6 ms·

do you know the WASM bundle size of Python and CadQuery? OpenSCAD has a lot of cons in terms of concept and CAD approach, but there are things where it is good

by jetter 4d ago

do you know the WASM bundle size of Python and CadQuery? OpenSCAD has a lot of cons in terms of concept and CAD approach, but there are things where it is good - it is embeddable and sandboxable and fast. It gets the job done in simple models and that is the reason why it is popular. It reminds me a bit how everyone was bashing PHP because 'it is not a programming language' while wordpress ruled the world.

dofm 4d ago
No, the comparison is not apt with PHP (which I use on the daily and have done for twenty years). It's a bit more like comparing CSS with a subset of JavaScript that can do the same tasks. OpenSCAD isn't, really, a proper CAD package. It's a CSG drawing library with a declarative syntax. It is like nested CSS for 3D things. Code complexity and repetition balloons with part complexity. Your thing will not scale well because OpenSCAD does not scale well. Small changes will lead to subtle flaws; changes will need to be respecified in minute detail because OpenSCAD doesn't support sketch constraints that would generate correct geometry, doesn't support edges and faces that can help make parametric designs flow. OpenSCAD is fun for making small, trivial objects, it is a good way to learn the most basic CSG operations, and it really excels at 3D representations of mathematical formulae. But it's entirely the wrong foundation for the more general CAD-replacement thing you are trying to do. CadQuery is not at all as bad a foundation (I think it's quite neat, and I think it could work). But IMO much of this article talks about "findings" that should have been obvious to you if you know enough about CAD to know what it is you are replacing. If you are continuing in this non-bRep, fast calculation approach, have you looked at generating SDF instead?

6 ms·

do you know the WASM bundle size of Python and CadQuery? OpenSCAD has a lot of cons in terms of concept and CAD approach, but there are things where it is good

by jetter 4d ago

dofm 4d ago
No, the comparison is not apt with PHP (which I use on the daily and have done for twenty years). It's a bit more like comparing CSS with a subset of JavaScript that can do the same tasks. OpenSCAD isn't, really, a proper CAD package. It's a CSG drawing library with a declarative syntax. It is like nested CSS for 3D things. Code complexity and repetition balloons with part complexity. Your thing will not scale well because OpenSCAD does not scale well. Small changes will lead to subtle flaws; changes will need to be respecified in minute detail because OpenSCAD doesn't support sketch constraints that would generate correct geometry, doesn't support edges and faces that can help make parametric designs flow. OpenSCAD is fun for making small, trivial objects, it is a good way to learn the most basic CSG operations, and it really excels at 3D representations of mathematical formulae. But it's entirely the wrong foundation for the more general CAD-replacement thing you are trying to do. CadQuery is not at all as bad a foundation (I think it's quite neat, and I think it could work). But IMO much of this article talks about "findings" that should have been obvious to you if you know enough about CAD to know what it is you are replacing. If you are continuing in this non-bRep, fast calculation approach, have you looked at generating SDF instead?