Parametric Peas in a Pod

Today (July 20) is Gregor Mendel's birthday. Since RepRap's are named after biologists and my current RepRap is a of a Mendel it seemed appropriate to print something like this to celebrate the day and my machines namesake.

I don't know if this is printable or not. I've never used OpenSCAD before but I've been programming for 20 years and it looks pretty simple. I used up my lunch hour making this but my 3D printer is still in the construction phase so I can't try it out myself. I hope people out there can give this a try and let me know how it works.

You can change the number of peas, the space between the peas, how many twists in the stem and other variables. I will probably make changes based on feedback from others. Not all parameter combinations look right, but play around and a lot of them are OK.

I'm not sure if the stem is going to be attached or printable as is. You may want to comment out that section if it doesn't work.

Enjoy.

August 3, 2011 - Updated t