The OSFA software now flaunts an improved GUI with many new features. The first thing that users will notice after starting OSFA is splash screen and tool icons, as can be seen here:

Introductory splash screen and tools window with icons

When starting a new project the user is allowed to input the size of their Canvas to work on.

The size window

Once the user inputs the size, OSFA calculates the number of sprinkles and displays the Canvas. In the preferences window, the user can select whether they would like a grid to be displayed. Each square in the grid represents one sprinkle.

The user's canvas with a grid enabled

The preferences window

The user's canvas with the grid disabled

The user may then begin drawing their diagram. There are three different tiers that a user has to work with. If a sprinkle is designated as red then it will be the raised to the highest level when the image is converted to 3D, orange is the middle level, yellow the lowest. Therefore, the following 2D drawing:

will look like a rising and falling staircase in 3D, as can be seen here:

The above image converted to 3D

In the creation of their 2D image, the user has 3 different brush sizes available to them, 1×1, 2×2, and 3×3:

The user can also create 3D shapes: hemispheres, cones, and cylinders, as well as Braille labels. In order to create a 3D shape the user selects the shape’s tool and then drags their mouse across the sprinkles they would like to be included in the shape. The selected pixels will appear gray, like so:

In the process of creating a 3D shape

Upon release of the mouse, a 2D circle will appear that encompasses all of the sprinkles that were selected. The color of the circle denotes the 3D shape that will be created: hemispheres are green, cones are blue, cylinders are purple. Here is the 2D circle that was formed after the mouse was released in the above image:

The user can add as many 3D shapes as they would like:

Here is the 3D view of the three created shapes:

Also available are the eraser and clear all tools. They both do just as their name suggests. The eraser tool may also be used with any of the three brush sizes and, when dragged, rids of any tier colors that have been placed over the selected area. If the eraser tool is selected and then a 3D shape or Braille label is selected then that object is erased. The clear all tool clears the entire canvas.

Also, a user can open an image file. It will then be sprinklized and available for the user to edit with any of the features mentioned above.

Once a user is done they can use a tool bar option to send their image data to the Blender script which will render their 3D image for viewing as well as produce the STL file necessary for printing the object.