Well, so I just published my first-in-a-long-time brand-new #OpenSource / #FreeSoftware project. And I decided it was finally time to get a #PyPI account, so it actually shows up there.
It's `cq-studio`:
https://pypi.org/project/cq-studio/
It's to use with #CadQuery (or #build123d, perhaps), a way to #model #3D objects programmatically, with #Python code. You edit your code in whatever editor, and view the results with a great interactive viewer in your browser.
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The viewer comes from #YACV, "Yet Another Cad Viewer".
I use this for creating models for #3DPrinting. I can't draw, so #FreeCAD etc aren't useful to me, but I can write code pretty darn good 😜 . This replaces my previous workflow, which was a custom Python library on top of either #PythonOpenSCAD or #OpenPySCAD, either of which then renders to #OpenSCAD code.
(No one in their right mind should use OpenSCAD's native language/syntax directly 😱 )
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@cazabon I’ve used pure openscad language for a pretty long time, but at some point it drove me crazy when creating complex models ;-)
I’m trying to switch to cadquery, but having hard time with some theoretically simple sketches.
Nevertheless, cq-studio is awesome
Thanks! I should really polish up some additions I've made and release an update.
I never used OpenSCAD's language directly; always through a Python front-end. But I used it for several years and I'm still slightly on the fence between the two.
CadQuery produces more precise models, so it's a little easier in some little ways - but the open 3D modelling engine it uses appears to have difficulties with some other things. It's way too easy to create an object that it then cannot itself perform an operation on. My sore spots are objects it can't fillet the edges of and solids that it can't shell to make hollow. So I find myself using workarounds like filleting edges of simpler shapes before assembling them together, or hollowing out a complex shape manually by creating a smaller version of the original and subtracting it.
I also haven't been able to do any kind of 3D hulling. I wish it was very clearly one was better than the other, so I didn't keep feeling like I wasn't sure if I was wasting my time getting better with CadQuery.
@cazabon what I’m aiming right now is to create a Lego track in cadquery, as far as I know FXTrack were created in cadquery. I like them but they are to expensive for me to buy enough (and honestly, I’ve bought a 3d printer some time ago and I love to create design myself, go through a process of refining a model for a specific filament and printer and creating a perfectly matching brick parts).
I’ve found some ready-to-print models 2 weeks ago: 4dbrix and they are the best model of the internet I’ve printed so far, see the picture.
That's pretty cool! That sort of item is also virtually ideal for modelling programmatically.
It's also practically criminal how much Lego costs for what is basically just injection-molded ABS.
C.
Paweł Szczur 