dotSCAD/docs/lib3x-along_with.md

along_with

If you want to place objects precisely, their points and angles are required. When you have only points or you don't care their precise angles, along_with puts children along the given path. If there's only one child, it will put the child for each point.

Parameters

• points : The points along the path.
• angles : Rotate before translate each child. If not given, rotate children automatically according to points and method.
• twist : If given, each child will be twisted before applying each element of points and angles.
• scale : If given, each child will be scaled before applying each element of points and angles. It accepts a single value, [sx, sy] or [sx, sy, sz].
• method : Which method does along_with take to guess how to rotate children if angles is not specified? It accepts two value, "AXIS_ANGLE" (default) and "EULER_ANGLE". See path_extrude for more information. Since: 1.3

Examples

use <along_with.scad>
use <shape_circle.scad>

$fn = 24;

points = shape_circle(radius = 50);

along_with(points) 
    sphere(5);

use <along_with.scad>
use <shape_circle.scad>

$fn = 24;

points = shape_circle(radius = 50);

along_with(points) {
	linear_extrude(10, center = true) text("A", valign = "center", halign = "center");
	linear_extrude(5, center = true) circle(2);
	sphere(1);
	cube(5);
	linear_extrude(10, center = true) text("A", valign = "center", halign = "center");
	linear_extrude(5, center = true) circle(2);
	sphere(1);
	cube(5);        
}

use <along_with.scad>
use <golden_spiral.scad>

pts_angles = golden_spiral(
	from = 5, 
	to = 11, 
	point_distance = 4
);

points = [for(p_a = pts_angles) p_a[0]];
angles = [for(p_a = pts_angles) p_a[1]];

along_with(points, angles)
rotate([90, 0, 0]) 
linear_extrude(1, center = true) 
	text("A", valign = "center", halign = "center");

use <bezier_curve.scad>
use <along_with.scad>

module scales() {
	module one_scale() {
		rotate([0, 60, 0]) 
		linear_extrude(1, center = true) 
		scale([2, 1]) 
			circle(1.25, $fn = 24);    
	}

	for(a = [0:30:330]) {
		rotate(a) 
		translate([5, 0, 0]) 
			one_scale();

		rotate(a + 15) 
		translate([5, 0, 1.75]) 
			one_scale();
	}
}

t_step = 0.01;

p0 = [0, 0, 0];
p1 = [0, 50, 35];
p2 = [-100, 70, 0];
p3 = [30, 120, -35];
p4 = [30, 150, -40];
p5 = [0, 200, -3];

path_pts = bezier_curve(t_step, 
	[p0, p1, p2, p3, p4, p5]
);

along_with(path_pts, scale = 0.5)  
	scales();