axi
Unofficial Python library for working with the AxiDraw v3 pen plotter.
Features
- control AxiDraw v3 directly from Python with a simple API
- convenient command-line utility
- constant acceleration (trapezoidal velocity) motion planning
- path drawing order optimization
- drawing transformations
- translate, scale, rotate
- scale and/or rotate to fit page
- move to origin or center of page
- preview drawing (render to png)
- turtle graphics
Command Line Utility
Once pip install'd, you can run the axi command-line utility. Here are the supported commands:
axi on # enable the motors
axi off # disable the motors
axi up # move the pen up
axi down # move the pen down
axi zero # set current position as (0, 0)
axi home # return to the (0, 0) position
axi move DX DY # move (DX, DY) inches, relative
axi goto X Y # move to the (X, Y) absolute position
TODO
- primitives
- circles, arcs, beziers
- svg support
Installation
axi is not yet available on PyPI, so installation works like this:
git clone https://github.com/fogleman/axi.git
cd axi
pip install -e .
Of course, installing in a virtualenv is always a good idea.
Then you can try the examples...
python examples/dragon_curve.py
Example
Use the turtle to draw a dragon curve, filling a standard US letter page.
import axi
def main(iteration):
turtle = axi.Turtle()
for i in range(1, 2 ** iteration):
turtle.forward(1)
if (((i & -i) << 1) & i) != 0:
turtle.circle(-1, 90, 36)
else:
turtle.circle(1, 90, 36)
drawing = turtle.drawing.rotate_and_scale_to_fit(11, 8.5, step=90)
axi.draw(drawing)
if __name__ == '__main__':
main(12)