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Sketching

Let's start in two dimensions only, we will add the third one soon enough. replicad provides some classes and functions to sketch on a two dimentional plane (or a face, but we will see that later).

Let's start with the powerful Sketcher.

The Sketcher class​

A sketcher is a class that allows you to draw a set of segment of curve. It currently supports:

  • lines
  • arcs of circles
  • arcs of ellipses
  • bezier curves

And for each of these categories it provides a set of functions that should help you draw stuff quickly - or give you as much power as you need. Have a look at the detailed API documentation to see what it can do

A simple sketch​

A simple sketch

Let's draw something simple:

const main = ({ Sketcher }) => {
  return new Sketcher("XZ").hLine(25).halfEllipse(0, 40, 5).hLine(-25).close();
};

What have we done?

  • First, we are drawing on the XZ plane. We then draw an horizontal line of 25 milimeters of length.
  • Then, we then draw an half ellipse, from the last point of the line, moving, by 0 horizontally and by 40 vertically - but drawing an arc of ellipse of 5 of axis length.
  • We go back of 25 horizonally
  • We finally close the sketch, going from the current last point to the first point with a straight line.

Let's play with the sketch​

To understand what the different parameters do, let's play with them:

  • change the plane to ZX to see that the horizonal and vertical axes are relative to the definition of the plane
  • move the plane in the normal direction with this definition Sketcher("XZ", -5)
  • close with a mirror instead of a straight line with .closeWithMirror instead of close
  • replace the second horizontal line by a sagitta line (an arc or circle) as .hSagittaArc(-25, 10)

Sketch functions​

In addition to the Sketcher class, replicad provides some sketching functions to draw common and useful shapes. You can for instance:

  • sketch a rectangle, polygon, circle or ellipse
  • draw some text in a ttf font
  • draw based on a parametric function
  • draw an offset of a face

They are documented in the API