A printable race track systems for remote controlled cars from scale 1/24 to 1/32.
The project contains designs for a modular race track system aimed at remote controlled cars. The parts are designed using a scripting language, processed by OpenSCAD. There is no ready to use 3D model files in the source code. If you are interested in such files, please look at the released versions which contains 3D model files built with default parameters. However, if you want to customize these parts, tailoring them with your measures, you should rather download the source code and then tweak the configuration files before generating your own 3D model files.
Note: the scales are given as an estimate, not all scales have been tested. The
1/24 to 1/32variant has been tested with1/28scale models.
This variant contains a set of track barriers that can be used to delimit a race track. To keep a regular track width and to prevent the barriers to be pushed out, a set of arches is proposed to link together the two sides of the track lane. As the barriers, as well as the arches, are modular, you can design tracks of various sizes. The only limit is the size of your printer.
Two versions of the barriers exist:
- A composite version made from 3 parts: a bottom and a top beam clipping a blade. This variant is faster to print, but requires more work to build the barriers.
- A unibody version made from a single piece. This variant is slower to print, but it makes it easier to build the race track.
A particular set of parts is also proposed to allow joining barriers from both versions.
The configuration may be changed locally. To not collide with changes in the main implementation, the configuration files are not versioned. Instead, you will find -dist files that contain a copy of the typical configuration.
From a fresh copy of the project, you will need first to create these configuration files. The easiest way is to call the init.sh script, that will take care of this for you. The configuration files will also be checked and created if needed each time the render.sh script is called.
This initial creation of the configuration files could also be done manually. Here is how:
-
Go to the
configfolder -
Copy any of the files having a
-distsuffix in their name to a file without this suffix.Example: copy
config-dist.scadtoconfig.scad
The parts are all located into the parts folder. They can all be opened separately in OpenSCAD and rendered.
However, it is possible to render all parts in batch. The script render.sh takes care of this.
This is a command-line tool, which accept several parameters. By default, it will render the preset selected in the config.
It is possible to select another preset, as well as set a different number of cells for the containers.
The parameter -h make it show the help.
Running the command render.sh -h will show this message:
Renders OpenSCAD files
Usage:
./render.sh [command] [-h|--help] [-o|--option value] files
a, accessories Render the accessories
e, elements Render the track separated elements
u, unibody Render the track unibody elements
s, samples Render the samples
p, plates Render the plates
c, config Show the config values
-h, --help Show this help
-l, --length Set the length of a track section
-w, --width Set the virtual width of a track lane (used to compute the radius)
-t --track Set the actual width of a track lane (physical width, used for the arches)
-b --height Set the height of the track barrier
-r --radius Set the radius of the track inner curve
-m --sample Set the size of sample element
-f --format Set the output format
-p --parallel Set the number of parallel processes
-s --slice Slice the rendered files using the default configuration
-c --clean Clean up the output folder before rendering
The STL files are rendered to the dist/stl folder.
If the slicer PrusaSlicer is installed, running the command render.sh -s will produce the G-code from the rendered STL files and using the setting from the file config/config.ini. Out of the box, it is produce instruction for PETG and a 0.2mm layer height.
When using the built-in script to render/slice the models in batch, you can also add custom post-processing scripts. There is one for render.sh and one for slice.sh. They are respectively named post-render.sh and post-slice.sh.
As these script can be defined locally, they are not part of the versioned content. Instead, you can find sample files at post-render-dist.sh and post-slice-dist.sh. To use them, you need to:
- copy the dist file to a local file, for example:
cp post-render-dist.sh post-render.sh. - you need to make sure the file is executable:
chmod +x post-render.sh. - finally, add you own commands to the copy.
As an example:
- The script used to zip the rendered files:
# Bootstrap the script
scriptpath=$(dirname $0)
source "${scriptpath}/../lib/camelSCAD/scripts/utils.sh"
# Script config
project=$(pwd)
stlpath="${project}/dist/stl/"
zippath="stl-scale-24.zip"
logpath="${project}/dist/zip.log"
# Post process the rendered files
printmessage "${C_MSG}==========================================="
printmessage "${C_MSG}Post-render script: zip files"
dummy=$(
cd "${stlpath}"
rm *.zip > /dev/null
zip -r "${zippath}" *
)
printmessage "${C_MSG}==========================================="- The script used to copy the sliced files to a SD-card:
# Bootstrap the script
scriptpath=$(dirname $0)
source "${scriptpath}/../lib/camelSCAD/scripts/utils.sh"
# Script config
project=$(pwd)
gcodepath="${project}/dist/gcode/"
sdcardpath="/PATH/TO/SD/CARD" # <-- CHANGE THIS!
logpath="${project}/dist/gcode-sync.log"
# Post process the sliced files
printmessage "${C_MSG}==========================================="
printmessage "${C_MSG}Post-slice script: copy Gcode to the SDcard"
date > ${logpath}
createpath "${sdcardpath}"
rsync -ahvt --no-links --delete --partial --force --modify-window=1 --exclude=.DS_Store --log-file=${logpath} "${gcodepath}" "${sdcardpath}"
printmessage "${C_MSG}==========================================="