DangerFinger 4.1 pre-Alpha, in Python!

Well, I know this thing is taking forever – and my apologies for those waiting on fixes that I’ve deferred until this new release. I’ve now begun the 3rd re-write of the codebase for v4, and finally found a winner with SolidPython!

This model is so complex and configurable, most coding time was spent working around the idiosyncrasies of OpenSCAD, which is powerful for modeling, but just not a very capable or powerful programming language. I started v4 with OpenJSCAD, a javascript CAD replacement, but it hasn’t been maintained well and is missing a couple key features. I discovered SolidPython recently, which uses a very different tactic – instead of replacing OpenSCAD, you can use the full capability of Python to generate valid and portable OpenSCAD code. This gives the maintainability and expressiveness of Python without giving up anything good about OpenSCAD.

With less than a weekend invested into this new system, I’ve been able to build the framework and scaffolding (parameterization system, etc) and mostly finish one finger segment as a proof-of-concept. Based on coding speed so far, I’m very optimistic now about completing the port of the full finger model.

I expect this new codebase to be far more reliable when making parametric adjustments to the finger, ensuring that it can be easily configured for various people’s needs.

The latest snapshot is available at https://github.com/nbrookins/danger-finger Contributors welcome, and we’re considering bringing on an intern at some point to help keep the project moving – reach out if you’re interested!

Cheers!