Practical, accurate and powerful, OpenSCAD is a 3D design tool suitable for beginners, experienced engineers and CAD designers. The application was created in 2003 by some former members of the Solid Concepts team in Belgium. Based on the OpenGL/Cairo project of the same name, OpenSCAD is free and open source. It is extremely fast to download and easy to use. OpenSCAD can run on Linux and Windows. OpenSCAD comes as a command line tool which means that it does not come with a GUI or an integrated development environment. This could be considered a drawback but it allows developers to be extremely flexible and to create the tool the way they want. This way of writing code enables developers to quickly implement new features or fix problems. On the other hand, the developers prefer this flexibility to the standard GUI-based design tools which tend to rely on drag-and-drop menus and buttons. This gives the application an extra edge and makes it possible for OpenSCAD to run on virtually every operating system. The development of the application started in 2002 as an educational tool for the mathematics and engineering department at KU Leuven. The team of developers wanted to teach students how to create CAD designs and to provide them with the necessary tools. They wanted the software to be highly reliable and easy to learn as well as to run on several platforms without any hassle. It should also run on both Linux and Windows, and it should have an educational component too. Eventually, the application is being used by professionals who want to create 3D printing materials. The technology was still in its infancy when the software was first released and has now become an industry standard. Today’s 3D printers produce highly complex prototypes which were impossible only a decade ago. OpenSCAD has come a long way since it was first released in 2003 and since then it has become one of the most popular free and open source tools in the 3D design field. It is free for anyone to use and has several educational and commercial versions available. How OpenSCAD Works The software is based on the idea of parametric 3D designs. This means that you do not need to create a complicated 3D model with hundreds of parts or faces, but instead you have to create a single one that has any combination of shapes. This can be done in two ways – either by entering a list of shapes or by defining the exact shapes you want. In practice, the first method is the better option. With the first method, you have to define the entire design at once and select which shapes go together. Once you press the execute button, the program creates the model. Each individual face you can use is called a component or object. Since OpenSCAD is a parametric design tool, users do not need to define its individual elements before starting to work with the tool. Instead, all of the elements are generated automatically. When a user chooses to create a parametric design, it is very easy to visualize the result. It is necessary to specify only one parameter – the type. OpenSCAD does the rest. A similar tool is called Forml3D which also uses parametric design. Forml3D is more rigid and there are fewer options than in OpenSCAD. Forml3D still remains the best option for those who want to print 3D objects. One of the few downsides of OpenSCAD is that it doesn’t have a support library which makes it impossible to load other designs and use them as a template. The other shortcoming is that the application is not fully parametric. There are certain types of parameters that cannot be combined. That is why this tool remains mainly popular among those who use advanced techniques, like solid models, which require a lot of work. OpenSCAD is usually used to create low resolution models or 3D printable parts. There are plenty of free resources on the Internet where you can find models for all kinds of 3D printers and even for the 3D printing materials. How OpenSCAD is Used OpenSCAD is mostly used for creating 3D models for 3D printers. These printers use computer-aided design software to create physical objects that can be used as a template for an actual printed part. There are two different types of printers: FDM printers, which use a printer that uses plastic and ABS, and SLA printers, which can print objects made of silicone. Since both types of 3D printers cannot be used for 3D prints with the same settings, these have to be adjusted every time you work with OpenSCAD. Another application of OpenSCAD is in the area of product design. Unlike most other parametric CAD tools, OpenSCAD has an incredibly fast development time. Designers can create a 3D model of a new product within a few hours, while it can take a whole team of people at least several weeks. OpenSCAD is more suitable for working with complex and industrial designs than standard 3D modeling software because it allows you to work with unlimited numbers of objects at once. This has enabled many designers to create complex 3D objects with hundreds of elements in a very short time. This is particularly useful for creating highly realistic mechanical designs for 3D printers. The objects can be created with different levels of precision. Each individual element has its own dimensions and position which allows you to get very precise data. This information can also be used to create the final design in a variety of industries, including automotive, aircraft, architecture and medicine. OpenSCAD also allows you to download the files and adjust them further so that you can make the necessary adjustments in the future. Some companies use OpenSCAD for creating their 3D prints and make sure that the designs are being updated whenever the design changes. The tool can also be used to design 3D models for 3D printers and also to export a design file which can then be printed. However, using OpenSCAD for such a process can be tricky. Most printers have different parts, sizes and settings, and you may end up spending countless hours finding the correct settings. Nevertheless, OpenSCAD is still the best option for designing large volumes of components since it has an incredible speed and flexibility. Many people use it to create the entire engine for a small plane or the entire product of an entire room. Designers have been creating custom PCBs with OpenSCAD and by combining it with SolidWorks they have been able to create incredibly complex pieces of hardware. This is a perfect use of the program, as it enables designers to create complex electronics in a relatively short time. 3D printing has recently become a very popular technology in a variety of areas, including gaming, consumer electronics, aerospace and medicine. This is why there has been a lot of demand for a 3D design tool that is both simple and affordable. OpenSCAD was designed for exactly this purpose and it does not use high-end features that you find in other popular CAD applications. This makes it easier to learn, use and maintain than most other similar tools. The Future of OpenSCAD OpenSCAD was designed to make parametric 3D design easy and accessible for users with limited knowledge of computer-aided design. It also helps them create designs quickly and for those who are able to work with 3D printing machines and take advantage of all of the features. The goal of this application was not to create the most advanced and expensive 3D design tool available on the market, but rather to create a quick and easy way to develop 3D designs. Although OpenSCAD is already highly developed, the community is constantly growing, which means that the application is not going to become outdated any time soon. Even though the software still has a few shortcomings, it can already be used to design and 3D print extremely complicated products. What is more, the community is actively working on improving and extending the tool. The most recent additions include support for creating 3D prints using Fusion 360 and OpenSCAD support for Daz3D and Modo. Today, users have so many options when it comes to 3D printers that they can use 3D design software for one specific purpose. However, OpenSCAD does not limit designers to only one project and it can be used for everything from simple designs to high-end engineering. In the past, OpenSCAD was available on GitHub and was available as a community project but today it’s considered one of the leading open source applications in the 3D design field. If you are interested in creating a complex 3D design, you can’t do better than OpenSCAD. We hope you enjoyed this post! Let us know what you think about OpenSCAD in the comments below!