Manipulating GCode

For this assignment, we manipulated gcode as to allow us to create designs that would otherwise not be achievable with the normal settings of gcode files. I chose to modify the textile gcode given to us as I really loved the weaving design it created and wanted to further test what it could create.

The first thing I did was extend the base model as the initial rendered model was a bit too small. After lengthening it, I printed it out as seen above.

After becoming familiar with the gcode, I went ahead and modified it to create more interesting designs. The first design I randomized the x coordinates of the pillars and it created a more complex weaving design as seen above. I didn't want to rely on randomization to generate interesting designs for me so I went into the gcode to make a more structured modification.

I went into the gcode for the pillars and duplicated the pillars so that there would be three sets of them lined up on the x axis. It created the three sets of pillars without the weaving lines and lines that circled the structure. To fix this, I modified the gcode for the fibers by increasing the count to the new number of pillars so that it will be used in the computation of the lines. I was not able to get rid of the lines that extrude outside of the pillars and, after spending quite some time trying to find its source, I decided to leave them there. One of the end pillars did end up offsetting a bit although I was not able to find which computation was the cause. Once modified, I exported the gcode to be printed.

I printed out the modified gcode and got the structure modification that I wanted, with a few alterations. The model compared to the initial one has three sets of pillars each with its own weaving lines to create a strengthened flexibility.