» Tricube

Tricube

November 1, 2020 by Chris Johnson. Filed under madeup, public.

A month ago one of my sons’ toys inspired me to try and model it in Madeup. Here is the original set of magnetic blocks:

And here is my first attempt at modeling them using Madeup’s dowel command with rounded bends:


  
    moveto(x = 0, y = 0)

repeat 3
  move(distance = 1)
  yaw(degrees = 90)
  move(distance = 1)
  pitch(degrees = -90)

dowel(sharpness = 5)
    
    
    
  
  
    
    moveto(x = 0, y = 0)

repeat 3
  move(distance = 1)
  yaw(degrees = 90)
  move(distance = 1)
  pitch(degrees = -90)

dowel(sharpness = 5)

Notice the hole in the middle. Given how the rounding is implemented, I was not able to remove it. You can bet that I was haunted by that hole. I took some time to design a new solidifier so that I could create this shape. The solidifier is called table. One feeds it a list of cross sections, all of the same cardinality, and the cross sections are connected together.

The shape generated by table has no hole.


  
    moveto(x = 0, y = 0)
pitch(degrees = -90)
repeat 4
  move(distance = 1)
  yaw(degrees = -90)

path = mold()
paths = [path]

n = 20
degrees = 90.0 / n

axes = [:backward, :up, :right]

repeat 2
  for axis of axes
    repeat n
      path = rotate(path, degrees, axis)
      paths.push(item = path)

table(rows = paths)

    
    
    
  
  
    
    moveto(x = 0, y = 0)
pitch(degrees = -90)
repeat 4
  move(distance = 1)
  yaw(degrees = -90)

path = mold()
paths = [path]

n = 20
degrees = 90.0 / n

axes = [:backward, :up, :right]

repeat 2
  for axis of axes
    repeat n
      path = rotate(path, degrees, axis)
      paths.push(item = path)

table(rows = paths)

Someday soon I’ll have a more general loft solidifier, which will allow cross sections of different cardinalities.