Testing OpenSCAD

I needed to revise the rear panel of my T41 to fit the T41-2 power amplifier. Rather than tweak the design with FreeCAD, which is what I have used before, I decided to give “OpenSCAD” a test drive. A few weeks ago I purchased this book:

Parametric 3D Printing with OpenSCAD: A Project-Based Beginner’s Guide to Designing with Code

OpenSCAD uses a very different way of representing a physical object. The user interacts with the application by writing code. Fundamental objects like cube and cylinder are numerically dimensioned rather than being drawn with a mouse. It is simple code and if you are used to programming in C or C++, it will be easy to learn.

I spent only a few hours reading the book and trying sample code. I was able to duplicate the rear panel in OpenSCAD by transferring the dimensions with FreeCAD opened in another workspace.

Here is the 3D printer in action working on the panel:

This part is mostly 2 dimensional with thickness. Not quite 3D. This sort of part is a good fit for the OpenSCAD interface.

I’m impressed and I think OpenSCAD is more efficient than Freecad for this sort of part. Download OpenSCAD here:

OpenSCAD download page

73 Greg KF5N