Openscad

[Woz]

Just a heads up, there's a new version of Openscad out

https://www.openscad.org/downloads.html

[Woz]

Tried it and it is very slow at rendering so gone back to the old version.

[wibblywobbly]

Seems to render ok, though I use Linuxmint. They seem to have changed or deprecated some of the code, so the parameter 'center=true' is no longer recognised. It still renders ok, but throws up a warning for each occurence...I use that on every line of code I write??

I'll have to do some digging and delving to find out what the syntax should now be.

[wibblywobbly]

Tried the new version with a complex structure (openscad takes longer to render spheres) and compared the two versions. The new version is slower.

The system has been updated for the benefit of pro-programmers, so anything that doesn't meet programming protocols throws up a warning. The warnings don't affect the design at all. Hence, any old files that are loaded into the new version will generate a long list of warnings for things that weren't previously visible.

The warnings can be switched off in Edit>Preferences?Advanced, but you will have to reboot Openscad before the warnings will disappear.

It seems that the updates are more of a benefit to the professionals rather than the hobbyists (who tend to use basic commands) so I am staying with the old version.

I was hoping for some updates for the text editor that would speed up typing, eg type in

'cube'

and it would generate

'translate([0,0,0])rotate([0,0,0])cube([0,0,0],center=true);'

so that all I would need to do is type in the numerics...but hey, maybe one day? It can be done using an external editor, and linking that to Openscad, but it gets a bit messy.

[Woz]

I design stuff like I'm building lego.

Cube here, cylinder over there, right lets join 'em together.

[wibblywobbly]

That's pretty much all I do too, though due to a bit of programming in my working days I know how to create multiple instances of a single part, which is useful for vents and slats, wheel nuts, etc.