YHK - yet another hacker news clone

The nightly builds for this are so much better. When are they going to merge the nightlies into a new mainline release? The last one showing 2021 isn't the best look...

It would be interesting to see a head to head comparison of frontier LLMs building models with OpenSCAD, Blender scripting, and Fusion MCP. My intuition would be that blender winds up the best for the immediate result due to training data prevalence and RL tuning, but the concise nature of OpenSCAD could help.

I'll have to add this to my backlog of experiments to try when I have unused tokens near a reset...

Yes, also have a look at build123d which has a vscode plugin.

Wrote a tutorial:

https://github.com/joewalnes/toybrick

LLMs are excellent at building OpenSCAD models. The tutorial (written in the before-times) will help understanding of the key concepts of OpenSCAD: primitives, transformations, and constructive solid geometry.

The one you want is the experimental build, it is way faster to the point that 'preview mode' should be disabled. I use OpenSCAD a lot, it ties right into my workflow and plays nice with versioning and re-using modules from one project to another. Over time I've built up a nice library of parts that I can quickly customize for whatever it is that I'm building. Latest project: pick-and-place machine modification for Prusa MK3 3D printers (an interesting challenge, to put it mildly), now working on some robotics stuff.

The most important thing about OpenSCAD for programmers to remember is that it looks as if you are programming but really you are describing geometry and objects so things like variables and such do not quite work in the way you would expect from a programmers point of view.

OpenSCAD is amazing for those who know nothing about 3D but know about programming.

I bought a 3D printer (which is basically simpler and more reliable than a 2D inkjet printer by now: it's send the file, put the filament, and 3D print and it just works) recently and already fixed shitload of stuff around the house with 3D printed parts.

I even did "print in place" pieces where you add a pause a a certain layer, insert "stuff" (like say a 3D metal angle) into your print, then finish your print. Effectively creating parts that are both plastic and metal.

Now the language itself in OpenSCAD is kinda really bad: you can define variables inside of other functions and then use them everywhere. You can redefine already defined variables and you'll get zero warning. The language itself is really pretty WTF.

But you get modelling for free as a programmer. And LLMs are okay'ish at it for simple stuff.

I'd recommend people to use the BOSL2 library for OpenSCAD:

https://github.com/BelfrySCAD/BOSL2/wiki

It's really not hard.

If you love programming and like to DIY stuff around the house, buying a 3D printer and learning some OpenSCAD is a no-brainer.

OpenSCAD ain't the only option: many people like Fusion (for example). But as I'm a dev, OpenSCAD just feels natural to me.

Be aware that the way OpenSCAD works (CSG) makes a lot of things difficult compared to "normal" CAD programs. A lot of common operations, such as arbitrary fillets on various edges, are simply hard to express or do.

The more powerful option is something built on the open-source Open Cascade geometry kernel: FreeCAD, cadquery, or build123d. This also gives you interop with the broader CAD ecosystem by enabling you to import and export STEP files. (Your favorite LLM can advise you on or drive these options as well.)

I love OpenSCAD. Have been a power user for years. It's so great asking LLMs to make 3d models in openscad.

I made a rust-implementation of openscad called openrscad (https://openrscad.com). It still has some rough edges, but runs quite fast both on desktop and in the browser