Nice with another alternative. I have been using shapescript, which I think is easier than openscad, and available on ios. https://shapescript.info/
µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D
51–60 of 139 posts
Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D
#52I've been using zoo and its KCL language with some success for boundary-representation CAD writing. If I understood correctly, µcad serves the same purpose. Comparing code samples between both of them, I personally enjoy KCL's pipelined approach more. My main beef with zoo is the fact that they are promoting vendor lock-in by forcing users to use their cloud-hosted geometry kernel with absolutely no local alternative…
Lego brick in build123d: https://build123d.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial_lego.htm... Gear in build123d: https://github.com/GarryBGoode/gggears
Hm, at least build123d (which I had never heard of, thanks!) can export STEP, which I believe is becoming a necessity if one wants to assemble real-world models with FreeCAD (and nicely also slicers are picking up support to it). I'm on the edge though if I'd really like a proper DSL instead of building it on top of Python, although I can see that too has its benefits (e.g. library access).
Does anyone have idea about the STEP export support status for KCL/µcad? To me it looks like KCL cannot, and I cannot find information on it about µcad. The one tool I'm familiar within this space is OpenSCAD and it cannot. While FreeCAD is able to (sometimes?) convert from STL to STEP, it seems actually working with such models in FreeCAD is quite compute-inefficient.
Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curious. How much experience do you have with any form of CAD? Is the preference based on that you tried graphical CAD software and you found them lacking, or is it based on imagining how they might work? Last week at the hackspace someone asked me to quickly design a manifold which holds together a scuba mouth piece, a 48mm diameter valve and a nato 40mm screw fitting. They wanted to minimise the internal tidal volu…
I've also been asking myself what people do with programmatic CAD. I've used OpenSCAD once to create a simple, cylindrical object, but about 80% of the things I create (using conventional CAD, like Fusion 360) would be way too complex for that. And even the simplest shapes are just much faster to create and modify in Fusion. Maybe this is the "everything looks like a nail" problem for programmers who have never tried…
I recently used this https://makerworld.com/de/models/1765102-10-inch-mini-rack-g... to generate various mounts for my home lab mini rack. The idea is that everything needs to fit into the same width of rack, but every device is slightly different so custom creating these becomes annoying quickly. This generator was a godsend
Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Such languages can be amenable to LLM generation, reducing barriers to entry.
Just yesterday I had an LLM write an openscad module for generating a 2d rounded rectangle. It worked great! I then tried to get it to write a module to extrude a 2d shape into a 3d shape and it failed spectacularly several times before I gave up.
Interesting. I’m building a SaaS around this idea. And I managed to do things waaay more complex than that using LLMs. Especially “several times”. My AI can do a parametric trophy cup from one prompt in a couple of attempts, I would be shocked if it didn’t know how to make rectangular cube…
Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D
#55I've been searching for a CAD language that supports iteration in a good way. I've been designing a self-build house and it occurs to me that, once I have the walls etc, filling in the details for the manufacture of those walls could be done by a programming routine. Such a routine could work out how many studs are needed and their placement etc and generate the kind of cut-throughs where you can see the construction…
I know that FreeCAD has architectural support.
I think it's called BIM, which tells you how well-informed on the subject I am (not).
Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D
#56Tried openscad and then cadquery for some geometry iteration projects and found them clunky. It wasn't just that I was missing a UI; the functions, constraints and geometry kernel weren't as powerful as onshape, which I've used a bit, and presumably light years behind fusion 360, which I haven't used. Even freecad, a UI-based oss cad, is not quite ergonomic for a beginner-to-intermediate user, though it has come a lo…
As someone who has been using FreeCAD starting in 2020, I can't tell any major differences. The problems are the same they have ever been. It's only the renderer that got a little bit more "sexy", but that is just looks.
This is my understanding as well.
Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D
#57Looks like a promising alternative to OpenSCAD. Although am I the only one to notice the swastika in their logo?
> Although am I the only one to notice the swastika in their logo? Possibly. Although I know it's the wrong way round to be a Nazi swastika, it's made all the more odd by the fact that this is a German project.
Maybe it could be Bauhaus inspired instead. (This isn't a serious suggestion, but if you're biasing your opinion based on their German origin, why not from the good stuff instead?)
Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D
#58I've been using zoo and its KCL language with some success for boundary-representation CAD writing. If I understood correctly, µcad serves the same purpose. Comparing code samples between both of them, I personally enjoy KCL's pipelined approach more. My main beef with zoo is the fact that they are promoting vendor lock-in by forcing users to use their cloud-hosted geometry kernel with absolutely no local alternative…
Zoo has said it's open to local hosting of the kernel for years. I believe it's a matter of time because it's mostly about legal tape. ucad is based on Manifold, so unfortunately, not really comparable, since it's all meshes vs brep, like OpenSCAD. Note KCL could be completely augmented with another kernel. There are people who've already tried :)
> There are people who've already tried :)
And they were never heard of, ever again? :-)
Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D
#59Could you please make the book into a PDF?
Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D
#60Interesting project, I will look into it. This site sucks. Why does it use php, and why is every link a query? Just make it a static page.
While PHP is not my goto language.. and the language has likely changed a fair bit when I last used it.. I don't think the issue is PHP.