Customizable Chain Text

To use:

Put the chainText.scad and the chainText.json files in the same directory, and open chainText.scad in OpenSCAD, a free cross platform app. In OpenSCAD’s menu bar, open the Customizer pane. This gives you sliders and controls to adjust the print.

If Angle=0, you get a straight line chain. Increase this and you'll bend the chain into the arc of a circle. If you set Curl to something greater than zero, you'll bend the circle into a spiral.

Double check for all the letters that the letter on one link doesn't touch the letter on another link. Double check, if you adjust the TorusThick or the InnerR that there is sufficient clearance that, when printed, you'll be able to move a link within its neighbor.  The default values work, even when the finished STL is printed at 50%.

When you have a design to your liking, use OpenSCAD's menu bar to Render, then Export as STL.

chainText.scad is just a text file, you can edit it in any text editor, not just in OpenSCAD’s editor pane. Commented out in it is HasBottom = false; uncomment this, and it will slice the design at the Z=0 plane, so you can see the interior of the chain links. 

You can use this to make two half-links, to glue together later, to make even longer chains.

Inspired by: https://old.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/183wuwl/my_new_app_to_create_articulated_text/ but all my own, original work. /u/Stone_Age_Sculptor published the idea of using hull() to smooth the transition from the links of the chain to the letters.

Printed scaled down 50%, with Prusaslicer organic supports, and with a manual color change after the first two layers and before the last two layers.

See also: https://openscad.org/
https://files.openscad.org/advent-calendar-2023/StarChain/StarChain.scad for another take on doing a spiral chain with objects at the midpoint of each link.

Notes:

I used PLA, black for the body of the chain, and copper for the edges.

Post-Printing

After printing I removed the supports with the diagonal cutters, and worked each link joint up and down and back and forth a few times.