Methods in OpenSCAD

OpenSCAD doesn’t have a direct equivalent to methods or structs as found in other programming languages. However, we can simulate similar behavior using modules and functions. Here’s an approximation of the concept:

// Define a "rect" as a module
module rect(width, height) {
    cube([width, height, 1]);
}

// Function to calculate area
function area(width, height) = width * height;

// Function to calculate perimeter
function perim(width, height) = 2 * width + 2 * height;

// Main part of the script
width = 10;
height = 5;

// Create a rectangle
rect(width, height);

// Calculate and display area and perimeter
echo("area: ", area(width, height));
echo("perim:", perim(width, height));

// In OpenSCAD, there's no distinction between value and pointer types

In OpenSCAD, we use modules to define reusable geometry (similar to structs with methods that affect geometry) and functions for calculations (similar to methods that return values).

The rect module creates a rectangular prism (effectively a 2D rectangle in 3D space).

The area and perim functions calculate the area and perimeter of a rectangle, respectively.

In the main part of the script:

1. We define the width and height of our rectangle.
2. We create the rectangle using the rect module.
3. We calculate and display the area and perimeter using the echo function, which prints to the console.

To run this script in OpenSCAD:

1. Save the code in a file with a .scad extension (e.g., rectangles.scad).
2. Open the file in OpenSCAD.
3. Click “Compile and Render” (F6) to see the 3D model.
4. Check the console output for the area and perimeter calculations.

Note that OpenSCAD doesn’t have a direct equivalent to Go’s pointer and value types. All variables in OpenSCAD are effectively passed by value, and there’s no concept of methods attached to data structures. Instead, we use functions that take the necessary parameters.

This example demonstrates how to create reusable geometry and perform calculations in OpenSCAD, which is conceptually similar to defining methods on structs in other languages.