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I've been using CadQuery [1] a lot of late to develop custom parts for 3D printing, and while it's nice to be able to write plain Python and the abstractions ar
by dividedbyzero 5y ago
I've been using CadQuery [1] a lot of late to develop custom parts for 3D printing, and while it's nice to be able to write plain Python and the abstractions are somewhat more intuitive than OpenSCAD, it's still kind of brittle and complex parts are hard work.
There are things CAD-as-code excels at, but once you leave the happy path of simple primitives with a few holes and a bit of chamfer, I found things can get really ugly real quick. Organic shapes are very hard to construct, and simply generating polylines or the like either fails because OpenSCAD takes literal hours to render or because CadQuery throws some weird error halfway through and I just can't get it to work.
I'd love to see a free or at least affordable (for hobbyists) CAD solution that isn't code-only, cloud-only, totally crippled in terms of functionality, or extremely arcane. I believe Fusion 360 went cloud-only (or almost) last year or so, and between Fusion 360 and FreeCAD (which I tried to learn, but couldn't figure out) there seems to be a big opportunity for an affordable, user-friendly, open CAD tool for the 3D printer owning masses (there are dozens of us!)
1: https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery
- benhurmarcel 5y agoI completely agree, but Fusion360 is still very usable for hobbyists in practice. It does store your files on the cloud, the software only works when it can phone the server, and Autodesk can change its conditions at any time. But for the moment, most hobbyists are happy with it. It's quality software, and free (as in beer). It's hard to compete with that. Most hobbyists care more about making their designs rather than software ideology, myself included.
- dividedbyzero 5y agoI'm not dogmatic either, but if I need to revisit a design a few years from now, will I be able to? That's what I feel uneasy about with Fusion 360.