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Math Magik Designer

Warning

This project is a work in progress. The application described here is not quite ready to use, but that should change soon! You can test the installation process now, and update the program when it becomes more useful.

The Math-Magik design application, named Math-Magik Designer is being developed to assist in the design of a model using OpenSCAD. The application is being written in Python but most users will not need to worry about that. Instead, the application will be distributed as a self-contained package that can be installed like any other application on your chosen platform. Since most model builders are not developers, it is likely they use a Windows system, or possible a Mac. Rarely will they use Linux. In any case, I try to support all three platforms.

Note

Unfortunately, there are many variations of Linux out there, so I will limit my testing to just Ubuntu which is what I had my students use while teaching software develipment!.

This section is intended for model building users of this project. Developers who might want to contribute to this project will be more interested in the development notes at development-notes. Those notes walk you through the complete development of this application.

Getting Started

Assuming you have a suitable computer, which can be running Windows, MacOS, or Linux, you will need to install just two components:

Installing OpenSCAD

Installing OpenSCAD is pretty simple. Navigate to their website at https://openscad.org/downloads.html and download the installer suitable for your system. Once it is on your system, run the installer to complete the installation.

Intalling Math-Magik Designer

Installing Math-Magik Designer is similar. Navigate to https://www.co-pylit.org/mmdesigner.html and select the version for your system. Once the file is on your system, run it to complete the installation.

Math-Magik Designer User Interface

There are two ways to use this application. One involves typing commands on a command line`, and the second uses a traditional mouse-driven approach.

I suspect most modelers are unfamiliar with the command line, since it dates back to the dawn of computing! Developers should be very familiar with this interface, and it is usually the first interface developed in many projects. The command line is available on all systems:

  • Windows: enter cmd in the Windows search box, then click on that program.

  • Mac: Open the term application under Applications/Utilities

  • Linux: Open up a new shell

On each of these systems, you will see a blank window with some kind of prompt. This prompt usually tells you where on your computer you are currently working. At the end of the prompt, you should see some kind of cursor marker indicating that the system is waiting for you to type in a command. That command will name some program and let you enter additional parameters that control how the program will work.

As a simple example, let’s check the version of Math-Magik Designer currently installed:

$ mmd --version
On any of these systems, you can verify that your installation is correct by typing in the following command.

name authorized to install programs. If you are the owner of the machine, this

is not a problem.

Installing Math-Magik Designer is best done using the command line`. Many modelers may not be familiar with this

first two are covered in the Appendix

The Math-Magik Designer application can be launched as either a command line tool, or as a graphical user interface tool.

In this section, we will work through the development of this application. These notes are intended for developers who might wish to contribute to the project. Model builders probably need to refer to the users-guide instead.

Command Line Interface

In this section, we will show the mmd application can be used in your model design work.

First, just typing mmd on the command line will display a help message to show you all available commands and options that can be used.

System Message: ERROR/6 (/Users/rblack/_dev/math-magik/rst/mmdesigner/00-math-magik-designer.rst, line 202)

Command ['mmd'] failed: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'mmd'

You can also ask for help explicitly”

System Message: ERROR/6 (/Users/rblack/_dev/math-magik/rst/mmdesigner/00-math-magik-designer.rst, line 206)

Command ['mmd', '--help'] failed: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'mmd'

Unfortunately, this help message does not show you everything about possible commands. The list of commands shown have additional parameters you can see by asking for help on them:

System Message: ERROR/6 (/Users/rblack/_dev/math-magik/rst/mmdesigner/00-math-magik-designer.rst, line 212)

Command ['mmd', 'stl', '--help'] failed: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'mmd'

Here the -all parameter will attempt to do a STL files for the entire design. (This can take a while!)