CadQuery is an open-source Python library for building 3D CAD models

Doing CAD with code seems like obviously the right move to me. The ability to just write new functions in python and do version control with git are super powerful.

The big thing that struck me as innovative with CadQuery is the design intent query part. Selecting model geometry by relation to other geometry is way more resilient to changes ealier in the model's history than the regular "that point right there" you get with just clicking a point.

That the developers acknowledge that seeing the model at various steps in the script is important, and so have the CQ-editor, is also a point in their favour.

I do have a gripe though:

Having to keep all the geometry selection stuff relating to the model in my head is hard. I want gui tools that write code.

Like if I have a complex model, and variables assigned to various parts of the geometry. I want to be able to see that geometry highlighted and labeled, so I know what's easily selectable, and I want to be able to click buttons based on my design intent and get immediate visual feedback, and have each of those button presses added as code as I do them.

Look at this example model: https://cadquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/examples.html#a-pa...

This bit that selects some points?

  # compute centers for screw holes
  topOfLidCenters = (
    cutlip
    .faces(">Z")
    .workplane(centerOption="CenterOfMass")
    .rect(POSTWIDTH, POSTLENGTH, forConstruction=True)
    .vertices()
  )

I recently used their sister library (build123d, same devs) to build a rotary slide rule bracelet for multiplying three-digit numbers. It was a great experience and wouldn't generally be easy to do with Fusion 360. My bracelet gets quite a lot of comments when I wear it in public. :-)

Here's an IPython notebook with lots of pictures so you can see how the different operations come together: https://github.com/gcr/sliderule-bracelet/blob/main/version-...

build123d is quite different stylistically from cadquery, but this should give you the flavor of programming-oriented CAD at least.

My last project involved making a cosplay helmet. I modeled the shell in blender, it was a low poly design, so I exported it to an OBJ, then put together some Python to load the OBJ, give the triangles some configurable thickness etc. Then I used it to explore how to print the helmet in such a way that the outer surface would be too clean to tell it's FDM printed, without needing to do any sanding.

Initially I explored having cadquery put a number on the back of each triangle and I'd assemble it like a puzzle, but that didn't work out. Eventually I figured out how to cut it up into parts that would also eliminate the need for painting and outer surfaces would be clean, and because it was in code, changing which part a triangle belonged to was a matter of moving the corresponding index into another list.

I probably could've managed it all in blender too, but being much more comfortable with code, it was easier for me to play with normals and manually turning each piece into a solid.

I also go for it for functional designs because, again, tweaking code is more comfortable to me than dealing with constraints and sketches and multiple planes in, say, FreeCAD.

https://fluidcad.io

I think I heard of cadquery before and decided against it, in favor of build123d.

Previous discussions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24520014 (6 years, 49 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30232344 (4 years, 43 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30219940 (on Hackaday, 4 years, 28 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17038257 (8 years, 16 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28083578 (a Show HN from 5 years ago w/ 1 comment)

There are a lot of tools in this space, esp. these days when "Vibe Coding" allows folks to knock one out w/ a prompt. Most folks jus use OpenSCAD which with its large user base and weaknesses which are (mostly) not exposed by 3D printing is great, so long as what one wants to model is easily described using mathematics/programming techniques which are familiar to the user.

I'd really like to see an interactive opensource project follow OnShape's lead where a scripting language (for OS, FeatureScript) is used as a wrapper around the geometry kernel, then the graphical UI creates the model using that language, and one can always inspect the resultant code. It seems to me that this <i>should</i> be workable given the observation:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31471109

>Parametric CAD, in my view, is a perfect example of "visual programming", <BR> >you have variables, iteration/patterning reducing repetition, composability <BR> >of objects/sketches again reducing repetition, modularity of design though a<BR> >hierarchy of assemblies. The alignment between programming principles and <BR> >CAD modelling principles, while not immediately obvious, are very much <BR> >there. An elegantly designed CAD model is just as beautiful (in its construction) <BR> >as elegantly written code.

but these days, I'm mostly using Open(Python)SCAD (which is in the process of getting merged in to the main project).

Community built examples: https://modelrift.com/models

Anyone has used it?

Anyone curious in the writeup? I have a pretty good harness for evaluating 3d generation performance.

[0]: https://grandpacad.com

https://github.com/ginkgo/trackball/

I'm working on a CAD kernel in Rust with a frontend either as a Blender plugin or a Blender fork (leaning towards fork at this point) It's not at all ready but I have reached first part status (before going back and rewriting a large chunk of the kernel)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47803846 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47803475 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47802988 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47803416