The header image on this post is a microcontroller I’m developing to be put in split keyboards. I decided to add two USB-C ports for interconnect, a decision which has resulted in numerous hard decisions, hours of my time I’ll never get back, and a blog post.
If you followed the last blog post on offset surfaces, you’ll know improving part thickness has been a long-time goal of Cosmos. Many times, the naive approach of lofting the sides of key sockets creates solids too thin to print. This is a problem for both keyboards exported from Cosmos and keyboards built with CAD tools. Let’s discover how the generator fixes these issues!
Tools like Cosmos are huge time-savers in that they can take a simple design (such as the choice of where each key goes) and generate something much more complex. But once you give the task of designing to the computer, you better be sure the computer does a good job.
Which brings me to the subject of surface offsetting…