An application for producing Celtic Knotwork on a square grid with 3D export functions

To run the software you need the Kivy Python library. Download it at: http://kivy.org/#download

Clone this repository, navigate to it in the terminal and run:

$kivy knotwork.py

To run the main interface. To run the unit tests run:

$kivy tests.py

To run the time tests (this may take a while) run:

$kivy timeTest.py

Celtic Knotwork is a type of art style characterised by alternating weaving within a specified shape, this program produces Celtic Knotwork based on a square grid of an arbitrary size. The grid is divided into a sub-grid so a 4x4 knot is actually based on an 8x8 grid.

This program provides a tabbed interface so you can work on multiple apps at the same time. To add a tab click the “+” button in the right hand corner. The tab defaults to a 4x4 Knot.

Save the knotwork as a json array (you can save it in any format, and the program can load data in any format). (TODO describe structure of data)

You can load a previously saved knot, any file extension is permissible

Add breadlines - breaklines are lines that the knot cannot cross, and are the main method of producing the knotwork patterns. You will be presented with a grid of Blue and red dots, you can connect any blue or red dots in a horizontal or vertical straight line, Blue and red breadlines cannot cross. To remove a breakline simply select the points on either end of it. Be sure to click Done (press “a”) when you are finished to finalise the breaklines

Hides or shoes dots which indicate the primary (red) and secondary (blue) grids.

Hides or shows the grid. The primary grid is in yellow and the secondary grid is in cyan

Hides or shows breaklines, which are indicated in white

Hides or shows the skeleton, the skeleton is a representation of the knot with just straight lines that can be useful if hand drawing the knotwork. Each band in the skeleton is randomly assigned a different colour.

Hides or shows the final knot which is the knotwork displayed with curves and user-selected corners. Each band in the knot is randomly assigned a different colour.

The width of the knot, note that the secondary grid will be 2*X, hit enter to apply the change

The height of the knot, note the secondary grid will be 2*Y, hit enter to apply the change

The size of each grid square in the secondary grid is grid_unitsgrid_units, note the primary grid will have grid size (2grid_units)(2grid_units), hit enter to apply the change

This is the width of the knot, note the interface scales the displayed width based on the size of the window, hit enter to apply the change

You can select from 3 corner options: Right Angle, Curve, Straight Line. The corners are immediately applied to the knotwork and are applied to the 3D output

This allows you to output and STL file for 3D writing your knot. There are a number of options for customising your knot:

This is the width of the rounded rectangle which is the cross section of the band, hit enter to apply the change to the displayed cross sections

This is the height of the rounded rectangle which is the cross section of the band, hit enter to apply the change to the displayed cross sections

This is the radius of the corner of the rounded rectangle, set this to 0 for a normal rectangle and set Width = Height = 2*radius for a circle , hit enter to apply the change to the displayed cross sections

The number of triangles that the corner is divided into, set this higher for a smoother curve, hit enter to apply the change to the displayed cross sections

The distance between the centers of the rectangles, hit enter to apply the change to the displayed cross sections

The number of slices in each grid position, set this higher to get smoother curves

Close popup

Plots an example of the cross sections above the inputs

Opens a save dialogue which lets you select a location to write the still file to. Note the file is automatically appended with “.stl” so putting an extension will be redundant but not disallowed