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Parametric CAD in Rust

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Re: Parametric CAD in Rust

#151

Post by bluGill »

avhon1 wrote: post #105
ozy wrote: post #94

I really like the idea of openscad, or this, or the many alternatives. But when I say a shape with these and these dimensions, the next shape should attach to it somewhere. And then I want to say: chamfer all outside edges. But in all these programs, it's me redoing the math in my code, computing where the shape goes. As for chamfers, I just give up ...

> chamfer all outside edges FreeCAD can do this. So can all of the proprietary parametric CAD programs I've ever used, some of which (PTC OnShape, Siemens Solid Edge, Autodesk Fusion) have usable free tiers available.

If you are a programmer OpenSCAD is easier to learn. However you will quickly run into limits. Just a few hours of a FreeCAD tutorial and I was already seeing how I could do things I'd never attempt in OpenSCAD. FreeCAD has a reputation of not being great, but I'm not far enough into it to learn the limits - things I can't figure out feel like things I could learn, in OpenSCAD the things I couldn't figure out where because they were too complex - I could but the code wouldn't be readable so there was no point (not to mention math errors).

FreeCAD is designed for the things real designers really do. OpenSCAD is designed for the things mathematicians do.

Re: Parametric CAD in Rust

#152

Post by alnwlsn »

fainpul wrote: post #103
rkagerer wrote: post #91

With the ability to change one number and regenerate everything That's exactly how I use Solidworks (and similar parametric CAD software) all the time. It takes some discipline, but the key is for all your geometry and relations to be driven from sketches and equations. Then you just change a value (sketch dimension or global constant), hit rebuild, and everything regenerates fairly reliably. Don't get me wrong, this…

I'm with you. What I've learned from all those "programmatic CAD" threads is that some people just really prefer code over anything else. They also build only simple parts, so it's not an issue for them. As the author says: "I wanted to write my parts the way I write firmware. In Rust. With types. With version control."

It depends. I use Solidworks all the time but I think OpenSCAD was a great choice to make this part:

https://github.com/settinger/selectric_typeballs

A bit like how you can edit images in MS Paint, Python, or Photoshop. None of these is or should be a one size fits all solution.

Re: Parametric CAD in Rust

#154

Post by skinner927 »

tatqx wrote: post #117
rkagerer wrote: post #91

With the ability to change one number and regenerate everything That's exactly how I use Solidworks (and similar parametric CAD software) all the time. It takes some discipline, but the key is for all your geometry and relations to be driven from sketches and equations. Then you just change a value (sketch dimension or global constant), hit rebuild, and everything regenerates fairly reliably. Don't get me wrong, this…

I am trying to do something similar but inside a GUI - https://lilicad.com/ This is still very basic. Also 100% vibe coded and therefore not as robust as I would like it to be.

Eagerly awaiting a demo video

Re: Parametric CAD in Rust

#155

Post by jfindley »

IshKebab wrote: post #48
ecto wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're correct, I'm completely uneducated! Pull requests welcome :)

The pull request is to delete the project and open SOLIDWORKS or FreeCAD. But don't actually delete it. It looks like a nice alternative to OpenSCAD. But like OpenSCAD it's really a niche thing for designs that are highly parametric like fasteners, gears, 3D printed boxes, etc. Like OpenSCAD using it for normal "irregular" CAD is going to be extremely frustrating. Like editing an SVG in notepad instead of Inkscape. I…

All the good commercial parametric CAD apps have an API that allow you to define models programatically to avoid repitition, or do more complicated things like ensure gear ratios are exactly correct. I'm not sure I entirely understand what you're getting at with the "stays in sync" part though.

Re: Parametric CAD in Rust

#156

Post by [deleted] »

alnwlsn wrote: post #152
fainpul wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you. What I've learned from all those "programmatic CAD" threads is that some people just really prefer code over anything else. They also build only simple parts, so it's not an issue for them. As the author says: "I wanted to write my parts the way I write firmware. In Rust. With types. With version control."

It depends. I use Solidworks all the time but I think OpenSCAD was a great choice to make this part: https://github.com/settinger/selectric_typeballs A bit like how you can edit images in MS Paint, Python, or Photoshop. None of these is or should be a one size fits all solution.

[deleted]

Re: Parametric CAD in Rust

#157

Post by ge96 »

avhon1 wrote: post #108
ge96 wrote: post #26

SketchUp was my go to for a while but I'm done with parametric personally, trying to fix meshes for 3D printing... time I grow up and use something like Fusion360 seems like or onshape. Still it was good/simple enough for non-round shapes in SketchUp except they have some kind of memory leak/bug at least for the 2017 version. But I guess quit being cheap and buy a modern copy on my part. Edit: oh I guess sketchup is…

Just because you type dimensions in doesn't mean it's parametric. If you're manually patching meshes, you're almost certainly not doing parametric CAD! (This does match with my memories of SketchUp, beck when it was owned by Google. I had to fix holes and overlapping geometry by editing the .STL files in Blender before any of the primitive slicer programs could process them.) OnShape and Fusion360 are fully parametri…

Yeah I learned SketchUp like 17 years ago it's crazy. But I want to make more complex round shapes and ensure it is a solid (for 3D printing) so time to make the jump.

Re: Parametric CAD in Rust

#160

Post by johnwalkr »

rkagerer wrote: post #91

With the ability to change one number and regenerate everything That's exactly how I use Solidworks (and similar parametric CAD software) all the time. It takes some discipline, but the key is for all your geometry and relations to be driven from sketches and equations. Then you just change a value (sketch dimension or global constant), hit rebuild, and everything regenerates fairly reliably. Don't get me wrong, this…

These projects are cool but to me they seem like they all come from the place: a programmer opens up a CAD program, and within days concludes that they would prefer if they could use their existing scripting skills to make something instead of learning to use the program, including the parametric features. Which is fine, but as a mechanical engineer 99% of the useful/required features are not there.
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