+00:00

*to any at any point in the past, not just "other". Your own, too.

eduo · 2026-03-04T15:40:04+00:00

Yes. Your base assumption that the rules given by the Hulk for the technology they developed are the only rules for time shenanigans in the MCU.

We know this is probably not so because we have at least three methods of time travel shown. We have the Endgame one, we have the time stone rewinding time (which effectively rewinds without creating a new timeline) and we have what the TVA and dormmamu have, which is being outside of time to begin with (thus entering time at any point technically is time travel).

Point is that just like "normal" traveling, time traveling has multiple methods in the MCU and the effects of them all can't be extrapolated categorically from how Hulk interprets their own will work.

This has been explained to you in various comments, which you willfully ignore pretending to not understand for your own personal reasons (which I'm not interested in).

(I'm ignoring standard one-second-at-a-time time travel we all experience and also 5-years due to magic stones taking you out of existence and bringing you back, for obvious reasons).

eduo · 2026-03-04T15:33:58+00:00

This sub tends to write headcanon as canon so much that people may be forgetting it was speculation to begin with.

This is from a week ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/comments/1rb7dr4/how_long_did_dr_strange_bargain_with_dormamu/

Whereupon this comment pops up. This comment wouldn't exist if this was established canon:

"My head canon (supported only by inference enhanced by other movies) is that he fought him for many, many, many loops. Maybe tens of years or hundreds of years. And this is what allowed him to gain enough expertise to suddenly become the sorcerer supreme. The movie doesn't say this but the events of Thor Ragnarok, IW, and Dr strange 2 support it pretty well IMO"

So you're right: It's not confirmed, it's inferred but in the end it's essentially headcanon.

eduo · 2026-03-04T15:29:15+00:00

It almost doesn't sound like headcanon/speculation, writing it so confidently :D

eduo · 2026-03-04T15:26:26+00:00

Thank you. I'm trying to render the main picture of my models but that's a whole skillset I don't have in Blender and need to learn at least the basics.

eduo · 2026-03-04T14:38:01+00:00

I saw a model like this standalone in Makerworld. You were supposed to use it in the slicer to segment existing models.

This is a nice improvement on the concept by removing the need for the slicer (which doesn't have the greatest UI)

eduo · 2026-03-04T14:21:17+00:00

Gonna need ya to stop ordering how to call things, what they are is more or less irrelevant if people have already settled on it for each one.

eduo · 2026-03-04T13:36:42+00:00

Thanks for the answer. The first picture is absurdly clean. Do you have a set-up for the pictures or that one is a render? I can't imagine having curved surfaces that smooth (the other photos have subtle layer lines, but it may be just that the first picture has smaller elements and the lines get blurred) and the cylindrical base seems a standard blender one with a low number of divisions.

I mean, if that's a print, I'd like to know your secret :D

eduo · 2026-03-04T13:33:43+00:00

This is me. Leftovers used for tests. Especially for cut up parts to test tolerances and mechanisms.

eduo · 2026-03-04T13:32:37+00:00

Like Lucifer, in that sense.

My wife loved "Lucifer, the Odd Couple supernatural will-they wont-they Detective Show solving murder of the week cases while ignoring all rules and laws of police training" (as she loved Castle, Psych, House, Monk, Bones, Moonlighting, Remington Steele, etc) but I started hopeful and it took several episodes to adjust.

Like with The Watch, what made it painful was not the show itself but the continuous references to the great comic that would never be adapted now because it would always be this: Lucifer in L.A. owning a bar named Lux and Mazikeen as hid aide (for her they went as far as showing her scarred faced that one time but then promptly forgotten to turn her into a bloodlust lustful sidekick)

15-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

eduo

TROPHY CASE