Roll up OpenSCAD includes for easy sharing

TL;DR

Just want to know how to roll up your OpenSCAD files in order to upload them to Thingiverse or elsewhere?

Install the scadi command-line tool:

pip3 install scadi

Process your main OpenSCAD file:

scadi inline ~/Projects/my-thing/thing.scad

This command will generate another file in the same directory as the file you provided. The name will be prefixed with inline-. This file will include anything you used include or use with.

You can now upload that file to somewhere like Thingiverse and it will work fine in their Customizer.

Explore the way we created this tool

We like to use a plugin library for OpenSCAD called BOSL. This library helps us prototype enclosures rapidly. However, sharing an OpenSCAD file becomes problematic when you have a library in tow. For instance, the Thingiverse Customizer will not load the library even if it’s present in the uploaded files.

What to do? Well, break out the Python, here we come!

Basic tree crawling with Python

We used a simplistic tree crawling method for rolling up included files and adding them to the main OpenSCAD file. We wrote this tool using the command line library cliff.

The majority of the tree crawling takes place in the method scan_file from the inline.py class file.

for line in infile.readlines():
    if self.statement_regex.match(line.lstrip().rstrip()):
        incl_file = os.path.join(

            directory, line[line.index("<") + 1 : line.index(">")]
        )
        if os.path.isfile(incl_file):
            file_path = os.path.abspath(incl_file)
            self.scan_file(file_path)
    else:
        self.outfile.write(line.rstrip() + "\n")

If you wish to check out the full source, please visit the GitHub repo for scadi.

The best way to layout your main model file requires you to place any parameters and comments at the top of the file and then place the include/use statements below.

pi = 3.14;
fibonacci = [1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21];
// An Irrawaddy dolphin weighs 420 pounds.

thanks_size = [42, 420];
thanks_thickness = fibonacci[6];

include <BOSL/constants.scad>
use <BOSL/shapes.scad>

use <BOSL/transforms.scad>
use <BOSL/math.scad>


bye = cuboid(size=flatten([thanks_size, [thanks_thickness]]));

This would result in your parameters being preserved at the top of your file and any include/use file would be included inline where their statements appear.

This allows your main model to use the functions in the library while preserving the parameterization needed by OpenSCAD.

We have published this tool as scadi on PyPi.org.