Empathy List Archives

GS

Guenther Sohler

Tue, Jan 16, 2024 7:20 AM

Are you using Cadquery in Linux or in Windows ?

I tried to install cadquery i the past, but there were actually quite many
stumbling stones lying in the way and I ended up in dependency issues with
anaconda/et cetera which I could not solve.

Can you point me to the instructions which helped you to succeed ?(is it
windows or linux ?)

BTW: I have seen a tetris animation in youtube lately which is by nero
engineering. is it from you ? is it a life channel rather than a video ?

On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 8:09 AM neri-engineering via Discuss <
discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote:

CadQuery is very powerful; it's for the power user, much like UNIX can be
compared to Windows. A power user who does not fear learning things would
always gravitate towards UNIX or a UNIX-like system (even MacOS I suppose).

Yes you're right, the installation of CadQuery and of cq-editor was a bit
more difficult than is typical, and it's because these tools live in
"Python world" which needs to know how to load libs etc. That's why they
have tools such as conda, anaconda, mambaforge, etc. to handle library
dependencies and library installations. Even I was not an expert in Python
but I was able to install these tools after careful reading and a few trial
and error steps. Yes it took a couple of hours in my case as well.

I still do like OpenSCAD, but for me it's crucial to have a tool that
generates STEP files for CNC machining at my disposal. This is why I had
to look beyond just OpenSCAD. Furthermore I'm very repulsed with the idea
of using graphical user interfaces to create parts that are very similar to
each other, with minor differences in between. In other words having a
language with which to "program parts" is very agreeable with me; this is
exactly what drew me to OpenSCAD initially.

Because CadQuery uses a B-rep lib as its backend, things like "shelling",
"fillet", or even "chamfer" are built-ins. In other words smoothing things
is easy; it's part of the backend library. These are frequently discussed
topics on this forum. 'Helix' and other complex operations are also
built-ins. Yes there is a learning curve with the extensive API, but once
you start working on simple examples it becomes clearer and clearer. STL
can be generated by CadQuery.

Well here is an example. Threads for screws are very easy to program.
With about 300 lines of code I was able to write a complete thread library
in two days, which generates both internal and external threads, with many
options. (Now of course I will be maintaining it when I find bugs, which
is expected because I'm using this in all of my projects.)

If you are interested in trying the thread generation code, it is here:

https://sourceforge.net/p/nl10/code/HEAD/tree/cq-code/common/metric_threads.py

If you add these few lines of code

show_object(internal_metric_thread(diameter=3.0,
pitch=0.5,
length=2.0,
bottom_chamfer=True,
base_tube_od=3.5))

to the bottom of thread lib linked above, opening in cq-editor will get
you this:

[image: threads.png]

Cheers.

Sent with Proton Mail https://proton.me/ secure email.

On Monday, January 15th, 2024 at 9:15 PM, Leonard Martin Struttmann via
Discuss discuss@lists.openscad.org wrote:

UPDATE: So I finally got CadQuery/CQ-editor installed and spent about
three hours playing with it today to design a simple part.

Conclusion: I will probably NOT be switching over to CadQuery.

I found the user interface to be clunky, and the editor is very basic with
little in the way of preferences.

CadQuery is very flexible, but flexibility breeds complexity. The learning
curve is very steep.

In practice, I found it to work just as if you were documenting each step
you would take if you were using a drawing program such as TinkerCAD,
FreeCADD, etc. For simple parts, each line of code (or each layer in the
stack of functions) corresponds with a similar action on a drawing program:
Select a plane, do some 2D drawing, then cut or extrude, select some edges,
apply chamfer/fillets, and then repeat.

The devil is in the details and in understanding what is going on under
the hood (bonnet). For example, I could extrude a regular polygon, but I
could not extrude a polyline (created from a list of points). After much
searching, I found that one must use the .close() function between the
polyline and the extrude.

Of course, your mileage may vary and if you are transitioning from a
drawing program you may find it easier than this old guy.

End of report.

On Mon, Jan 15, 2024 at 7:44 AM jon via Discuss <
discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote:

Great. Not so privately. Sigh.

When Reply does not mean Reply.

On 1/15/2024 8:39 AM, jon via Discuss wrote:

Privately.

Would your code eventually be able to replace MeshCAM?

Jon

On 1/14/2024 10:16 PM, William F. Adams via Discuss wrote:

I tried CadQuery a while back --- it was confusing because they were just
transitioning from being a workbench in FreeCAD (which I was hopeful of) to
being a stand-alone project (which I found off-putting and which lacked the
synergy w/ a graphical program I was hoping for).

Agree that there was a striking absence of example files/code, and the
ones which I could find seemed arcane and confusing in how they were coded.

The nascent effort to put Python into OpenSCAD has been a lot more
approachable to me:

http://pythonscad.org/

https://github.com/openscad/openscad/issues/4880

(but I don't know if anyone would want to do anything the way I do it:
https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview )

William

--
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
https://designinto3d.com/

OpenSCAD mailing list
To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org

Are you using Cadquery in Linux or in Windows ? I tried to install cadquery i the past, but there were actually quite many stumbling stones lying in the way and I ended up in dependency issues with anaconda/et cetera which I could not solve. Can you point me to the instructions which helped you to succeed ?(is it windows or linux ?) BTW: I have seen a tetris animation in youtube lately which is by nero engineering. is it from you ? is it a life channel rather than a video ? On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 8:09 AM neri-engineering via Discuss < discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote: > CadQuery is very powerful; it's for the power user, much like UNIX can be > compared to Windows. A power user who does not fear learning things would > always gravitate towards UNIX or a UNIX-like system (even MacOS I suppose). > > Yes you're right, the installation of CadQuery and of cq-editor was a bit > more difficult than is typical, and it's because these tools live in > "Python world" which needs to know how to load libs etc. That's why they > have tools such as conda, anaconda, mambaforge, etc. to handle library > dependencies and library installations. Even I was not an expert in Python > but I was able to install these tools after careful reading and a few trial > and error steps. Yes it took a couple of hours in my case as well. > > I still do like OpenSCAD, but for me it's crucial to have a tool that > generates STEP files for CNC machining at my disposal. This is why I had > to look beyond just OpenSCAD. Furthermore I'm very repulsed with the idea > of using graphical user interfaces to create parts that are very similar to > each other, with minor differences in between. In other words having a > language with which to "program parts" is very agreeable with me; this is > exactly what drew me to OpenSCAD initially. > > Because CadQuery uses a B-rep lib as its backend, things like "shelling", > "fillet", or even "chamfer" are built-ins. In other words smoothing things > is easy; it's part of the backend library. These are frequently discussed > topics on this forum. 'Helix' and other complex operations are also > built-ins. Yes there is a learning curve with the extensive API, but once > you start working on simple examples it becomes clearer and clearer. STL > can be generated by CadQuery. > > Well here is an example. Threads for screws are very easy to program. > With about 300 lines of code I was able to write a complete thread library > in two days, which generates both internal and external threads, with many > options. (Now of course I will be maintaining it when I find bugs, which > is expected because I'm using this in all of my projects.) > > If you are interested in trying the thread generation code, it is here: > > > https://sourceforge.net/p/nl10/code/HEAD/tree/cq-code/common/metric_threads.py > > If you add these few lines of code > > show_object(internal_metric_thread(diameter=3.0, > pitch=0.5, > length=2.0, > bottom_chamfer=True, > base_tube_od=3.5)) > > to the bottom of thread lib linked above, opening in cq-editor will get > you this: > > [image: threads.png] > > Cheers. > > Sent with Proton Mail <https://proton.me/> secure email. > > On Monday, January 15th, 2024 at 9:15 PM, Leonard Martin Struttmann via > Discuss <discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote: > > UPDATE: So I finally got CadQuery/CQ-editor installed and spent about > three hours playing with it today to design a simple part. > > Conclusion: I will probably NOT be switching over to CadQuery. > > I found the user interface to be clunky, and the editor is very basic with > little in the way of preferences. > > CadQuery is very flexible, but flexibility breeds complexity. The learning > curve is very steep. > > In practice, I found it to work just as if you were documenting each step > you would take if you were using a drawing program such as TinkerCAD, > FreeCADD, etc. For simple parts, each line of code (or each layer in the > stack of functions) corresponds with a similar action on a drawing program: > Select a plane, do some 2D drawing, then cut or extrude, select some edges, > apply chamfer/fillets, and then repeat. > > The devil is in the details and in understanding what is going on under > the hood (bonnet). For example, I could extrude a regular polygon, but I > could not extrude a polyline (created from a list of points). After much > searching, I found that one must use the .close() function between the > polyline and the extrude. > > Of course, your mileage may vary and if you are transitioning from a > drawing program you may find it easier than this old guy. > > End of report. > > > On Mon, Jan 15, 2024 at 7:44 AM jon via Discuss < > discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote: > >> Great. Not so privately. Sigh. >> >> When Reply does not mean Reply. >> >> >> On 1/15/2024 8:39 AM, jon via Discuss wrote: >> >> Privately. >> >> Would your code eventually be able to replace MeshCAM? >> >> Jon >> >> >> On 1/14/2024 10:16 PM, William F. Adams via Discuss wrote: >> >> I tried CadQuery a while back --- it was confusing because they were just >> transitioning from being a workbench in FreeCAD (which I was hopeful of) to >> being a stand-alone project (which I found off-putting and which lacked the >> synergy w/ a graphical program I was hoping for). >> >> Agree that there was a striking absence of example files/code, and the >> ones which I could find seemed arcane and confusing in how they were coded. >> >> The nascent effort to put Python into OpenSCAD has been a lot more >> approachable to me: >> >> http://pythonscad.org/ >> >> https://github.com/openscad/openscad/issues/4880 >> >> (but I don't know if anyone would want to do anything the way I do it: >> https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview ) >> >> William >> >> -- >> Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow. >> https://designinto3d.com/ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> OpenSCAD mailing list >> To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> OpenSCAD mailing list >> To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org >> >> _______________________________________________ >> OpenSCAD mailing list >> To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org >> > > _______________________________________________ > OpenSCAD mailing list > To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org >

ER

edmund ronald

Tue, Jan 16, 2024 7:53 AM

Smoothing, fillets etc are a standard problem in OpenScad, and a real issue
for normal users.
I personally have given up on hoping for improvements here because of the
"You are an idiot if you don't know how to do this" attitude of the
maintainers.

Edmund

In case it hasn't been posted, here is what seems to be the current the
CadQuery github page

https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery

there is also a GUI, and apparently CadQuery also runs in Jupyter which is
the standard tool for interactive development in the Python world.

https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery

Installation etc looks standard, and I wouldn't expect any issues if you
use Python daily.

On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 8:21 AM Guenther Sohler via Discuss <
discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote: