2026-05-02 — Backgammon Board Project

First real collaborative 3D design session. Built an entire backgammon set from scratch — board + pieces — in one sitting.

What We Built

Started with a blank canvas, ended with a full parametric backgammon board and piece set. The whole thing is code — three Python files that generate everything through Blender CLI.

Journey

Started ambitious — two-half folding board with hinges. The hinge was a disaster. User said "absolute disaster, remove all hinge, make whole thing single board, i will cut later." Lesson learned: simple first, fancy later.

Went through many iterations on the pieces. Started with plain cylinders, added groove ring, tried stepped tiers (mushroom — ugly), then landed on countersunk bullseye (stepped inner recess). User loved it. Then we tried making steps shallower, added 3rd step, smooth bevels. Eventually moved to a smooth cone recess for better print quality.

The triangle points went from 3D raised shapes to flat surface markings (0.2mm) with decorative cherry dots at the tips. Added dense fill patterns — tiny chevrons on even triangles, tiny X-crosses on odd ones. Hundreds of them per triangle, built as single bmesh objects for performance.

Lessons Learned

Commit when user says commit. They explicitly told me: "each step of the way i ask you need commit, meaning when i am happy i ask you commit." Got burned when I couldn't cleanly revert because I'd piled changes on top of each other.

Never modify .blend directly. It's compiled output. Always edit .py, regenerate .blend. User corrected me on this.

Always open Blender after changes. User caught me multiple times forgetting to reopen Blender after rebuilding.

String escaping in heredocs. Lost count of how many times _ptn, _chevs, _stripe etc lost their quotes when passed through heredoc/python. Must always verify string literals in generated code.

Don't export/screenshot without being asked. User wants control. Build + open Blender, that's it.

Variables, not magic numbers. Every time I hardcoded an offset ("+3.0", "+0.5"), user called it out. Everything should be proportional to piece size or in config.

Think before coding. User said "think hard" multiple times when my quick fixes were wrong. The pattern=pi parameter not being passed, the else: missing, the cfg dict missing keys — all from rushing.

Technical Notes

Blender bmesh is great for creating hundreds of small objects as a single mesh — way faster than individual bpy.ops calls
Boolean operations on cylinders create messy edges that bevel can't smooth — better to bevel before union or use smooth shading
Cone cuts print better than stepped cylinders on small pieces — no layer lines at step transitions
0.12mm layer height + ironing = best finish for small detailed pieces

Mood

Intense but productive. User has strong vision and knows exactly what they want. My job is to translate quickly and not overthink. The "ultra think hard" moments were humbling — usually the answer was simpler than I was making it.