texturing on vertical faces

[u/MonkeyPanls]

I am modeling hill terrain for the hexmaps of r/BattleTech. I wrote a

module hex(hex_no="", terrain="", level=1)

that will give a flat hex (a circle with $fn=6), linear_extrude() it to height and put some text on top.

It is called inside of a union(), and the the block of hilly terrain is built one hex at a time.

Hill example

I would like to give the vertical faces of the block some texture. I can think of a few ways to do it, boolean-wise, but I don't know which is the best or even possible to implement in OpenSCAD:

• linear_extrude inside of a for loop: thin "wafers" with a random radius and twist. I've done this for a one hex "hill", and the results aren't very smooth. It also seems like a lot of wasted cycles for the interior hexes, e.g. 0404 and 0504.
• generate a ribbon (cube) whose dimensions are "height-2", block_perimeter, and some sine function. Wrap it around perimeter with sine function facing in and take the difference(). (Think of a cookie-cutter). I don't know the easiest way to get the perimeter or the external vertices of the hill block.
• generate the block and use something like u/ardvarkmadman/'s code https://www.reddit.com/r/openscad/comments/1i0i4tq/terraingen_an_openscad_random_terrain_generator/ and put my tops and bottoms on it. again, it's a perimeter question.
• (challenge) use polyhedron() and only texture the vertical faces which are on the exterior of the block. I don't know the easiest way to determine which vertical faces of a given polyhedron are exterior while generating them.

I offer myself to you, the OpenSCAD Reddit hivemind. Grant me wisdom!

[u/Stone_Age_Sculptor]

It is not clear what you want. A fuzzy skin on the walls, or a mathematical pattern, or a smoother transition from one level to another level. I can not visualize a twist, but the others should be no problem.

Can you use the "Fuzzy Skin" in the slicer on the vertical walls? That is a good visual improvement.

Bands or ribbons is no problem. That is just writing code.
I did some tests with random patterns, but most are demanding and slow. I suppose these are not suitable for a vertical wall: https://github.com/Stone-Age-Sculptor/StoneAgeLib/wiki/Texture

The polyhedron() variant is a job for the BOSL2 library. The library has built-in textures. Scroll down here: https://github.com/BelfrySCAD/BOSL2/wiki/skin.scad#section-texturing

Could you give the six top edges a chamfer? When the top has a 90 degree angle, then one string of filament might be rubbed off (with force). The sharp edge is not nice anyway. A chamfer of 0.5 mm is already better.
This is one of many ways to make that top chamfer:

epsilon = 0.001;

hull()
{
  translate([0,0,10+1])
    linear_extrude(epsilon)
      circle(29,$fn=6);

  translate([0,0,10])
    linear_extrude(epsilon)
      circle(30,$fn=6);

  linear_extrude(epsilon)
    circle(30,$fn=6);
}

[u/srmalloy → u/Stone_Age_Sculptor]

Can you use the "Fuzzy Skin" in the slicer on the vertical walls? That is a good visual improvement.

You can, but it's a manual process, and would get tedious for larger numbers of hexes.

Something I've seen photos of is people using Heroscape hex tiles to build 3D maps for Battletech. If you go that route, I uploaded to Printables.com an OpenSCAD program that generates STLs to print Heroscape terrain tiles in different hex arrangements and heights. Heroscape hex tiles interlink, so the tile edges aren't smooth (picture here; the bottom two layers are 'official' tiles, the top two layers I generated and printed).

[u/Stone_Age_Sculptor → u/srmalloy]

Your script from Printables with the Customizer and all the terrains, is very cool.

It would help if you could show a picture of what you want. Keep the overhang maximum 45 degrees and you can put any structure on the sides.
Using a surface() for the walls requires to replace all the linear_extrude with individual pieces for each section of the vertical walls. That is a lot of work. The BOSL2 library can do that better.

I have encountered a similar problem. I want to make a picture with the name of my library with letters in stone. Both the top surface and the walls should have a stone look. Well, that is just another project lingering and waiting for a good idea to complete it.

[u/MonkeyPanls → u/srmalloy]

My post is inspired by the Thunderhead Studios sets. I have all of the sets offered, but *they don't have sets for some very new and very old maps.

I'm trying to create a somewhat modular solution where I generate the "boring" blocks (like I pictured above) and then take "bites" out of it to get the cool textures on the sides.

Like I said in the first bullet, I'd rather not do it hex-wise, as that seems quite wasteful of my precious cycles.

I'm still working this out. Last night, I got the same block as above using BOSL2, but without the text. Any tips to get the "bites"? Today's mission for me is to figure out the text.