| OpenSCAD is 3D modeling software for Computer-Aided Design (CAD) using a programmatic model design philosophy. It is free and open source cross-platform software available for Linux/UNIX, Windows, and Mac OS X. While many other programs for 3D modeling focus primarily on using graphical user interface input for creating the design, OpenSCAD intentionally does not, and instead focuses on a simple, powerful, and useful language for designing models as short scripts or programs. This programmatic model design approach empowers many benefits for creating flexible and parametric designs, and for rapid scalability to more complex designs by designing scripts around the intrinsic patterns, arrangements, and geometric relationships in a desired model.
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| The core of OpenSCAD works like a compiler that reads in a script file that describes the model, and renders the 3D model from this file. This compilation and rendering step can be run separately for automated systems, but when run normally, OpenSCAD opens up an interactive user-friendly GUI which permits creating and editing of these source files with an integrated editor (or external editor of your choice), and an interactive graphical display for exploring the models being generated.
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| Good design approaches for models with OpenSCAD typically involve centering models around configurable parameters, and using variables, functions, modules, and libraries for repeated elements. By doing this, a resulting model often ends up describing an entire category of closely related models, allowing extreme levels of flexibility in changing or adapting a model to meet an entire range of needs and situations.
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| OpenSCAD has functionality to support both 2D and 3D modeling, with the primary design goal of the 2D modeling support being a supportive substrate for creating 3D models by various forms of linear or rotational extrusion. OpenSCAD also supports significant file interoperability, being able to input and output many common formats used in the target design space, with a steadily growing list of supported file formats.
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| There are some design problems OpenSCAD does not attempt to solve. For example, if the form of a model you are trying to design seems best expressed as a freehand drawing, OpenSCAD might not be the right solution for this problem. However, there are ways to interoperate with other software by inputting components or data, which can allow the combination of benefits. The heart of designing a model or collection of models with OpenSCAD rests on devising a good description of the shapes and their relationships within the OpenSCAD language. The features available for doing this are perhaps surprisingly flexible, and numerous tutorials, examples, libraries, and existing open source models are available to facilitate learning how to do this.
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| Being a code-based approach to modeling, the OpenSCAD community thrives on code sharing and the reusability of approaches and components, and we encourage you to seek out valuable code to help with your work. We also encourage you to contribute back your own creations to the community when you can, and to join us on this collective quest for better modeling approaches.
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