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Curated Code CAD (2020)

learn.cadhub.xyz

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Re: Curated Code CAD (2020)

#2

Post by londons_explore »

When I last used OpenSCAD, I found it rather lacking.

Basic things like 'hollow this object out, leaving a 3mm shell' are nearly impossible.

Anything non-trivial takes minutes or hours to compile, making debugging really hard.

Are these newer tools better?

Re: Curated Code CAD (2020)

#3

Post by guitarbill »

londons_explore wrote: post #2

When I last used OpenSCAD, I found it rather lacking. Basic things like 'hollow this object out, leaving a 3mm shell' are nearly impossible. Anything non-trivial takes minutes or hours to compile, making debugging really hard. Are these newer tools better?

I can only speak from a 3d printing perspective, and I've only tried OpenSCAD and FreeCAD.

As rough as OpenSCAD is, I find myself coming back to it, because CAD-as-code is just so useful (including leaving comments). For bashing out quick, fairly simple models I still like it. The various OpenSCAD DSLs can help, but also not when they get superseded or get in your way. I think the review on the posts blog summarizes it well [0].

FreeCAD is apparently capable, but the UI defeats me. IMO, it tries to do too many things and doing none well.

The post doesn't really do a good job of comparing how mature the others are, so I'm not sure. But if CadQuery works as well as OpenSCAD or better, I may just be sold.

[0] https://learn.cadhub.xyz/blog/openscad-review/

Re: Curated Code CAD (2020)

#4

Post by zimpenfish »

londons_explore wrote: post #2

When I last used OpenSCAD, I found it rather lacking. Basic things like 'hollow this object out, leaving a 3mm shell' are nearly impossible. Anything non-trivial takes minutes or hours to compile, making debugging really hard. Are these newer tools better?

> Basic things like 'hollow this object out, leaving a 3mm shell' are nearly impossible.

Yeah, I think that's a consequence of how they're constructing the objects. But things like signed distance fields make that easier* because it'd just be "expand the SDF by 3mm" - https://github.com/fogleman/sdf has `shell` for this.

* if you can wrap your head around the math/geometry, I guess

Re: Curated Code CAD (2020)

#5

Post by ur-whale »

londons_explore wrote: post #2

When I last used OpenSCAD, I found it rather lacking. Basic things like 'hollow this object out, leaving a 3mm shell' are nearly impossible. Anything non-trivial takes minutes or hours to compile, making debugging really hard. Are these newer tools better?

OpenSCAD, as noted by the author of the website sorely lacks a number fundamental features.

    - proper fillets

    - proper chamfers

    - surface-surface intersection
It is also limiting because it can only generate triangle meshes and can indeed be slow when models get big

However, for many situations, especially for prototyping, it is good enough and a really great tool.

It is definitely the first tool I turn to when I want to model a simple part quickly.

Re: Curated Code CAD (2020)

#6

Post by ur-whale »

guitarbill wrote: post #3
londons_explore wrote: post #2

When I last used OpenSCAD, I found it rather lacking. Basic things like 'hollow this object out, leaving a 3mm shell' are nearly impossible. Anything non-trivial takes minutes or hours to compile, making debugging really hard. Are these newer tools better?

I can only speak from a 3d printing perspective, and I've only tried OpenSCAD and FreeCAD. As rough as OpenSCAD is, I find myself coming back to it, because CAD-as-code is just so useful (including leaving comments). For bashing out quick, fairly simple models I still like it. The various OpenSCAD DSLs can help, but also not when they get superseded or get in your way. I think the review on the posts blog summarizes…

Yeah, I've tried to digest the Freecad UI / worflow many times, it's just horrible.

Re: Curated Code CAD (2020)

#10

Post by PostOnce »

(preface: I love the comprehensiveness of this post, lots of stuff I've never heard of!)

I use openscad because its fast and easy, but I can feel its limitations.

I want to love CadQuery (cq-editor GUI), because I do a lot of Python work, but something is wonky with the renderer (projection? the edge of a box further from the screen is wider than the edge close to it! like they got the matrix inverted or something)

and something else is wonky with the camera controls compared to... every other 3D application.

I try it again every 6mo to see if it feels good yet, they're still working on it.

Nevertheless, i suspect when they get it right, it's a tool that will eventually be like turbocharging my workflow.

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