Recently there’s been a increase in the popularity of OpenSCAD as the tool of choice in the 3d printing community. [Gavilan Steinman] is putting out a series of webTV shorts on the use of OpenSCAD. While it lacks a lot of the features of big CAD suits (such as the ability to generate drawings of your parts), the community has proven it’s effectiveness as a design tool. There are only two episodes out so far but they cover OpenSCAD, mathcast, 3d printing, and a really neat robot design. Watch them below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmKnvEcPTk8&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaqrHuw4qY&w=470]
ok, im not much of a programmer, but i would have made that servo a heck a way faster using a mouse driven modeling software. (like solid works or something) Also less mind tricks.. (for me)
strange that the 1st episode was Feb 27. Second was Mar 6 … now its June 3… Almost looks to me like he lost interest in the series …
Anywho interesting stuff. I will be downloading openSCAD tonight!
The big draw to OpenSCAD is that it makes changing a few parameters ad getting a new version very easy; a good thing if you want to share your design with folks that might not have exactly the same parts you do.
@Regulus: Most “mouse-based” CAD-packages out there can use variables as well, you don’t always have to create fixed models.
@topic: Nice, I like the more “programming” like aspect of OpenSCAD, gonna take a look for sure.
OpenSCAD looks too much like Matlab (which I love the features but hate the UI). Why not try the free Creo Elements/Direct Personal Edition. It is WAY easier to use once you get the hang of it.
http://www.ptc.com/offers/tryout/pe3.htm.
Works similar to Google Sketchup, but has better dimensioning and you can create drawings.
OpenSCAD is the ultimate parametric design tool. The dimensions can be changed on the fly. I think this is the benefits over Solidworks/Creo Element/Autodesk 123D, though not as intuitive.
I’ve been using Soldworks for many years, but it is tooooo expensive that I cannot afford installation on my own computer. OpenSCAD and Autodesk 123D are very good alternatives, as they are free.
Hope that one day a mouse-driven front end can be developed upon OpenSCAD.
I like to code more than I like to mouse too…which is why I don’t get why OpenSCAD has such a terrible editor. Let me embed emacs in there!