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OpenSCAD: The Programmer's Solid 3D CAD Modeller

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Re: OpenSCAD: The Programmer's Solid 3D CAD Modeller

#51

Post by junon »

throwgfgfd25 wrote: post #18

If you want to do code-CAD for anything substantial and you haven't yet developed a significant dependency on OpenSCAD, do your brain a favour and spend at least some time with CadQuery, Build123D or (if you prefer JS to Python) Replicad. As impressive as NopSCADlib and BOSL2 are (and OMG they are, when you consider what they have to work with!) , OpenSCAD is a one-way, declarative CSG environment that essentially on…

Coming from freecad as my only frame of reference, even though I understand the concepts of build123d, I found it wildly difficult to express anything useful in it.

Not saying it's not possible - I've seen what it can do - but even with my software background it was hard for me to really work with something that isn't based on constraints.

Re: OpenSCAD: The Programmer's Solid 3D CAD Modeller

#52

Post by the__alchemist »

fn-mote wrote: post #30
dgroshev wrote: post #13

If you find yourself doing a lot of OpenSCAD, you might want to check out what you're missing from more traditional CAD systems: A few examples of simple fillets in SOLIDWORKS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f78gblpqxHc Higher level continuity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5QN40d02cw A good example of nontrivial surfacing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cujS1icUTtg (the entire channel is a goldmine of surfacing…

Yes, it’s a wonderful tool. This post kind of upset me; it’s comparing totally different classes of program. SolidWorks is subscription based, so your $50 buys access this year and probably you won’t want to use the model again next year, right? OpenSCAD is free software, and that matters. Hopefully readers know it’s decades behind and very rough to use. Your example of “superpower modern CAD” could have been a whole…

Imagine being new to the CAD landscape. There are so many technologies, and approaches. Different resources talk about the merits of the individual techs.

I would rather someone just flat-out tell me that OpenSCAD etc is ineffective for most projects compared to SolidWorks, Fusion etc; save the trouble of finding out the hard way. Your points are all great, but I don't mind the post you're replying to for this reason.

Re: OpenSCAD: The Programmer's Solid 3D CAD Modeller

#53

Post by throwgfgfd25 »

junon wrote: post #51
throwgfgfd25 wrote: post #18

If you want to do code-CAD for anything substantial and you haven't yet developed a significant dependency on OpenSCAD, do your brain a favour and spend at least some time with CadQuery, Build123D or (if you prefer JS to Python) Replicad. As impressive as NopSCADlib and BOSL2 are (and OMG they are, when you consider what they have to work with!) , OpenSCAD is a one-way, declarative CSG environment that essentially on…

Coming from freecad as my only frame of reference, even though I understand the concepts of build123d, I found it wildly difficult to express anything useful in it. Not saying it's not possible - I've seen what it can do - but even with my software background it was hard for me to really work with something that isn't based on constraints.

I ultimately went the other way, and got to FreeCAD from OpenSCAD via CadQuery; it was CadQuery that helped me understand important concepts.

CadQuery may appeal to you? It does have (some) early support for constraints in 2D and 3D I believe.

(CadQuery and Build123D ultimately share both OCP underpinnings and viewer tooling.)

Re: OpenSCAD: The Programmer's Solid 3D CAD Modeller

#54

Post by number2inATW »

randomghost1 wrote: post #9

What are people's thoughts on CAD generation with LLMs for OpenSCAD and other proprietary GUI-based softwares? I imagine soon we will also be able to "autocomplete" or "semantically edit" feature trees in SolidWorks, Fusion, etc.

Nice work y’all

Re: OpenSCAD: The Programmer's Solid 3D CAD Modeller

#55

Post by leptons »

seveibar wrote: post #38

For people interested in coding CAD in React, my team built a react fiber layer over jscad and are investing heavily into building an MIT-licensed 3d electronics library: https://github.com/tscircuit/jscad-fiber I don't think you need a custom language to declare CAD, typescript/python have heavily invested in type systems so I hope the world moves more toward using existing languages. The biggest limitation with cod…

I've been using jscad for years. Love it, still using it actively almost every day. I also use React/JSX every day for work and personal projects. That said, I'm not sure I like the mash-up of jscad-fiber after taking a look at the github page. Maybe it just doesn't fit my use-case of building several complex parts that have to interface with each other. I'm sure there is a use case for it though. It doesn't seem like jscad-fiber supports things like measureBoundingBox or any lower level stuff. There's a lot of depth to jscad, it's an amazing project.

Re: OpenSCAD: The Programmer's Solid 3D CAD Modeller

#56

Post by microtherion »

throwgfgfd25 wrote: post #18

If you want to do code-CAD for anything substantial and you haven't yet developed a significant dependency on OpenSCAD, do your brain a favour and spend at least some time with CadQuery, Build123D or (if you prefer JS to Python) Replicad. As impressive as NopSCADlib and BOSL2 are (and OMG they are, when you consider what they have to work with!) , OpenSCAD is a one-way, declarative CSG environment that essentially on…

The alternatives you suggest look interesting and worth checking out. I certainly have my annoyances with OpenSCAD, but one reason I keep coming back to it is that many of my models have user adjustable parameters, and as far as I know, OpenSCAD is the only tool supported by the thingiverse customizer.

Personally, I rather like the constraint based approach in FreeCAD and miss that a lot in OpenSCAD.

Re: OpenSCAD: The Programmer's Solid 3D CAD Modeller

#58

Post by abetusk »

throwgfgfd25 wrote: post #25
abetusk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The operative word being "open". Much more expressive tools exist but the condition on libre/free/open reduces the size of that list substantially. OpenSCAD also has a lower barrier to entry in that the programming language and environment is familiar without needing a lot of training or context.

The three I suggested above are absolutely as open as OpenSCAD. (With the addition of developer openness: directly meshing with Python or JS libraries)

Nice, my bad!

Re: OpenSCAD: The Programmer's Solid 3D CAD Modeller

#59

Post by throwgfgfd25 »

seveibar wrote: post #45
randomghost1 wrote: post #9

What are people's thoughts on CAD generation with LLMs for OpenSCAD and other proprietary GUI-based softwares? I imagine soon we will also be able to "autocomplete" or "semantically edit" feature trees in SolidWorks, Fusion, etc.

The problem with most CAD tools is they don't represent "design intent" or high-level components well, and I believe this is mostly due to the language's not being sophisticated enough e.g. a human says "these holes need to be separated by 2mm", but when we program in OpenSCAD and other CAD languages we usually specify x={-1} for one component and x={1} for the other (just an example of how design intent is being los…

> e.g. a human says "these holes need to be separated by 2mm", but when we program in OpenSCAD and other CAD languages we usually specify x={-1} for one component and x={1} for the other (just an example of how design intent is being lost)

What you mean there is constraints, I suppose?

And yes -- there's some work to add constraints to CadQuery sketches/cqparts, but it's early.

https://cadquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/assy.html https://cadquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/sketch.html#constr...

I suppose the logic has always been that if you control the placement of parts in code, you can build your own quasi-constraint logic to make reactive, parametric designs. And you might argue that "having complete control over this in code" is its own kind of "design intent" with its own potential justifications.

Specifying constraints in the way the CadQuery development does may not be natural.

But both CadQuery and Build123D have kernel-based tools like face finders, vertex finders etc., that are capable of things that OpenSCAD definitionally cannot do at kernel level.

Replicad (a JS OpenCascade environment) has face and vertex finders, face-based sketching, etc.

Re: OpenSCAD: The Programmer's Solid 3D CAD Modeller

#60

Post by wlesieutre »

dgroshev wrote: post #41
wlesieutre wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your $50 buys you nothing from Solidworks, expect to pay multiple thousands for that

SOLIDWORKS for Makers includes a full copy of SOLIDWORKS and costs $48/year https://www.solidworks.com/solution/3dexperience-solidworks-...

For non-commercial use, files are watermarked and can’t be opened later in a commercial or academic licensed version
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