iRuler customizable ruler

thingiverse

Human: Has anyone ever had a desperate need for a custom ruler precisely two centimeters long? Or does everyone keep stealing your rulers because there's no permanent way to mark them? This customizable iRuler will solve all your problems! This is a remix of stu121's customizable ruler, with a refined design, more customizable options, available in inches, and subdivision lines now recessed for better printability on average FDM printers. You can have the text and numbers either embossed or recessed using positive or negative heights, respectively. A height of 0 will omit text or numbers altogether. You can even choose to cut all the way through, but this may leave loose bits for letters like 'o' and 'B'. Additionally, you can select a hole and flip the design so that the ruler lines are at the top instead of the bottom. Due to an OpenSCAD limitation, you cannot enter non-ASCII characters directly in the text field. You'll need to look up the Unicode numbers and enter them as explained in the OpenSCAD manual. For instance, enter '\u00E9' for a letter 'é'. If the subdivision lines are too narrow, they will fuse together and become invisible. To find a good setting, you can do some test prints with the ruler set to 1 cm or 1 inch. However, the default should be suitable for most printers. For accurate measurements, consider that most plastics shrink when cooling down after printing. For ABS, this can be quite significant. To get an accurately precise ruler, print a test piece with the exact same settings as you plan to use for the ruler. Measure how much shorter it is than expected, and rely on two known points inside the test object rather than its outside dimensions. I've provided two test pieces with notches 20 cm or 15 cm apart (7.874 or 5.906 inches). Calculate the compensation scale factor as the expected length divided by the measured length. Print Settings: Printer: FlashForge Creator Pro Rafts: No Supports: Doesn't Matter Resolution: 0.1 mm Infill: 20% Notes: A layer height of 0.1 is recommended for well-printed details. If possible, set perimeter width as narrow as possible (i.e., 0.4 for a 0.4 mm nozzle). The photos show prototypes that are somewhat different from the final model. Updates: 2017/04/21 Added inches option with subdivisions down to 1/16th.