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

[Jeremy Wright]

> If on the other hand we come up with an interesting way to tie a coding
interface that can smoothly and natively integrate code with a 3D gui point
and click interface then I think we're really onto something cool and
useful that leverages what each type of user interface is good at doing.

This is something we've discussed doing with CadQuery. The CadQuery script
would basically be the file format, but you could use mouse interaction in
the GUI exclusively if you wanted to. This model adds other challenges
though as autogeneration and manipulation of code can get messy/complex.

> There has also been recent development activity that sounds interesting:
> http://dev.opencascade.org/index.php?q=node/1091
> http://dev.opencascade.org/index.php?q=node/1056

> Do those improvements sound like they might address enough of the
> problems you found with OpenCASCADE to make it more interesting?

>From what I'm hearing, it seems like the issue might be with the quality
and maintainability of the OpenCASCADE codebase, which seems to be
addressed a little bit in the first link. I wonder how long it will take
those changes to make it into OpenCASCADE Community Edition (
https://github.com/tpaviot/oce).

> I don't follow that in 3D things are more amenable to programmatic
design. It's certainly possible, but I don't feel that not having a GUI
should be a goal.

For me, programmatic design is another tool in the toolbox. It's not
one-size-fits-all but it's great in certain cases, some of which have been
stated in this discussion. I think that CAD scripting, along with a strong
GUI, is probably going to give the most power, flexibility and usability.

> I wonder if this similar approach could be successfully applied to
solidmodeling programs, that is, skip the declarative stuff for design
creation, but use declared rules for verifying the part or assembly (fits,
clearance, mold flow thickness, t-stacks, etc).

This is something that Mach 30 is experimenting with now. We have scripted
unit tests (done in CadQuery) to verify geometry automatically.

As a related side note, I wrote a blog post for Mach 30 about my thoughts
on the topic of open source CAD. I'd be interested in everyone's thoughts
(whether you agree or disagree). http://bit.ly/m30CADblog

I've missed the last two Hangouts, but I've been keeping up on the reading.
If I'm understanding correctly, it sounds like F-Rep is a good fit for some
cases, but not the silver bullet that you'd want to use to build a
replacement for something like the Solidwork's CAD kernel. Is that what
other people are getting out of the discussions so far?

Jeremy



On Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 4:42 PM, Daniel Taub <dmtaub at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is a great conversation. I don't have anything to add for the
> question at hand except that I prefer hybrid textual-graphical design
> tools. For example, I love Rhino.
>
> FWIW, I'm currently employed by Autodesk writing web-based CAD software for
> both physical and electrical design via direct-manipulation/GUI --
> "Project Wire" -- http://www.voxel8.co/software/
>
> At one point, we also had some scripting for simple electrical
> features like solenoids and interleaved fingers for buttons, but that
> was lost in the most recent iteration.
>
> In my personal projects, I prefer OpenSCAD, so I am also very curious about
> scripting for design, both electrical and mechanical.
>
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