Beginners guide to OpenSCAD

http://www.openscad.org/
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Chris Muncy
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Beginners guide to OpenSCAD

Post by Chris Muncy »

http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2011/01/19 ... the-setup/

I'm going through this right now and trying to learn. This might be the best thing to start to design your own things to print, like boxes, covers.....
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johnoly99
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Re: Beginners guide to OpenSCAD

Post by johnoly99 »

Hey Chris, have you tried autodesk 123D? I HATED autocad, but this seems like it's easy stuff to get working with 3D precision models?
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Chris Muncy
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Re: Beginners guide to OpenSCAD

Post by Chris Muncy »

Actually I have and I am starting to like it. The learning curve is still a bit steep. Some issues I was having was, for example, getting a hole centered correctly in a square. PITA. I still haven't quite figured that out so it's 100% reproducible.
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Dave_Sohlstrom
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Re: Beginners guide to OpenSCAD

Post by Dave_Sohlstrom »

I saw some interesting things on Thingiverse so I DL SCAD. I could not make heads or tails of it. Never did get it to work for me.
I think my main problem is that I work with Alibre 3D CAD all the time and have no patience for other CAD software.
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Re: Beginners guide to OpenSCAD

Post by skrubol »

Open SCAD is an interesting beast. It's great for those of us who are less visual and more numbers/programming.
I still haven't really made a useful model in it yet.
(I'm also trying to learn 123D simultaneously)
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michaellatif
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Re: Beginners guide to OpenSCAD

Post by michaellatif »

Agree with you Skrubol, I find that OpenSCAD so much more easier to program/design in then a traditional CAD environment.
Maybe because I come from a programming background?

I like the fact that some (if not a lot) of projects on Thingiverse come with SCAD files to allow you to manipulate and change to your hearts desire!
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Re: Beginners guide to OpenSCAD

Post by Polygonhell »

I can knock something simple up faster in open OpenSCAD, than most CAD packages, especially if I want to drive dimensions from component sizes.
As things get complex, like a lot of programming you need to have a good plan of attack.
My only issue with it is some of the syntax is brain dead stupid like no local variables.
I also miss the concept of assemblies for visualizing components made out of subcomponents

I was really interested in implicitCAD which is much the same thing but using Haskell as a host, but it's still a bit too early, and without a preview window it's hard to work.
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