I reciently added the ability to design parts using PythonSCAD and directly generate GCode for my Creality Falcon-2, and inported into LaserGRBL without having to manipulate the GCode generation popup, or modify LaserGRBL’s color’s power/feed settings. This additionional functionalty has been accepted into PythonSCAD and was part of the recient v0.17 release. There are three different ways to drive this functionality:
- setting a color’s power/feed settings via a colormap and constant power. This works the same as both LightBurn and LaserGRBL’s interface where a user can set the power and feed of a given color.
- using the dynamic power/feed settings, the color and power are encoded in the RGBA values of the part directly.
- the thrid programmable interface was requested by a user that did not want to play with the color maps, but wanted to force it explicitly when exporting the model. This can be called directly by calling export() for a give part - ex. part.export(filename,power,feed)
- lastly, there there is a pop-up where you can set the power and feed directly, but that sets a single value for all parts in that file. If you want to both engrave and cut in a single gcode program file, you need to write each operation to seperate files. The colormaps allows you to arbitrarily set as many speeds and feeds within a single gcode file. By combining these techniques, I have been able to design a part, made of multiple different materials, and output the colormapts for both engraving and cutting to each maerials gcode file.
A couple of simple examples are given in PythonSCAD’s example/GCode directory. Please report any bugs to the GitHub page <https://github.com/pythonscad/pythonscad>.
As a note, others are looking into extending this work to 3D printing. Since I do not own a working 3D printer at this time I do not expect to be involved with this, but do stay tuned to PythonSCAD’s announcements, or join the discussion list https://groups.google.com/g/pythonscad
Happy Making!
EBo –