Added box() and position() to openSCAD

Two new functions are introduced in my fork of openSCAD
2013.06. It is downloadable from:

   https://github.com/devlaam/openscad.git

apart from that I refactored my loop extensions quite a
bit and hope everything still works as advertised :)

Please note I wrote (hacked) these extensions mainly for
my own purposes, and this is just to share my work with you.
This is not an explicit request for addition of these
functions to the main branch (but i would not mind it
either ;-). If you find them useful please let me know.

The new functions are
   box()
   position()

The first, box() replaces the object with the rectangular
bounding box, it is like a crude hull() and very fast. You
have some options (see documentation) to enlarge/shrink this
bounding box in either direction. I use it to make a
"cut out" in parent objects, without having to think
about the dimensions again.

The second, position(), enables you to reposition an
object independent of its current location, somewhere
in space, or relative to an other object. This is
quite convenient if your model is heavily parametrized.

Please note I also made some small improvements to the
loop() and loop_extrude() extensions, which make
use somewhat easier (for example, implicit repetition
of point coordinates, polar coordinates for polygons,
generation of cyclic and equiangular polygons).

Of course, I updated the documentation with the
syntax and examples of use.

https://github.com/devlaam/openscad/blob/loop_extension/doc/Loop.pdf

Have fun with these new possibilities
and let me know what you may encounter.

Ruud

Enclosed two real life examples of copper strips
i use in my designs. Made with loop_extude(...)

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Hi Ruud,

Thanks a lot for your efforts! I hope to be able to look at your work in detail, and take part in the discussion on how to best merge this into OpenSCAD. I'll be out traveling for a good while, but I'll eventually be bored and need some brain tasks :)

 -Marius

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Thanks for the kind words! Have a great, well
deserved holiday, and we will see this when
you get back. In the mean time, people can try
if from my github.

Ruud.

On 30-06-13 18:38, Marius Kintel wrote:
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