OPK is a spherical top keycap profile developed in CadQuery and released under the very permissive Apache License 2.0.
It's especially suited for creating high/medium profile spherical top keycaps.
The profile is still highly experimental and very alpha stage.
I'm new to CadQuery (CQ), Ptyhon and code based CAD in general. There's a lot of guesswork and fumbling around to get to this point, any help is very much appreciated.
If you are new to CQ, the easiest is to download a CQ-Editor pre-built package, load the keycap.py file and hit Render!
CQ and CQ-Editor are eveolving fast. It is important that you install the latest version of CQ and/or CQ-Editor. The latest CQ-Editor dev release can be grabbed from jmwright's repository, get the latest successful build (you need to be logged in to download).
The latest Cadquery can be installed with PIP:
pip install --pre cadquery
The main keycap function in the opk.py file has sane defaults and parameters are sufficiently commented.
The export directory includes a few examples in both STL and STEP format.
Some examples:
Create the default 1u keycap
cap = keycap()
Create a 1.5U keycap
cap = keycap(unitX=1.5)
Create a flat top (not angled) 2U keycap
cap = keycap(unitX=2, angle=0)
Create a 4U spacebar
cap = keycap(unitX=4, angle=1, convex=True)
A 2.25U Return key in system-default-serif font
cap = keycap(unitX=2.25, legend="Return", font="serif", fontsize=8)
CQ can export in many formats including STEP and STL. The easiest way to export an STL in CQ-Editor is by selecting the model in the 3D view and then clicking on Tools > Export as STL.
Of course it can be done programmatically and that can make exporting an entire keyboard very easy. The following code exports an STL and a STEP file.
cap = keycap()
exporters.export(cap, 'keycap.stl', tolerance=0.001, angularTolerance=0.05)
exporters.export(cap, 'keycap.step')
Default angle is 7deg that should be a good starting point for Row 3.
For spacebars a small angle (0-4deg) is recommended.
Not all fonts will be centered correctly, choose carefully. I'll add some way to better center the legends.
The code includes an example to use a DXF drawing as legend (check the comments at the end of the keycap function). This will be exposed to the API soon.
- add stepped key
- add ISO Enter
add 2U pos-like stabilizersadd support for logos and graphical legends- add reinforcement for big keys
- add more examples
- output files already supported for 3D printing
- online editor
- add secondary/tertiary legends
- add support for stems other than cherry
- clean up the code and do things "the python way"
- better documentation