Uploaded April 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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This video will show you how to implement an explode module in OpenSCAD.

The code is available at:
github.com/mathcodeprint/openscad-fiddlybits.git
Using the children() module you will be able to distribute your parts in any direction at arbitrary distances.

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For this video, this is the version info:

OpenSCAD Version: 2016.12.22
System information: Linux 3.16.0-38-generic #52~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 8 09:44:48 UTC 2015 i686 Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS 2 CPUs 16777216.00 TB RAM
Compiler: GCC "4.8.4" 32bit
Boost version: 1_54
Eigen version: 3.2.5
CGAL version, kernels: 4.2, Cartesian, Extended_cartesian, Epeck
OpenCSG version: OpenCSG 1.3.2
Qt version: 5.2.1
QScintilla version: 2.8.1
MingW build: No
GLib version: 2.40.2
libzip version: 0.10.1


Here are the various jump offs:

PART 1 - INTRO

00:00 Widgets to Explode

PART 2 - Basic Explode

02:20 Basic Explode

PART 3 - Distance Parameters and Enable

05:50 Add the basic distance parameter
06:40 Create an "enable" argument ( using the if statement )
09:12 Improve the distance parameter to take a vector.

PART 4 - Centering and Nesting

11:37 Nested Explode in Multiple Directions
12:40 Centering ( if statement and such )
15:50 Centering ( the math )
19:04 Effect of nested/un-nested Explode

PART 5 - Assemblies and Animation

20:20 Use explode on an assembly
22:45 Animate the assembly explode

CLOSING THOUGHTS

25:00 Closing and Advantages


NOTES: Jeremy Starcher points out, in the comments, that you could replace the third for loop by processing the 'enable' argument with a conditional operator.

Check out David McCulloughs Improved verison at :

gist.github.com/damccull/1a1df5e785e56daf53e0d7b7d8ff219e