Shapes/Creations: What are they, and How-To Create
A successful Foodini
print is made up of 2 main elements: shapes (creations) and ingredients (fillings). Shapes/creations are the
shapes that print. Ingredients/fillings are the ingredients that are loaded into the
capsules and printed - into creations.
New shape options
There are a range of ways to create shapes. From the dish gallery, tap +Shape:
The New shape options will appear:
Text
There are several options for text prints:
Height, Position, Fill, Concentric and Stylize are all explained here.
Script Text Lettering: 1 Line Width
Here's how to print script text lettering only 1 line width wide.
- Choose the HersheyScript font
- Toggle the Vector Mode to ON (to see Vector Mode you must first type text in the text box)
- The text align functions and line breaks will not work with vector mode, but spaces between words will work. So if you want "Happy Birthday" on one line and "Natural Machines" on a second line, you'll need 2 separate text boxes.
Note that this feature of printing words with 1 line width in all characters only works with the HersheyScript font at the moment, due to the nature of how fonts are actually created and interpreted by computers!
Printing Chinese Characters
Add the Chinese characters in the text box. Make sure to toggle the Vector Mode to ON (to see Vector Mode you must first type text in the text box):
You do not choose a font as Chinese characters require special formatting - Foodini will automatically apply the formatting.
Dot
With Foodini you can easily create dots of different sizes, simply indicate the dot size.
Here is a sample range of small dots, with a dot setting from 0.1 to 0.7 setting. Small dots will in general be below setting 1.0.
Webcam
You can use the webcam on the door of Foodini to import simple images, such as hand-drawn sketches.
3D Model
One of the great things about Foodini is that you do not need to know how to create a 3D model in CAD or have any knowledge about STL files. Don't know what any of that is? Don't worry. You can skip this. People that are familiar with traditional 3D printing can import 3D Models.
My Shapes
If you have shapes that you use frequently in different dishes, you can add it to "My Shapes" for fast access.
Saving a Shape to My Shapes
In a dish, edit the shape you want to add:
Tap the star in the lower left corner to add the shape to the My Shapes library. (Note: the star will not change or be filled in.)
You will see a message confirming that your selection has been saved to My shapes.
To Add a Shape from My Shapes to a Dish
Choose My Shapes.
You'll see your library of My Shapes.
- To rename a shape, click on the name bar (not the image of the shape).
- To add a shape to your dish, highlight a shape and tap ADD.
- To delete a shape, highlight a shape and tap delete.
Known Issues
This feature is in beta mode. Known issues that will be corrected soon:
- When you add My Shapes shape to a dish, it appears to hold the ingredient color and position of the shape from the dish where you saved it, but it shouldn't and will not print with those original attributes. My Shapes should only save the shape design itself. When you add a My Shape to a dish, you need to assign an ingredient and position to the shape. Once assigned, the shape may not appear correctly in shape edit mode, but will appear properly in the dish and print preview, and will print properly.
- The sort functions aren't operational. We will correct the alphabetical sort, and remove the last print sort button as it's not relevant.
Local Image
You can import images to Foodini Creator. It's best to import images from another device, like your laptop; see instructions on how to connect to Foodini from another device.
Select a local image by tapping ...
The Vector Mode is only for .SVG files. Don't know what that is? Simply skip toggling this on.
Find or create an image that you want to print. In this example, we want to print this heart that is made up of three puzzle pieces...
... but we want to print it with three different ingredients. To do this, we need to break the one shape into three different shapes, so that we can assign each shape a different ingredient.
Using any software that you use to edit images (we used Apple's Preview), break up the one image into three separate images. Save each image as a file. Now, we have three individual files:
Tap local file to bring your three shapes into Foodini Creator. Resize each shape if you like, and arrange the pieces as you wish. Assign your ingredients, and print!
Result!
Clip Art
You can use the images in our library of basic clip art shapes.
Scripting
You can write JavaScript statements to tell Foodini what to print, giving you precise control. Many schools like this feature for a fun way to teach kids how to code. Don't know JavaScript? Don't worry! This is an advanced feature for those that want it; it's not required to use Foodini. Learn about scripting here.
Shape Toolbar
Once you select a shape, you'll see the shape toolbar with the following icons:
Duplicate 
You can duplicate individual shapes or multiple shapes by using the duplicate ( 
) function.
To duplicate multiple shapes, select them all and duplicate. The shape settings will copy to the duplicate shape (height, position, etc.)
See also Multiple Copies.
Edit 
This function has a lot of features, see edit image functions explained.
Bring to Front and Send to Back 
Similar to working with shapes and images in other software programs, in Foodini Creator you can re-order shapes/creations that make up dishes. You can select a shape/creation and bring it to the front ( ) or you can send it to the back ( ).
Note that this changes the order as to how you see the shapes on-screen but it does not automatically change the position.
In the example below, the H is behind the square, but we want it in front so we can continue creating our print. Select the H, tap bring to front ( ).
Center Shape(s) 
Centering One Shape
To center one shape on the dish, select the shape and tap center ( ):
Centering Shapes One on Top of the Other
If you have multiple shapes that you want to center one on top of the other, Foodini Creator can do it for you. Simply select your shapes - you can choose two or more - and tap center ( ).
Note that using the center ( Related Articles
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