Maker World (from Bambu Lab) is an excellent environment for using our designers to create custom assistive technology devices. But before you head over to Maker World, you should know that there are a few limitations (for now), and at least one of them is significant.
Here’s a list of capabilities that you lose by going to Maker World rather than downloading and installing OpenSCAD, along with downloading a copy of the particular design program:
- You can’t save your work as a draft (or Preset in OpenSCAD terminology). So, you can’t come back later to make changes or updates to your design and print a new version. You’ll need to re-enter all your design settings, along with the changes to your settings for the new version. I believe this is a significant shortcoming of the Maker World customizer, but given the numerous requests from users, I anticipate its implementation in the future.
- You can’t save your customization settings in a text file (a feature of the keyguard designer) to remind yourself of what settings you entered the first time around. Maker World doesn’t support saving text files to your computer, so the designer can’t help you do that. Use the existing data form to keep a copy of your setting values, and then keep that data form somewhere safe.
- There’s no equivalent of the OpenSCAD Console pane in Maker World, so the designers can’t give you feedback like they normally would.
- Bambu Lab makes and sells 3D printers, so they don’t provide any support for creating 2D files (e.g., SVG files) to use as input to your laser-cutting work. If you want to create a laser-cuttable design, you’ll need to follow the OpenSCAD route.
- You have to create a free login with Bambu Lab if you want to use the Maker World customizer. Not a terrible thing, but it is extra work.
- The “keyguard display angle” option in “Special Actions and Settings” will not work. Maker World wants total control over the display behavior.
If you’re still interested in using this tool for your design, here’s what you should do.
You’ll need to create a login with Bambu Lab, but they’re going to make you do that anyway when you follow one of the links below, so just pick one of these designers:
- Customizable, 3D Printable Keyguard for Grid-based, Free-form, and Hybrid AAC Apps on Tablets
- The Volksswitch
Once you’ve created a Bambu Lab login, you’ll be sent to a page that looks like this:
Begin the design process by clicking on the “Customize” button. You’ll see a second pop-up that asks you to confirm that you want to customize the design. You’ll then be taken to the Maker World customizer, in this case, with the keyguard designer program loaded:
The first thing you should do is “minimize” the “Code” pane by clicking on the left-arrow at the top right of that pane.
Your screen should now look like this:
You’ll do all your work in the “Customize” pane. When you make a change there, you’ll need to press the green “Generate” button to update the display on the right. You can make as many changes as you’d like before pressing the “Generate” button. That can save you some time.
You use the left mouse button to rotate the image in the display pane and use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. If you depress the mouse wheel, you can slide the image up and down and side to side.
The options in the “Customize” pane are all described on the main page for that device designer.
When you’re ready to print your design, click on the “Download” button below the image. You will be asked what Bambu Lab printer you intend to print this on:
We have no idea why they ask this question. Just choose a printer and click the “Confirm” button. You’ll then see this pop-up:
Choose the file format that works best with your slicer and printer.
Print and enjoy your new, custom assistive technology device!
How is Designing Different with the Maker World Customizer?
If you’ve been using the OpenSCAD version of the keyguard designer, you’ll feel “pretty much” at home on Maker World, but you’ll have to do two things differently.
At the end of the “Special Actions and Settings” section, you’ll see five special entries.
Special Instructions
Maker World doesn’t allow you to upload a text file in support of your design, so you need to take a slightly different approach to communicate the kind of instructions you would have put into the openings_and_additions.txt file. These entries make that possible:
You can read more about what to put in these entries on this page.
Screenshots
You also need to inform Maker World that you want to include a screenshot and specify where to find the file for upload. Begin by instructing the app to “include screenshot” as usual. Then, the last entry is a button that you press to tell Maker World where to look for and upload the file:
Note that the screenshot file doesn’t have to be called “default.svg” if you’re using the Maker World customizer app, but it does have to have very little complexity. You can read more about that on this page.