[Cad] Which CAD Kernel Should the FOSS and OSHW Communities Focus On?

[Laura Shumaker]

Out of curiosity, are there any FOSS solutions (scripted or with
traditional GUI) that support surface modeling? I'm thinking of sweeps and
surface blends constructed through curves in particular.

The lack of these kinds of tools is the biggest thing keeping me in
proprietary CAD, and would have been the real constraint in every previous
job I've had (if, hypothetically, I'd wanted to switch away from
proprietary CAD even though someone else was paying for it).

For ref: I work in product design. Surface modeling helps us build inner
features (mostly mechanically driven) in parallel with outer surfaces
(driven by industrial design). It also helps us build master-models where a
specific set of mating assembly surfaces is copied over into every child
part to ensure smooth and accurate updates when the design changes. In my
current job, I construct organic forms for shoe lasts, and my entire model
is based on surface blends and sweeps.

Regards,
Laura

Founder: SFT Climbing <http://sftclimbing.wordpress.com/>
p: 707-861-0741
e: laura at sftclimbing.com

On Wed, Nov 11, 2015 at 9:39 AM, Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 11, 2015 at 11:24 AM, Matt Carney <mcarney at media.mit.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> As an example/challenge: please find me an example of a scripted machine
>> that's more complicated than some laser cut 2D parts, or static 3d printed
>> object.
>>
>
> Just off the top of my head...
>
> robotic arm:
> http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:65081
>
> https://thingiverse-production-new.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/32/38/e4/5a/93/RoboArm.scad
>
> automatic transmission:
> http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34778
> http://www.thingiverse.com/download:100324
>
> 5-cylinder radial engine (single part?)
> http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:54404/#files
>
> rover (although this looks mostly 3d printed?):
> http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:10057/#files
>
> There are also many OpenSCAD versions of reprap on github, although I
> don't know which one is relatively recent, last I looked there were some
> good openscad scripts for prusa reprap but surely that's legacy tech by now.
>
> Also, I think that AutoCAD's autolisp used to be popular back in the day.
> It was my understanding that many complex machines were specified with
> piles of lisp scripts? These days I would expect the equivalent to be VBA I
> guess, since nobody knows lisp in the modern office.
>
> - Bryan
> http://heybryan.org/
> 1 512 203 0507
>
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