[lucasoshiro]

I'm really happy to see OpenSCAD stuff here in HN. Of course it has some downsides (not being able to measure an object is the main one...), but it is an underrated tool.

I'm using it as my main 3D modeling tool for three years, and I even gave I course about it last year. No regrets, and I never felt that I needed to learn Fusion or similar

[GuB-42]

For me, the big problem with OpenSCAD and the reason I let go of it quickly is the lack of constraint-based modeling. For example, if I want to design a cup and I want my handle to have a 30mm round hole that is tangent to the walls of the cup, I want to be able to adjust the thickness of the handle and the size and shape of the cup while keeping these properties. And I don't what do do the maths myself if I can avoid it.

OpenSCAD does very little to help me with these maths as it doesn't have a solver. Not to my knowledge at least.

[zokier]

Other big problem is one demonstrated also by the article; openscad is not great at any rounded shapes because it is mostly polygon based. So even if you write out the maths explicitly they might end up being wrong because of the difference between true round and the polygonal approximation

[WillAdams]

Basically one has to write the solver oneself --- see comment elsethread about how this is OpenSCAD's weakness --- what one can make in it is bounded by one's mathematical fluency.

[Joel_Mckay]

Depends on the use-case, but openscad can be useful for simple parametric designs prone to deformation during manufacturing (we use it for printing off-axis parabolas.)

FreeCAD supports the openscad language plugin, and can generate proper solids. Many classic CAD/CAM users often see the parametric design workflow as baffling... not an entirely undeserved reputation.

Freecad tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/@4axisprinting/videos

Blender geometry nodes tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/@Entagma/videos

Best of luck, =3

[lucasoshiro]

Thanks!

[WillAdams]

OpenSCAD recently got a Measure tool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_AEHI2o-6Q

OpenSCAD's strength --- that it makes it easy to create 3D designs which are easily represented mathematically using cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones, and assemblies and distortions thereof is also its weakness --- what one can do in OpenSCAD is strongly bounded by one's fluency in mathematics/geometry/trigonometry (says the guy who is stuck on conic sections in a particular project and needs a solution which is faster to calculate).

Still waiting for the Python-enabled version to make it big:

https://pythonscad.org/

[kiba]

Being able to do object oriented programming is going to make reasoning about geometrical objects much easier.

I like the measuring tool but I prefer doing something more permanent like labeling it.

[lucasoshiro]

> OpenSCAD recently got a Measure tool

Sadly, in the GUI, it would be really nice if I could do something like:

module myObj() { import("bla.stl"); }

myObjDimensions = dimensions(myObj);

translate([0, 0, myObjDimensions.z]) cube();

But this couldn't even be a valid SCAD code...

[WillAdams]

I am sure that a patch which implemented that would be gladly accepted.