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Show HN: LuaCAD – Parametric CAD Scripted in Lua

adius · 100 points · 22 comments · ayer · Open original

LuaCAD models solids in Lua rather than the OpenSCAD language, with operator overloading for CSG (`a + b`, `a - b`, `a * b`). It ships with a CLI and a desktop app, including a preview area and a text editor. I've always been a big fan of OpenSCAD, but the SCAD language itself is unfortunately quite cobbled-together and is a very poorly designed programming language. LuaCAD takes all the good parts of OpenSCAD and combines them with one of the best scripting languages. It has now completely replaced OpenSCAD for me, and I think it provides a better experience than OpenSCAD for all use cases. I'd love to hear any reasons why LuaCAD shouldn't fully replace OpenSCAD! It’s fully open source and you can find the repo here: https://github.com/ad-si/LuaCAD Tech stack: - It's implemented in Rust and uses mlua (https://github.com/mlua-rs/mlua) to execute the Lua code. - Uses OpenCSG (https://opencsg.org) for fast and correct rendering of the 3D models (like OpenSCAD) - Uses Manifold (https://github.com/elalish/manifold) to create the manifold triangle meshes - Native support for all BOSL2 functions (i.e. implemented in Rust for better performance)

Comments

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vrinsdhace 1 hora

Honest question here -- for doing 3D parametric design, is the "programmatic" approach a good thing? If you compare doing a design in LuaCAD to something like Solidworks or ProE, can you get to the end result faster, and easier?

fhnayer

Does this have a web-based playground? I find https://www.pythonscad.org/playground/ to be nice to try out the project.

psd1hace 12 horas

A scripting engine is a great feature in cad, you should be proud of your achievement. The reason I'm not personally interested is that i used lisp in AutoCAD in the 00s. What i like most about lua is that it's not php. It's a sane choice, but insipid. https://www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/autolisp/quick-start.php

tolugeniusayer

Really interesting! I actually use freecad so I'm use to that layer of the process but I'll check this out. Also good to see the work being done in modeling software these days

manny_ratayer

Love it! OpenSCAD has very painful syntax. Is it possible to easily do bevels/chamfers or does it have the same limitations as OpenSCAD there?