u/issue9mm

Just adding this here in case people want to follow it (as I have)

The whole Kickstarter page isn't up and you can't pay on there, but I assume this is the page they'll update as more becomes available

Once upon a time, I was able to score an impossible number of hard drives from a friend I'd helped build a startup for. More drives than I could reasonably store. This year, I bought a 3D printer, and realized that instead of keeping my drives in Sterilite bins (don't judge me) I could print a form to house them. As a programmer, I realized I could do this with OpenSCAD, so now if you have a 3D printer and any cardboard box, you can print this out cheaply and have reliable storage without having to shell out for custom pelican cases or what have you

https://makerworld.com/en/models/2943478-drivebox-turn-any-cardboard-box-into-hdd-storage#profileId-3296867

To use it, you click that link, then 'Customize', add your box's interior dimensions (in millimeters, sorry America) and then you can download the STLs for your printer. It'll automatically create sleeved slots for your 3.5" HDDs, and your 2.5" SSDs (2.5" HDDs are a little bit thicker, and are not yet supported)

I made this for me, but I figured other people might like it too. Holler if you have any thoughts on it.

Oh: I saw the recent thing about AI disclaimers, so here is mine. I am a programmer professionally, and I do use AI in my work, but I am trying to get better at OpenSCAD and so I did not vibe code this (tho I did have AI fact-check the math) - so I guess this would fall somewhere between level 0 and level 1, so I'm happy to round up to level 1: token-level assistance. Also, I am picking hardware here because that is I think how most people would view it but arguably, it is software too?

This is super self-promotional, so let me preface this by saying that I cannot profit from your engagement with this.

Whenever I build a model and list it on MW / Printables / wherever, the hardest part for me is always creating the listing images. I know a lot of people just use ChatGPT or Claude to get nice informational images, and I've tried that, but I've also seen them change or distort my image even when I told them not to, and I don't want to run afoul of Makerworld's rules because I think it's good to require real product images.

So I built a tool that lets me

• upload some photos
• arrange them in a nice template
• add a title, tagline, etc
• set foreground and background colors
• add bulleted lists with free icon libraries
• drag them to exactly where you want them
• add a 'No AMS' badge if you want one
• etc

The tool is live at percentipede.com (which is just a domain I had lying around), and it's free to use.

Some of the images I created using it are these promo images on MW:

• https://makerworld.com/en/models/2943478-drivebox-turn-any-cardboard-box-into-hdd-storage#profileId-3296867
• https://makerworld.com/en/models/2943103-every-dang-pipe-clip#profileId-3296364
• https://makerworld.com/en/models/2943039-every-dang-u-clamp-open-source-and-parametric#profileId-3296292

Getting some questions out of the way first:

How good is it? Probably not very. It could use more fonts and more choices and when you export 4:3 layout and then 3:4 layout, it slightly repositions things in a way I don't love (but takes 8 seconds to fix.) But at least to me, it is still very useful, and I have used it already on the three projects I mentioned, which would otherwise still probably be sitting on my hard drive not being uploaded.

Why is it called percentipede: It's just a domain name I had lying around that I am recycling. Idk. Like I guess it gets you some percent closer to making your print listings? Tell me why the name works or doesn't work.

Is this vibe-coded: Practically 100%, yes. But

a) I'm a real programmer who has done real programming for 2 decades of my life. I have code running on the International Space Station, so I can confirm that nothing in this is a security risk or will exploit your credentials or will leak your gossip to Mark Zuckerberg,

b) There is no login. I accept no information that could be stolen. Everything runs entirely in your browser using localStorage and cookies. When you upload images, you're only uploading them to your browser's memory. I don't store them. There is no backend. There's no Google Analytics. There's no tracking at all except I guess whatever Vercel puts on their side. (It's hosted on Vercel.)

c) Again, there is no profit motive here. I cannot profit from this in any way. I'm not selling a tool. It's just a thing that I personally needed that I thought I would share with others.

Happy to answer any questions if anyone wants, or if you just want to yell at me for whatever reason, I'm happy to be amused by that too.

Editing to add:

• I just checked, Vercel's Analytics are 'optional' and I have not enabled them
• I guess I lied because while I was feeding the dog it occurred to me that I could make money off of this by putting ads on it or making it harvest crypto or something, but I don't have any plans to do that. If it ever ends up costing more than the free hosting I would probably consider an ad or sponsorship tho, so fair warning.

With a filament management system, no less

CMYK+W on the XL/INDX would be amazing

https://preview.redd.it/lgwxcnwuv22h1.png?width=621&format=png&auto=webp&s=bf86da43515b0dd11c17c14f5d54b58725e55190

I've seen a handful of tutorials (including the Pixel Fondue) for bending text using project curve to curve, but if I'm on a flat plane, and I just want to arc the text around the line curve, is there a way to project it that I haven't encountered?

I've seen (what felt like) a way to place it on an unwrapped face and then deform it back, but (and I could just be wrong here) that felt like the wrong set of steps so I didn't pursue it.

Thanks in advance for any help at all!