Saying it → doing it
Look up the operation from the words you would use to describe the shape.
“Round the corners”, “hollow it out” – a table from the words in your head to
the operation that does it. The syntax itself is in the
cheatsheet.
Changing a shape
| You say |
Operation |
Example |
| round the corners, radius, fillet |
fillet r |
edges "=Z" | fillet 3 |
| bevel, chamfer, break the edge |
chamfer c |
edges ">Z" | chamfer 1 |
| hollow out, make it a box/cup, wall it |
faces + shell t |
faces ">Z" | shell 2 |
| cut away, subtract, remove |
diff |
| diff (cylinder 5 30) |
| add, join, stick on |
union |
| union $boss |
| keep only the overlap |
inter |
| inter (sphere 20) |
| hole, drill, bore |
hole r |
faces ">Z" | hole 3 |
| counterbore, countersink |
two holes, stepped |
hole 3.4, then a shallow hole 6 |
| through hole |
hole r with no depth |
omit the depth and it goes through |
| slot, groove, channel |
a thin box, then diff |
| diff ($slot) |
| offset, clearance, relief |
offset d |
| offset -1 (inward) |
| make the plate thicker |
the extrude value |
— |
Making a solid
| You say |
Operation |
Example |
| extrude, pull up |
extrude h |
rect 50 30 | extrude 10 |
| turned, lathe, vase, cup, bowl |
sketch + revolve |
sketch [...] | revolve Y |
| draw the cross-section |
sketch [...] |
a closed profile |
| follow a path, pipe, tube |
wire/helix + sweep |
wire [...] | sweep (circle 3) |
| spring, the path of a thread |
helix + sweep |
helix 5 30 10 | sweep (circle 2) |
| loft between two shapes |
loft [sections] h |
loft [rect 8 8] 10 |
| taper, draft |
extrude h draft:5 |
positive widens toward the top |
| wedge, ramp |
wedge |
wedge 20 10 15 5 |
Position and orientation
| You say |
Operation |
Note |
| move, shift |
translate x y z |
|
| rotate, tilt |
rotate rx ry rz |
origin:"local" turns about its own centre |
| scale, resize |
scale s |
|
| mirror, flip |
mirror "X" |
|
| sit it on the bed, put z=0 at the bottom |
floor |
primitives are centred on the origin, so this is needed more often than you expect |
| array, grid |
grid nx ny pitch |
|
| arrange in a circle |
polar n r |
|
| put it on that face |
faces + place |
|
Names for parts
| You say |
How to build it |
| boss (a post for a screw) |
union a cylinder, then hole at the pilot diameter |
| rib (a stiffener) |
union a thin box |
| flange |
union a wide, thin cylinder |
| foot ring (on the base of a vessel) |
union a ring of cylinder underneath, diff the inside |
| drainage |
grid + hole, or a row of ribs |
| clip, hook |
union an L-shaped box |
| lid |
extrude the same outline, then offset -clearance for the part that fits inside |
| press fit, clearance fit |
the clearance to use is in the dimensions table |
Ways of saying which face
| You say |
Selector |
| top |
">Z" or top |
| bottom |
"<Z" or bottom |
| the sides |
"+Z" (faces whose normal is perpendicular to Z) |
| right / left |
">X" / "<X" |
| front / back |
"<Y" (front) / ">Y" (back) |
| the vertical edges (corners) |
edges "=Z" |
| the top rim |
edges ">Z" |
| all of them |
leave the selector out |
+Z is the sides, not the top. front is the minus side. Both are easy to
get backwards.