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µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D

microcad.xyz

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Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D

#91

Post by alanbernstein »

coryrc wrote: post #76
alanbernstein wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of experience with openscad. I design a lot of small, simple-to-moderate parts. I want to use something like fusion instead, but the GUI learning curve is a huge blocker for me. I'm not a CAD professional, I can't seem to find the time to watch hours of video to get the basics down. With code based CAD, the way to start is usually obvious. When I run into a blocker, I search online, find examples, and tr…

> In code, I do have to repeatedly solve little trig or geometry problems, BOSL2!

I adopted bosl2 recently, it's wonderful! Anchoring is a huge improvement, which does eliminate a lot of that work. But it's a very large library and I am slowly expanding my knowledge of it.

Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D

#93

Post by naasking »

exasperaited wrote: post #66
arcanemachiner wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my understanding as well.

It's incorrect, then! Lots changed since 2020 in the current 1.0.2 release, including TNP mitigations and the core assembly workbench. The 1.1 developer release (which is stable and useful and getting quite close to final release) contains further TNP mitigations; further improvements to the core assembly workbench; radically better lighting; datums have moved into the core; there's a way of enabling the advanced att…

TNP is much better, but not entirely solved. There are also still lots of minor issues that crop up during normal workflows, particularly when importing geometry from other sketches. I ran into this exact issue just this past week, where importing a half circle from a previous sketch breaks every time I update a dimension in DynamicData (a dimension that isn't used even), but if I manually select "recompute object" it recalculates everything totally fine.

Then I tweak a dimension, model flags an error, I select "recompute object" and it's fine. No geometry errors detected at any point. Presumably FreeCAD is recomputing the object when I'm updating the dimensions, so why does a manual recomputation fix the problem but the automatic one doesn't? Overall FreeCAD is pretty good, but I have yet to do a FreeCAD project where I don't run into something weird like this that I have to suffer through or work around.

Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D

#94

Post by awinter-py »

juliangmp wrote: post #74
awinter-py wrote: post #11

Tried 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…

If you want a classical GUI based cad tool for 3D modelling, I'd suggest taking a look at solve space and dune3d

thanks for recs, will check them out

Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D

#95

Post by exasperaited »

naasking wrote: post #93
exasperaited wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's incorrect, then! Lots changed since 2020 in the current 1.0.2 release, including TNP mitigations and the core assembly workbench. The 1.1 developer release (which is stable and useful and getting quite close to final release) contains further TNP mitigations; further improvements to the core assembly workbench; radically better lighting; datums have moved into the core; there's a way of enabling the advanced att…

TNP is much better, but not entirely solved. There are also still lots of minor issues that crop up during normal workflows, particularly when importing geometry from other sketches. I ran into this exact issue just this past week, where importing a half circle from a previous sketch breaks every time I update a dimension in DynamicData (a dimension that isn't used even), but if I manually select "recompute object" i…

TNP essentially cannot be definitively solved, as I understand it. Only extensively mitigated. Other CAD packages still have TNP issues.

FreeCAD had an additional problem that OpenCascade doesn't maintain any naming across its interfaces at all, which is what RealThunder's geometry naming scheme, that mainline FreeCAD now uses, largely solved. But his fork still has issues too.

Is DynamicData still properly supported in 1.x? Looks like it might be. Never really used it; I use a minimal mix of Spreadsheet (mostly for Configuration Tables) and VarSets.

As to problems: the main issue with FreeCAD as with all really complex packages is that it's impossible to diagnose a problem from a description that short; you pretty much always need the file to know what is actually causing the problem, because it's full of subtleties.

Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D

#96

Post by gwbas1c »

aclindsa wrote: post #10

One of the best things about openscad is the ability to immediately see the results of a code change in the 3D view (all I do is save the file with :w in neovim and openscad re-renders it). Being able to interact like this makes it much quicker and easier to iterate on a design. I read through the ucad website and book for 10 minutes and haven't been able to figure out if there is an analogue to this for ucad? There…

This implies that you can preview in VS Code: https://docs.microcad.xyz/tutorials/book/lego_brick/preparat...

I'm not sure if it's on par with what you want, though.

Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D

#97

Post by gwbas1c »

alanbernstein wrote: post #73
krisoft wrote: post #13

Earlier 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 have a lot of experience with openscad. I design a lot of small, simple-to-moderate parts. I want to use something like fusion instead, but the GUI learning curve is a huge blocker for me. I'm not a CAD professional, I can't seem to find the time to watch hours of video to get the basics down. With code based CAD, the way to start is usually obvious. When I run into a blocker, I search online, find examples, and tr…

I'm hitting the same problem, getting stuck on simple things in FreeCAD mostly because I'm a novice and don't have hours and hours to watch videos and learn.

What ended up working for you?

Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D

#99

Post by exasperaited »

fragmede wrote: post #82
mft_ wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this. Per my comment just above, I've been one of the HNers recommending against FreeCAD for years, because that was my experience. I've recently started to change that opinion; using the build I linked above, it's now pretty usable and competitive/usable for a hobbyist. I'm now considering it my first-line CAD package (until proven otherwise!)

Hm, I may have to reconsider the amoral recommendation of pirate SOLIDWORKS

(Un-)release notes for upcoming 1.1:

https://wiki.freecad.org/Release_notes_1.1

Re: µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D

#100

Post by pedropaulovc »

_flux wrote: post #52
hantusk wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 abou…

KCL can be exported to STEP and STL.
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