Time in OpenSCAD

OpenSCAD offers limited support for time-related operations, so we’ll focus on the available functionality and provide alternative approaches where possible.

// OpenSCAD doesn't have built-in time functions, so we'll use system commands
// and string manipulation to work with time.

// Function to get the current time as a string
function current_time() = 
    str(floor(system("date +%s") / 3600), ":",
        floor((system("date +%s") % 3600) / 60), ":",
        system("date +%s") % 60);

// Function to create a simple date
function create_date(year, month, day) = 
    str(year, "-", month < 10 ? str("0", month) : month, "-", day < 10 ? str("0", day) : day);

// Main part of the script
echo("Current time:", current_time());

echo("Created date:", create_date(2009, 11, 17));

// OpenSCAD doesn't have built-in weekday calculation,
// so we'll just print a placeholder
echo("Weekday: Not available in OpenSCAD");

// Time comparison is not directly possible in OpenSCAD,
// but we can compare date strings
echo("Date comparison:", create_date(2009, 11, 17) < create_date(2023, 5, 24));

// Duration calculation is not available in OpenSCAD

// We can perform simple date arithmetic by manipulating strings
function add_days(date, days) =
    let(parts = split(date, "-"))
    create_date(parts[0] + floor((parts[2] + days) / 365), 
                ((parts[1] - 1 + floor((parts[2] + days) % 365) / 30) % 12) + 1, 
                ((parts[2] - 1 + days) % 30) + 1);

echo("Date after adding 100 days:", add_days(create_date(2009, 11, 17), 100));

// This script doesn't produce any 3D output
cube(1); // Add a small cube to avoid empty output warning

This OpenSCAD script demonstrates some basic time and date operations. However, it’s important to note that OpenSCAD has very limited built-in support for time-related functions. Here’s what the script does:

We define a current_time() function that uses a system command to get the current time.
The create_date() function allows us to create a simple date string.
We print the current time and a created date.
Weekday calculation is not available in OpenSCAD, so we just print a placeholder message.
We can compare date strings, but more complex time comparisons are not possible.
Duration calculations are not available in OpenSCAD.
We define a simple add_days() function to perform basic date arithmetic by manipulating strings.

To run this script, save it as a .scad file and open it with OpenSCAD. The echo statements will print the results in the console.

Note that OpenSCAD is primarily a 3D modeling scripting language, so its capabilities for time manipulation are very limited compared to general-purpose programming languages. For more complex time-related operations, it would be better to use a different language or external tools.

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Time in OpenSCAD