This is an OpenSCAD script to generate two-sided 3D texts that merge, each text is visible from a different point of view.
This script has been published and can be found and used directly on MakerWorld's page.
This page is also available in Italian. Questa guida è disponibile in italiano.
Here's an detailed explanation of every possible setting. Feel free to explore the endless possibilities of combining these values.
In this tab you can set the basic parameters about displayed texts.
| Parameter | Description | unit | min | max | default |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| text_1 | This is the text which is visible: - from left if text_mode is Left-Right; - from the top in other modes. |
text | "SUSANNA" | ||
| text_2 | This is the text which is visible: - from right if text_mode is Left-Right; - from front in other modes. |
text | "CHRISTIAN" | ||
| text_mode | This defines the mode of rendering of texts, this value can be: - Left-Right - one text is visible from an angled left point of view, the other one is visible from an angled right point of view; - Front-Top - one text is visible from the top of the object, the other one from the front; - 45° front-Top - one text is visible from the top of the object, the other one from a 45 degrees angled position between the top and the front. |
Left-Right | |||
| render_engine | This enables user to choose which rendering engine to use with this script, providing some sort or retro-compatibility. This value can be: - v1.0 - legacy - this uses the legacy rendering engine of version 1.0, which is know to have some limitations; - v2.0 - NEW! produces a cleaner object - this value enables the use of new version 2.0 engine which renders better, creating cleaner objects, solving a lot of problems and being more precise with calculations, giving user new opportunities and features. |
v2.0 | |||
| text_angle | This value, which is valid only in the Left-Right mode, allows you to set the angle from which the texts will be visible. | degrees | 0 | 180 | 45 |
| text_shape | This value can change the shape of the object, possible values are: - Rectangle - the same as in original released version, seen from above the object is a rectangle or a rectangle with arrows: - Circle - seen from above the object is a circle; - Heart - seen from above the object is an heart; - Rounded rectangle - a rectangle with rounded corners (only available when using new rendering engine). |
Rounded rectangle | |||
| text_roundness | If text_shape is set as Rounded rectangle, this is the percentage of roundness to give to corners. A value of zero will create a pure rectangle. | % | 0 | 100 | 50 |
| text_heart_direction | If text_shape is set as Heart, this specifies where the pointing end of the heart is directed, this value can be: - Left - the heart points in the same direction of the left text; - Right - the heart points in the same direction of the right text; - Middle - the heart points in the middle between the two texts. |
Left | |||
| text_padding | Selects the character to be used when padding texts to match lengths, this can be: - Space - a whitespace is inserted, meaning a small object will be created; - Heart - a heart shape will be inserted; |
Space |
In this tab you can set all parameters about the font to be used for the texts.
| Parameter | Description | unit | min | max | default |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| font_name | Choose one of the supported fonts from the list to apply it to the text. Be warned! Complex fonts and fonts with serifs tend to generate floating objects which will result in waste of material and time. Consider using sans serif fonts and/or check my guide on how to easily get rid of floating objects using Fusion 360 down below. |
Merriweather Sans | |||
| font_custom | Here you can override the above setting by putting the name of a font installed in the system where this script is executed. Please keep in mind that when you use Parametric Model Maker, the system the script is running on is MakerWorld's server, not your computer. | empty | |||
| font_style | Choose the style of the text. This can also be set to None, which will use font's default style. Note: not all fonts support all styles. |
Bold | |||
| font_size | The size of the text, which will result in being the height of the object (excluding base and top plate) and also the depth of the object. | mm | 1 | 72 | 20 |
| font_spacing | Spacing between letters, the greater the number, the far the letters are. Better results are achieved when the letters touch one another, if they don't, a solid base will be required to keep them together. | 0.1 | 5 | 1 |
To keep the letters united, you need to generate a base plate, these parameters allows you to personalize it's creation.
| Parameter | Description | unit | min | max | default |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| base_type | The type of base to be created, this value can be: - None - no base is created at all; - Solid - a solid base is created at bottom of object; - Text - a top-text shaped base is being created at bottom of object, please note that this is mode not supported in Left-Right mode and Solid will be used instead. |
Text | |||
| base_height | The height of the base. | mm | 0.2 | 25 | 3 |
| base_x_correction | Since OpenSCAD does not provide functionalities to compute texts' widths and heights, calculus about the base are approximated, with this parameter you can offset the base position on the X-axis to correct those calculus. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
| base_y_correction | Same as base_x_correction, but for the Y-axis. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
| base_z_correction | Same as base_x_correction, but for the Z-axis. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0.4 |
| base_size_correction | Same reason as for base_x_correction, this parameter allows you to shrink on enlarge the base size. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
| base_heart_size | The correction of the size of the heart when it's being created. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
| base_heart_x | Heart X-axis correction. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
| base_heart_y | Heart Y-axis correction. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
Parameters that will create a top plate over the texts.
| Parameter | Description | unit | min | max | default |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| top_type | The type of plate to be created, this value can be: - None - no top plate is created at all: - Solid - a solid plate is created at top of object: - Text - a top-text shaped plate is being created at top of object, please note that this is mode not supported in Left-Right model mode and Solid will be used instead. |
None | |||
| top_height | The height of the top plate. | mm | 0.2 | 25 | 3 |
| top_x_correction | Since OpenSCAD does not provide functionalities to compute texts' widths and heights, calculus about the top plate are approximated, with this parameter you can offset the plate position on the X-axis to correct those calculus. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
| top_y_correction | Same as top_x_correction, but for the Y-axis. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
| top_z_correction | Same as top_x_correction, but for the Z-axis. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0.4 |
| top_size_correction | Same reason as for top_x_correction, this parameter allows you to shrink on enlarge the top plate size. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
| top_heart_size | The correction of the size of the heart when it's being created. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
| top_heart_x | Heart X-axis correction. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
| top_heart_y | Heart Y-axis correction. | mm | -100 | 100 | 0 |
Some parameters that can help you fix things that come out weird.
| Parameter | Description | min | max | default |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| curves_quality | Selects the quality of curves to be used when generating the model, the lowest the quality, the faster generation will take. You can work in Draft all the time for fast refresh, but you need to remember to switch back to Normal or something higher before exporting the model to be printed. Possible values: - Draft - low quality, not suitable for printing; - Printable draft - not for production, yet printable; - Normal: normal quality, ready to print; - Good quality: good quality for printing; - High quality: very good quality for printing; - Very high quality: good quality for high resolution printers. Be warned: Parametric Model Maker has a short timeout for script execution to avoid DDoS attacks, for this reason setting a quality too high could create a timeout error |
Normal | ||
| font_ratio | Since OpenSCAD does not provide functionalities to compute texts' widths and heights, calculus are approximated, with this parameter, which represents the ratio between the height and the width of a single letter of the font used, you can correct those calculations. | 0.1 | 3 | 1.33 |
| small_characters | This is the list of the characters that will be considered small and will have a smaller depth (see small_characters_ratio). | "!()1I[]fijlt{" | ||
| small_characters_ratio | This is the ratio between the depth of a normal character and the depth of a character considered small. | 0.01 | 3 | 0.3 |
| space_ratio | This is the ratio between the depth of a normal character and the depth of a rectangle created in place of a white space. | 0.01 | 3 | 0.1 |
| disable_warnings | Check this option to disable showing warning and proceed with object generation anyway. | false | ||
| running_at | This parameter defines where the script is being executed: - MakerWorld's Parametric Model Maker - the script will make sure you're using one of the supported fonts - style combinations supported by the MakerWorld's servers and show a warning if you enter an unsupported font / style or combination of the two; - My computer - the above check is skipped. |
MakerWorld |
As said before, complex texts and fonts with serifs tend to generate floating objects which will result in waste of material and time. This step by step guide will teach anyone, also with no experience of using AutoDesk Fusion 360 at all, to remove them from the resulting object.
First of all generate the desired design, you will notice some floating objects that are not connected to other object and not supported by material in any way.
Save the design as STL
If using MakerWorld's Parametric Model Maker, click on the 
button to have the last modifications to the parameters be reflected on your model, then click on the 
button.
When this popup shows up
Click on the 
button to download the STL version.
If your computer offers the possibility to save the file to a desired location, select a folder where you want to save it and choose a proper name, e. g. “floating_objects”, which fill create “floating_objects.stl”.
If your browser is configured to automatically save files, you will find the file named “Ambigram generator.stl” in the location you usually receive downloaded file, usually called the “Downloads” folder.
Now open a new Fusion 360 project, and from the top toolbar, in SOLID tab, choose INSERT => Insert Mesh
When this popup window will appear, click on Select from my computer… button.
A file selection dialog will be shown, locate the freshly downloaded file and click on Open.
The object will be placed in the center of the scene, just click on OK.
Now we need to convert this to an object body.
With the object selected, follow these steps:
- Click on the MESH tab in the top toolbar;
- Click on the MODIFY menu in the toolbar;
- Select the Convert Mesh menu from the popup menu;
- Click on OK to start the conversion.
Depending on the object complexity and your computer computational power, this could take some time.
Once finish, we need to disable the design history to be able to work on this freely.
Expand the Bodies group in the object browser by clicking on the left-pointing triangle on group name's left side.
In the object browser, right click on the top nome e. g. (Unsaved), and from the popup menu that appears choose Do not capture Design History.
A confirmation dialog will appear, select Continue to stop capturing design history.
Now start selecting one by one the bodies, in the object browser's Bodies trunk.
The corresponding object will be blue highlighted on the screen, it this is a floating object, right click on his name in the object browser and select Delete from the popup menu that appeared.
Important: once you deleted all unwanted bodies (you should only have one object left), left click on the Bodies trunk in the object browser.
Now that we cleaned the object, we need to export the file back to STL.
Follow these steps:
- Select the UTILITIES tab in the top toolbar;
- Select the MAKE icon.
When in Make mode, the object will be light-blue highlighted, please ensure to select the STL format (binary is preferred, but not mandatory), then click on OK.
A dialog will popup, please be sure to check the Save to my computer option and select a valid folder, enter a name like cleaned_text, which will create cleaned_text.stl file, and finally click on Save.
Open Bambu Studio or your preferred slicer, start a new project and drag the file onto it.
You will almost surely need to enable supports for printing this, so please be sure to be in the Global section, then go to the Support tab, activate Enable support and select tree(auto) as Type - I've got the most efficient and beautiful results using this.
If you want to use symbols in texts, you can with certain restrictions.
Since not all fonts include the glyph of an heart and those who sometimes do have different codes, I created a special escape characters sequence to insert an heart. In the position where you want to insert a heart glyph, just insert \h in place.
From the start menu, open Characters Map.
Select from the combobox the font you're using in your design, then scroll through characters to find the glyph you want to use, click on it, and press the Select button, then use the Copy button to copy it to the clipboard, go to the Parametric Model Maker, focus the input field and paste from the clipboard.
Optionally you can copy the character code in the lower left corner and insert its hexadecimal value in the text field pre-pending the "\u" escape character sequence, e. g. : U+2665 becomes \u2665
Alternatively you can use Character Map UWP
Select the font you're using from the left list, scroll through the glyphs to search the one you like most, then click it to focus it. Use the Copy button in the lower-right corner to copy it to the clipboard.
Optionally you can copy the character code in the lower right corner and insert its hexadecimal value in the text field pre-pending the "\u" escape character sequence, e. g. : U+263B becomes \u263B
On the Apple system you have a similar tool which is Font Book, open it from the Applications folder.
On startup you will be presented the full list of fonts installed on your system, search for the font you're using in the script and double click on it's icon to open up the font details.
Scroll through the glyphs to search the one you like most, then click it to open it up and use the Copy button in the lower-right corner to copy it to the clipboard. Paste it into the script's input field.
Optionally you can copy the character code in the lower left corner and insert its hexadecimal value in the text field pre-pending the "\u" escape character sequence, e. g. : U+263C becomes \u263C.
I made some cheat sheets, due to limitations of upload size and count to MakerWorld I only uploaded the index there, you will find all the font-specific files in the [Fonts cheat sheet folder](https://github.com/zizzo81/ambigram/tree/main/Fonts cheat sheet) here on GitHub.
Open up the [Fonts cheat sheet.pdf](https://github.com/zizzo81/ambigram/blob/main/Fonts cheat sheet/Fonts cheat sheet.pdf) file and click the font you're using, you will be brought to the PDF file containing the cheat sheet for that font.
Scroll through the pages and search the glyph you're looking for, copy the code below it and paste it into the input fields.
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| 2024-06-19 | - improvement: added the escape character sequence \h to insert an heart; - abandoned the old list of fonts and style provided by @Stephanos for using a custom list created by information I've got from MakerWorld's staff; - updated the cheat sheets for the font list that I've got from MakerWorld's staff; - introduced a system for showing errors and warnings to the user; - fixed Tweaks (fix thing up) tab, the open curly bracket was breaking the list of parameters; - fixed the [Hidden] section, was not appearing just because there was the above problem; - translated the guide in Italian, which can be found [here](Guida generatore di ambigrammi.pdf). |
| 2024-06-16 | - a completely new rendering engine has been introduced, this engine creates cleaner objects, solves a lot of problems, is more precise with calculations and gives new opportunities for new features; - fix: when text_left was longer than text_right, the font was cut in half vertically; - fix: top was positioned a lot above the end of the object; - other minor fixes that prevented the script running as intended; - feature: new rendering engine allows to create rounded rectangle base and top plate; - feature: escaping of texts allows to specify ASCII and UNICODE characters; - improvement: heart shape is not considered experimental anymore, since with new rendering engine it's almost perfect; - improvement: font_style has a new possible value of "None"; - the new rendering engine has been set as default, but you can switch back to the legacy one by setting the render_engine parameter; - improvement: since rendering engine is default and more precise with calculations, correction offsets and parameters have been zeroed, still available because you can still switch to the legacy engine; - improvement: small characters can be defined and they will be rendered with a specific ratio in depth (only with new rendering engine); - improvement: spaces will be rendered as a very thin shape so corresponding letter can be seen (only with new rendering engine); - improvement: for texts that have different lengths, trailing and leading spaces will be equally added to match the length (only with new rendering engine); - a new PDF called "Fonts cheat sheet.pdf" including all standard fonts with all their glyphs has been added. |
| 2024-06-11 | - fix: uses baseline for text creation, this prevents letters like "J" (uppercase j) to break the design; - fix: cuts out all that goes below the baseline, preventing floating letters; - added selection of the shape mode between rectangle (legacy) and circle; - added selection of the shape heart (experimental); - added top plate creation (request from a user). |
| 2024-06-08 | First public release. |
Thanks to @Stephanos for the complete list of fonts and styles supported by MakerWorld he gave me access with his script Parametric Model Maker ALL TEXT FONTS TEMPLATE you can find here.
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