Getting the best out of OpenSCAD
calbryant.uk
Getting the best out of OpenSCAD
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Re: Getting the best out of OpenSCAD
#2Is there a good parametric / code based CAD that's good for (amateur) house or garden design, and which runs on linux? I've used openscad in the past for simple parts prototyping, but haven't tried it for 2d work. I always found its preview kind of awkward, so I can't see it exporting or printing particularly well.
I've been learning qcad recently, which is OK, but it really wants you to make extensive use of the mouse. I feel like I could probably be just as productive by typing code and seeing a 2d plot of what I specify. Way back when I used SweetHome3d, which works pretty well for interiors, but (at least when I tried it) didn't have very many tools for exteriors.
Re: Getting the best out of OpenSCAD
#3Is there a good parametric / code based CAD that's good for (amateur) house or garden design, and which runs on linux? I've used openscad in the past for simple parts prototyping, but haven't tried it for 2d work. I always found its preview kind of awkward, so I can't see it exporting or printing particularly well. I've been learning qcad recently, which is OK, but it really wants you to make extensive use of the mou…
its really not pretty, but I've written generators for svg and loaded those into Inkscape for composition, etc. (in scheme I guess, but it really doesn't matter..something simple)
Re: Getting the best out of OpenSCAD
#4When I first got into 3D printing, I used OpenSCAD for my designs. The fact that objects are described with code made me feel right at home. It made it incredibly easy to make parametric designs.
But later, I did start to feel the limitations. Not having automatic fillet/chamfer was huge. And sometimes, I wanted the ability to measure the distance between two points selected visually to make sure all my math involving offsets was correct.
And as the article mentions, certain shapes end up with a lot of artifacts unless you "render" them, which can take a while. I designed a refillable catnip toy [0] and all the holes in it made the CSG subtraction take ~15 minutes, IIRC. Without rendering though, the opening on the bottom was solid, along with other glitches.
Re: Getting the best out of OpenSCAD
#5Ctrl-F, didn't mention BOSL2
Re: Getting the best out of OpenSCAD
#6When I first got into 3D printing, I used OpenSCAD for my designs. The fact that objects are described with code made me feel right at home. It made it incredibly easy to make parametric designs. But later, I did start to feel the limitations. Not having automatic fillet/chamfer was huge. And sometimes, I wanted the ability to measure the distance between two points selected visually to make sure all my math involvin…
The trick with holes is to make your negative geometry penetrate past the surface. Meeting exactly on the surface will be too glitchey otherwise with the fast floating-point approximation.
Fillets and chamfers though, yeah. The lack of those drives me away. As Quinn (Blondihacks) says: "Chamfers are what separate us from the animals.", and as This Old Tony says: "When it comes to chamfers, you don't want to cut corners." (And if you don't know who I am quoting, you clearly don't waste enough time watching machinists on Youtube.)
Re: Getting the best out of OpenSCAD
#7Is there a good parametric / code based CAD that's good for (amateur) house or garden design, and which runs on linux? I've used openscad in the past for simple parts prototyping, but haven't tried it for 2d work. I always found its preview kind of awkward, so I can't see it exporting or printing particularly well. I've been learning qcad recently, which is OK, but it really wants you to make extensive use of the mou…
FreeCAD has decent BIM support for A/E/C (using the Arch modules) and works great on Ubuntu. For civil work, use Blender (turn units 'On') and get it setup for GIS with various plugins and pull data from sources like Google Earth.
Re: Getting the best out of OpenSCAD
#8When I first got into 3D printing, I used OpenSCAD for my designs. The fact that objects are described with code made me feel right at home. It made it incredibly easy to make parametric designs. But later, I did start to feel the limitations. Not having automatic fillet/chamfer was huge. And sometimes, I wanted the ability to measure the distance between two points selected visually to make sure all my math involvin…
The trick with holes is to make your negative geometry penetrate past the surface. Meeting exactly on the surface will be too glitchey otherwise with the fast floating-point approximation. Fillets and chamfers though, yeah. The lack of those drives me away. As Quinn (Blondihacks) says: "Chamfers are what separate us from the animals.", and as This Old Tony says: "When it comes to chamfers, you don't want to cut corne…
Chamfers can be done by extruding the chamfer shape along a wireframe of the geometry to be chamfered, then subtracting the extrusion from the original geometry. I'm not sure how I'd do fillets in OpenSCAD, though.
Re: Getting the best out of OpenSCAD
#9When I first got into 3D printing, I used OpenSCAD for my designs. The fact that objects are described with code made me feel right at home. It made it incredibly easy to make parametric designs. But later, I did start to feel the limitations. Not having automatic fillet/chamfer was huge. And sometimes, I wanted the ability to measure the distance between two points selected visually to make sure all my math involvin…
Before I ran into insurmountable (for me) performance issues with OpenSCAD, I made heavy use of BOSL2[0]. I’d go as far as call it OpenSCAD’s missing standard library. It’s truly sublime.
Fun fact: BOSL2 was written by the same person who made the world’s most 3D printable 3D printer. [1]
Re: Getting the best out of OpenSCAD
#10Ctrl-F, didn't mention BOSL2 https://github.com/revarbat/BOSL2
I came here to mention BOSL2 and should have Ctrl-F’ed before posting my other comment!