User:LABoyd2/Conditional and Iterator Functions from manual 151002

For Loop

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Iterate over the values in a vector or range.

Vector version: for (variable=<vector>) <do_something> - <variable> is assigned to each successive value in the vector
Range version: for (variable=<range>) <do_something>

Nested loops : for ( variable1 = <range or vector>, variable2 = <range or vector> ) <do something, using both variables>
for loops can be nested, just as in normal programs. A shorthand is that both iterations can be given in the same for statement

Usage example 1 - iteration over a vector:
for (z = [-1, 1]) // two iterations, z = -1, z = 1
{
    translate([0, 0, z])
    cube(size = 1, center = false);
}
 
OpenSCAD iteration over a vector
Usage example 2a - iteration over a range:
for ( i = [0 : 5] )
{
    rotate( i * 360 / 6, [1, 0, 0])
    translate([0, 10, 0])
    sphere(r = 1);
}
 
OpenSCAD iteration over a range)
Usage example 2b - iteration over a range specifying an increment:
// Note: The middle parameter in the range designation 
// ('0.2' in this case) is the 'increment-by' value
// Warning: Depending on the 'increment-by' value, the
// real end value may be smaller than the given one.
for ( i = [0 : 0.2 : 5] )
{
    rotate( i * 360 / 6, [1, 0, 0])
    translate([0, 10, 0])
    sphere(r = 1);
}
Usage example 3 - iteration over a vector of vectors (rotation):
for(i = [ [  0,  0,   0],
          [ 10, 20, 300],
          [200, 40,  57],
          [ 20, 88,  57] ])
{
    rotate(i)
    cube([100, 20, 20], center = true);
}
 
OpenSCAD for loop (rotation)
Usage example 4 - iteration over a vector of vectors (translation):
 for(i = [ [ 0,  0,  0],
           [10, 12, 10],
           [20, 24, 20],
           [30, 36, 30],
           [20, 48, 40],
           [10, 60, 50] ])
{
    translate(i)
    cube([50, 15, 10], center = true);
}
 
OpenSCAD for loop (translation)

Nested loop example

  for (xpos=[0:3], ypos = [2,4,6]) // do twelve iterations, using each xpos with each ypos
   translate([xpos*ypos, ypos, 0]) cube([0.5, 0.5, 0.5]);

Intersection For Loop

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Iterate over the values in a vector or range and take an intersection of the contents.

Note: intersection_for() is a work around because of an issue that you cannot get the expected results using a combination of the standard for() and intersection() statements. The reason is that for() does an implicit union() of the contents.

Parameters

<loop variable name>
Name of the variable to use within the for loop.
Usage example 1 - loop over a range:
intersection_for(n = [1 : 6])
{
    rotate([0, 0, n * 60])
    {
        translate([5,0,0])
        sphere(r=12);
    }
}
 
OpenSCAD Intersection for
Usage example 2 - rotation :
 intersection_for(i = [ [  0,  0,   0],
 			[ 10, 20, 300],
 			[200, 40,  57],
 			[ 20, 88,  57] ])
{
    rotate(i)
    cube([100, 20, 20], center = true);
}
 
OpenSCAD Intersection for (rotation)

If Statement

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Conditionally evaluate a sub-tree.

Parameters

  • The boolean expression that should be used as condition

NOTE:

Do not confuse the assignment operator '=' with the equal operator '=='

 if (a=b) dosomething();  // WRONG - this will FAIL to be processed without any error message
 if (a==b) dosomething(); // CORRECT - this will do something if a equals b

NOTE:

Assignment is not allowed within either branch of an if statement. Consider using the ternary operator 'condition ? consequent: alternative'.

// WRONG - this will FAIL to be processed with a syntax error message
if (condition)
{
    x = consequent;
} else {
    x = alternative;
}
// CORRECT - this will set 'x' to either 'consequent' or 'alternative'
x = condition ? consequent : alternative;

Usage example:

if (x > y)
{
    cube(size = 1, center = false);
} else {
    cube(size = 2, center = true);
}

Assign Statement

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Set variables to a new value for a sub-tree.

Parameters

  • The variables that should be (re-)assigned

Usage example:

for (i = [10:50])
{
    assign (angle = i*360/20, distance = i*10, r = i*2)
    {
        rotate(angle, [1, 0, 0])
        translate([0, distance, 0])
        sphere(r = r);
    }
}

Update: [Note: Requires version 2015.03]

Starting with this version, assign() has been deprecated as it is no longer needed; variables can be assigned anywhere.