Files
OrcaSlicer/docs
Tommaso BianchiandClaude Opus 5 555af98474 Mate connectors: bring the design record and the BearConnector pair into the repo
The connector work has lived outside the code since 2026-08-05, in a workspace repo with no
remote. It is the basis of a decision that now shapes the Design tab, so it belongs here.

  docs/design/mate-connectors/

  DESIGN_MATE_CONNECTORS.md   seven CAD systems surveyed; the frame-pair model this kernel
                              already matches; sections 8b/8c on the glyph, and section 9's
                              four open decisions (D1-D4) still awaiting Tommaso.
  bear.step                   the male, Onshape 2026-08-05T08:27Z, md5 faf228326ee3f971
  BearConnector_Female*.step/.stl, BearConnector_Cutter.step
                              built by make_female.py FROM the real male B-rep rather than
                              re-modelled, so the pocket is complementary by construction
                              including every deliberate asymmetry. Fit measured at exactly
                              0.2000 mm, zero interference, mated hosts proven coplanar.
  BEAR_CONNECTOR_REVIEW.md    the symmetry-group result: identity 81/81 edges, mirror-x 0/81,
                              mirror-y 0/81, rot180Z 0/81, rot90Z 0/81, diagonal 0/81 at
                              0.1 mm. Trivial group, so every PARTIAL view fixes orientation.
  extract_outline.py, simplify_study.py, relief_sheet.py, handedness.py, make_female.py,
  trim_female.py, fit_check.py, verify_trimmed.py, coplanar_test.py + their sheets

THE DECISION THIS SUPPORTS (snaporca-x0kd): the mate connector is drawn as a simplified BEAR
FACE by default, with the standard disc + roll quadrant + Z arrow kept behind a preference.
Face orientation is hardwired perception -- a toddler reads a face's roll and verse with no
instruction -- and no abstract glyph earns that. Measured against the alternative: the disc's
gold quadrant+tick falls 89 -> 66 -> 37 -> 20 -> 3 -> 0 lit pixels as the camera drops from
47 deg to edge-on, and is a shapeless blob by 16 deg.

WHAT THE SIMPLIFICATION STUDY SETTLED (snaporca-wi3z), all measured off the real B-rep:

  The eyes are load-bearing. Same outline and muzzle with the eyes removed stops reading as
  a face at every size. Whatever else goes, they stay.

  45 -> 22 outline vertices with no loss of read at 22 / 32 / 48 px; the muzzle reduces to
  one filled triangle. Three marks plus a cheek dot.

  Drawn FLAT the face fails exactly where the disc fails: in the connector's plane everything
  foreshortens by sin(elevation). Rendered as its real relief instead, lit pixels at 32 px go
  164 -> 210 at 16 deg and 69 -> 120 at 6 deg, and the snout ridge stands proud as a profile
  rather than smearing. The glyph must be a shaded relief, not an outline.

  Handedness already reads without any added mark -- 32 to 35 % of lit pixels differ from the
  mirror, and re-registering by best whole-pixel translation returns offset (0,0), so it is
  real shape asymmetry. But it reads only BY COMPARISON. A dot on one cheek makes it local:
  34.5 / 37.0 / 36.4 %, and unlike uneven eyes (42 %) it does not read as a defect.

Tommaso's calls: it stays a bear, and handedness must read.

The scripts were repointed at the co-located male and extract_outline.py re-run from here to
prove it -- same 45 outline points, same three inner wires, same 3829.5 mm2 back plate.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-16 17:05:09 +02:00
..
2026-08-12 18:59:22 +02:00