- > https://pythonscad.org/
Thanks for this, didn't know about it.
How does that compare to solid python 2?
- OpenSCAD is great, and I use it all the time.Especially these days if you combine it with an LLM agent like codex and start vibe coding objects (see my other post on this).
However, there are a number of limitations that are truly and deeply frustrating.
1. The language is downright weird. Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice little exercise in implementing a functional-tasting scripting language. Someone obviously wanted to scratch a functional DSL design itch and he did, but the result is unfortunately extremely limiting. Creating a function that does not return geometry is barely possible (only bloody lambdas IIRC). He should have picked python instead (and yes, I know about SolidPython2)
2. From my POV: the main headache with OpenSCAD is there is no way to partially evaluate an object and use the result of that partial evaluation in the rest of the construction. For example, if you try to take two complex assemblies and place them tangent to one another ... very good luck to you sir, I pray and hope the 3D math is really strong with you.
Whereas: if you had a simple rayIntersect(csg_tree, line_in_3d_spce) that would return the first intersection and two normals ... something you can reuse in subsequent transforms and construction, man would life be simpler.
These days, with LLMs you can sort of build a scaffolding to work around this by asking the agent to break down the assembly in multiple stages and use external libraries to do the partial eval for you, but ... ugh ... what a mess.
3. Speed. The moment your CSG assembly gets complex (e.g. uses a ton of morpho ... hull, minkowski, etc...), OpenSCAD crawls to a halt.
4. NO FILLETS. The age-old, standard methodology of building things CSG style with cubes, spheres, cylinders, etc ... and then once the object is finished adding the rounding ... simply not possible with OpenSCAD. Adding fillets after the fact once you've built a complex CSG tree ... nightmare with OpenSCAD.
So, YMMV, but caveat emptor, if you get serious with the toole, you're bound to hit some very hard walls.
- SDFs are very neat up until the point where you need to build parts that have very precise specifications.
Something like two precisely interlocking gears with a tooth geometry with a profile that's the developed curve of the opposite tooth is a nightmare to build with SDFs
Or precise fillets.
Or hard intersections and differences.
Very useful for doing soft, squishy shapes, less so for hard CAD.
Also, a suggestion: in your project, please consider using Wavefront OBJ as an output format, it is a much, much better choice than STL (STL can't represent the actual topology of the object, it has to be reconstructed).
- OpenSCAD is kinda of neat, especially if you pair it with something like codex to build objects.
And then, you discover that those darn LLMs have absolutely no spatial intuition. None.
It is seriously frustrating: one the one hand you can just feel the raw potential of vibe coding complex geometries, and on the other, when you do, you keep seeing the agent making mistakes a 5 year old playing lego would never make.
Absolutely infuriating.
- Not sure I understand the last sentence:
> The fundamental challenge in AI for the next 20 years is avoiding extinction.
- I meant at a global level (think as if you're attacking all wireguard users, not a single one)
- One meta thing I've always wondered ... Are multiple implementations of the same protocol good or bad for security?
Probably naively, I'm thinking:
What do the security folks out there think of the topic?- diversity: good - doubling the attack surface: real bad - > Question: with copyright and authorship dead wrt AI, how do I make (at least) new content protected?
Question: Now that the steamboats have been invented, how do I keep my clipper business afloat ?
Answer: Good riddance to the broken idea of IP, Schumpeter's Gale is around the corner, time for a new business model.
- > I can't think of any car that's ever been sold whose design was optimized to spy on its users and trick them into buying to things and agreeing to contracts they didn't want.
Just give it a couple of years.
- Who the fuck still watches content on an effing TV in 2025?
- There are alternative search engines to Google, in particular some where base censorship is not so easily enforced:
- Score one more for CAM (computer assisted math) and automated proving tools.
In a world where your academic colleagues will only pay attention to your paper if it comes with a Lean or Coq proof (or at least an MM sketch), we would not be in a "it will take years just to understand the paper" type situation.
The title of the paper would then be: "Birational Invariants from Hodge Structures and Quantum Multiplication: the source code".
Other major offender in that space is Mochizuki's [1] "Inter-universal Teichmüller theory".
The very name of the work uses words that make no sense in common English.
- And now that Italy has built a tax haven for HNWI [1], the faster commute will IMO make business boom.
- > Haven't seen another application ...
You need to get out more.
- Whole article to say exactly nothing.
Reminds me of the artificial hype building around the first segways.
What a load of crap.
- > but medicine is far from the exact science
Truer words ...
As a matter of fact, calling it science ... quite the stretch when it comes to most medical professionals I've met in my long life.
- I was certainly not trying to say that differences between people do not exist and most certainly never claimed that your brain should work the way other people's brain do (At my age, I absolutely know mine does not, by a wide margin, and never has, and I'm in fact quite fond of that fact).
I'm simply saying that the way we're classifying people is utter BS, and assigning labels is very hurtful
Everyone is different. The "median man" does not exist. Or if he does there are maybe 3 on the whole planet, not something significant.
Much like your fingerprints, your brain is completely unique, and what chemicals / lifestyle / circumstances affect it in what way is a hugely personal affair. And to make matters even more complicated, it changes very much over time.
If you agree to let any kind of random bozo, with a so-called specialist title and a diploma tell you that you are a "typical neuro-divergent belong to class XYZ", run like hell.
The only way is to experiment with the way your mind works: chemicals, social groups, type of work, meditation, yoga, sports, more or less social interaction, whatever ultimately gets you to where you want to be.
But if you let every other snake oil salesman out there, or the rest of humanity in general, tell you who you are and who you ought to be ... good luck to you.
- I find all these conversation around neuro-divergence extremely weird, for the simple reason that I have a never seen a proper definition of what a "normal" person actually is, and for good and obvious reasons:
I personally believe that "normal", when it comes to people's behavior, social interactions, and the way their mind works, is a completely broken idea. All of these attributes are completely fluid, depending on the when, where and who with you happen to be.
On that premise, the whole idea of neuro-divergence and the idea that you can classify people in arbitrary categories such as ADHD, Autism, etc ... and that this classification will lead to a way to "fix them" is complete and utter BS.
I'm 100% with you there. One of the most utterly confusing UI I've had to deal with.
And I suspect the answer is : the FreeCAD devs don't either.