OpenSCAD User Manual/Examples Animation

This page is a part of the Other Features page

translate ([0, 0, 10*sin($t*360)])
sphere(2);

gives a sphere that oscillates between -10 and +10 on the Z-axis.

rotate ([0, 0, $t*360])
square(5);

rotates a square around one corner around the Z-axis.To rotate the square about its middle, use:

rotate ([0, 0, $t*360])
square(5, center=true);

All parts in an animation complete one cycle of motion in the same time, $t, jump back to zero, and start again. However, the cycles can be given different numbers of steps, to give the illusion of different speeds in the same animation. This can be used to animate meshing gears of different sizes.

rotate([0, 0, $t*360/17])
gear(teeth=17);

and

rotate([0, 0, -$t*360/31])
gear(teeth=31);

rotate ([0, 0, $t*360])
translate ([10, 0])
square(5, center=true);

rotate ([0, 0, $t*360])
translate ([9, 0])
rotate ([0, 0, -$t*360])
square(5, center=true);

translate([10*sin($t*360), 20*cos($t*360)])

square(2, center=true); Note that with " translate", the object does not rotate.

e=10;
rotate([0, 0, $t*360])
translate([e, 0])
rotate([0, 0, -$t*720])
square([2*e, 2], center=true);

If "Dump Pictures" is checked, then images are created in the same directory as the .scad file. The exported PNG files can be turned into a gif via command line:

convert -delay 10 -loop 0 *.png myimage.gif

where -delay 10 is the duration of each frame in milliseconds, and -loop 0 specifies the number of loops (0 = loop forever).

The Linux convert command is part of ImageMagick, which can also be installed on macOS and Windows. Additional parameters are possible for cropping and scaling.