3d Model Generators

[marshall]

Originally Posted by marcusbernstein

Marshall, please let me know of any ideas you have for model generators. I have a lot of free time at my internship and would love to make more of them for my team/ the FRC community. Feel free to PM me, or reply to this thread. I am still getting the hang of the Onshape feature script(its a lot more complicated than I thought), and will probably make the generators in both Onshape and Openscad to compare between the two.

Some random ideas:

-Use the VexPro gear sizes to create a generator to automatically build a single speed gearbox plate. You can safely use the input as a CIM because there are already a decent number of ways to convert to the CIM mounting form factor.
-Double down and and make a double reduction generator... gets more complicated though.
-Generate a complete gearbox.
-Generator to punch a 1/2" hex hole completely through any arbitrary location. Why? Because 1/2" hex!
-Generator to build an arbitrarily sized WCD chassis based on known chain lengths and gearboxes.
-Alright, big one... take the JVN calculator spreadsheet and turn out generators for everything in that spreadsheet to make 3d versions of all of it using parts from VexPro and AM.
-Generator for arms of varying lengths would be cool... take a look at the Greybots RAMP videos... they do this with a side profile of a robot to get heights and stuff... it is neato and saves on whiteboard time when done right.
-Generator for enclosures for boards like the RaspberryPi, TK1, TX1, etc...

Just a few... Some of those are mighty tall orders so break them down a bit and see what comes out of them.

[ASD20]

A few more suggestions:

- A built in chain length and spacing calculator (could also do gears and/or belts)
- A script to create a border of evenly spaced holes around a part
- An electrical board maker (Add components and move them around and it will automatically add mounting holes. Could also add warning boxes around components where wires need to go, so you don't put components too close together. If possible, (I haven't really looked at the software) draw automatic connections between connected components, so it is easy to visualize and minimize the wire runs.)
- Gates pulley generator that outputs in something other than stl.

First one would be very useful, second one would be only slightly more convenient than using the built in pattern tool, 3rd one is more of an interesting challenge than something super necessary. 4th is a problem my team actually faced this year.

Overall, I think it is cool that you are interested in this. It would be cool if a lot of teams starting making scripts like this to help lower the barrier to entry for CAD.