I’m very grateful for all the free software we’ve got access to in 3D printing. I like openscad alot and I think it’s an excellent example of a program that does one thing and does it well.
I just wish someone would step up and say “Hey I am programming god with too much spare time. Look the changes I’ve made. I rewrote the whole rendering engine to take advantage of all your multi core cpu power. Oh and while I was at it I included a measurement tool for freehand placement of point-to-point measurements, angles, radiuses and stuff. Also made it possible to use dynamic variables at runtime”.
@ThantiK , did you mean to say that OpenSCAD is the modeling kernel in FreeCAD? FreeCAD uses the BREP kernel Open CASCADE instead of the (faceted) SCAD. I think I heard there’s an OpenSCAD interpreter or translator that will build OpenSCAD models in FreeCAD. At least, someone talked about the idea. Either way, I agree that FreeCAD is the superior tool.
I had a play with freecad the other day and it certainly supports Openscad file types. It also does awesome stuff like converting stl meshes to solids and then simplifies the resulting solids by culling all the coplanar polygons.
I’ve used a lot of 3d and cad packages and freecad certainly gives them a run for their money, kudos to @Normand_Chamberland who is one of the developers.
FreeCAD’s backend is in no way related to OpenSCAD. A couple of guys made a module that can import .scad and .csg files in FreeCAD, it can also produce .scad files. But it requires OpenSCAD to be installed.
@Tim_Rastall I couldn’t write a line of code even if my life depended on it! My brain is simply not wired for it. But as an experienced CAD user, I am involved in the @FreeCAD project in other ways, including helping newcomers on the forum, writing wiki documentation and maintaining the Ubuntu PPA repositories. FreeCAD has a very long way to go to get to a level of functionality comparable to SolidWorks and other commercial packages, so I wouldn’t recommend it for professional use. But it is amply enough for personal use and a great CAD tool for RepRappers who need to design mechanical parts.
