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We’ve been experimenting with creating apps internally to explore the API and make sure that it is useful and easy to use before starting to release it to our first external developers. I took some time over the weekend to create this one: a QR code generator. Input/output wise, it is very simple: enter a URL and it spits out a QR code. But there is actually quite a bit more to this app than meets the eye.
Loading external dependencies. The apps are written in javascript, so there are tons of amazing libraries out there that we want developers to be able to use. @JeffTalbot created a way to load these external libraries easily in the apps. The main library for this app is the awesome [javascript-qrcode][1] library.
Boolean geometry inside of apps. A naive SVG of a qr code would just be a <rect> for each square of the code that is black. This results in 300+ rects, which slows Easel down quite a bit. It also doesn’t generate toolpaths very well. Instead I made each rectangle overlap slightly, and used the jsclipper library to union those blocks together. Easel actually has a lot of code built around boolean geometry, so we are looking into ways to expose useful things like union, intersection and offset to the apps. But for now I just loaded it as an external dependency and worked with it directly.
Can imagine this being used on lots of signage. In fact, can imagine a wall plaque with information and a QR code for more information/and an imbedded NFC tag for same.
This is amazing! In my job I use QR codes everywhere when it comes to fixed asset management. The trouble comes with the durability of the decals used to print the codes on items that are exposed to the elements. This solves that problem! Awesome!
Maybe it’s comforting that, even if it imports, it prints in reversed color, so you can’t use it anyway Hoping somebody has an answer about reversing the colors in Easel.
After I import it, I inverted it, and that looked fine, but I got a warning about the bit size being too big, despite the fact that this QR is bigger than the one that I successfully carved from the plugin.
Remember that “colors” mean depths in Easel. Reversing the colors would mean raising the QR code shape out of the material around it, i.e. carving around the QR code. You can do this by placing rectangle around the QR code shape and setting the QR code depth to 0.
I realize this is a very old forum thread, but I am interested to know if this app is currently available through Easel.
I did not see it in the current list of available apps.
Hoping somebody has an answer about reversing the colors in Easel.