Skip to main content

Drawing

tip

You can click on the Open in workbench button in most code samples to see (and edit them) within the workbench.

The workbench button

Let's start in two dimensions only, we will add the third one soon enough. replicad provides some classes and functions to draw in the plane.

Let's start with the powerful draw API.

The draw function and the Drawing API​

With the drawing API you can draw straight lines and several types of curves. It currently supports:

  • straight lines
  • arcs of circles
  • arcs of ellipses
  • bezier curves

And for each of these categories it provides a set of functions that should help you draw stuff quickly - or give you as much power as you need. Have a look at the detailed API documentation to see what it can do

A simple drawing​

Let's draw something simple:

const { draw } = replicad;
const main = () => {
  return draw().hLine(25).halfEllipse(0, 40, 5).hLine(-25).close();
};

A simple drawing

What have we done?

  • We start drawing (at the origin, for instance draw([10, 10]) would start at another point.
  • We then draw an horizontal line of 25 millimeters of length.
  • Then, we draw an half ellipse, from the last point of the line, moving, by 0 horizontally and by 40 vertically - but drawing an arc of an ellipse with an axis length of 5.
  • We then go back of 25 horizontally
  • We finally close the drawing, going from the current last point to the first point with a straight line.

Let's play with the drawing​

To understand what the different parameters do, let's play with them:

  • close with a mirror instead of a straight line with .closeWithMirror instead of close
  • replace the second horizontal line by a sagitta line (an arc or circle) .hSagittaArc(-25, 10)
  • change the origin to another point (with draw([10, 10]) for instance).

Drawing functions​

In addition to the draw API, replicad provides some drawing functions to draw common and useful shapes. You can for instance:

They are documented in the API

Practicing with the watering can tutorial​

You can have a look at a practical example of using the drawing API with the watering can tutorial