Designer mode is where you make a part of your own by writing its code in ReDo.Core, the OpenSCAD language ReDo's parts are written in. You can write it yourself or ask the assistant to.

Start a new part

Choose Designer in the mode box in the top bar. Your project is set aside and a new part opens: a red cube, from this code:

color("red") cube([20, 20, 20]);

The Code Editor

The Code Editor runs along the bottom of the screen, where the Inventory usually is. Drag its top edge to make it taller.

  1. Change the code.
  2. Choose Apply, or press Ctrl+Enter, to rebuild the part.
  3. The console beside the code shows how the build went: what echo() printed, how long it took and how big the part is.
  4. If the code has a mistake, the part is not rebuilt: the console shows the message, the line is marked, and Line N jumps to it.

The toolbar also has Revert, back to the code last applied, Copy, all the code, and ?, which opens OpenSCAD support, the list of what the code can call. The line under the code says whether the part is Built, Edited or Not built. Clear empties the console.

Finish

Choose Done at the right of the toolbar, or pick another mode. Your project comes back exactly as it was. The whole visit is one step in History, so one Ctrl+Z undoes it.

Your parts

  • Every part you design is kept on the Inventory's My Parts tab, even when you are signed out. Signed in, saving a project saves its parts to your account.
  • Change a part you made: right-click it in the scene, or its tile in My Parts. - Edit isolated opens it on its own. - Edit in place keeps the rest of the project in view, faded.
  • Change an Inventory part: right-click it and choose Make a copy to edit. You edit the copy; the Inventory's own part never changes.

Colours and joining

  • Colour: color("steelblue") paints a piece, and material("brass") gives it a finish. The Material panel can repaint the part afterwards.
  • Holes that join: declare a hole or a pin with female() or male(), so screws and plates snap to it in Assembly mode. See Holes, pins and sockets.
  • Fitting ReDo's parts: size the part to The ReDo System, the grid and hole sizes ReDo's own parts use.

With the assistant

Open the assistant and ask, such as "make it 40 mm long with two M3 holes". It reads the part's code, rewrites it and rebuilds the part, and you see the new code in the Code Editor.

The Part Designer

New Part in the side panel opens the Part Designer: the same editor on a page of its own, for a part that is not in a project. Save keeps it in My Parts.

Not yet

A designed part has no settings of its own in the Parameters panel yet: its sizes are the numbers in its code.