Manifold, snapshot...
On 12/01/2026 at 18:33, Jordan Brown via Discuss wrote :
\
You might also consider moving to a development snapshot; render
performance with the new Manifold back end is far, far faster.\
Hi, gentlemen!
Being a beginner in OpenScad, I follow this list with attention, but I do not always understand all the concepts adressed.
"Manifold" is one of these concepts.
Would somebody explain to me what is exactly "Manifold"?
(Or give me a link towards an explanation)?
And also the meaning of "moving to a developpement snapshot"?
Thanks a lot, and sorry for a probably very basic question.
Jean-Pierre
---
Hey folks. Curious why spam filters are not detecting this computer
generated email from JPM2NICE.
David Bernat, Ph. D.
Property of Starlight LLC.
On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 9:08 AM jpm2nice-tech--- via Discuss <
discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote:
On 12/01/2026 at 18:33, Jordan Brown via Discuss wrote :
You might also consider moving to a development snapshot; render
performance with the new Manifold back end is far, far faster.
Hi, gentlemen!
Being a beginner in OpenScad, I follow this list with attention, but I do
not always understand all the concepts adressed.
"Manifold" is one of these concepts.
Would somebody explain to me what is exactly "Manifold"?
(Or give me a link towards an explanation)?
And also the meaning of "moving to a developpement snapshot"?
Thanks a lot, and sorry for a probably very basic question.
Jean-Pierre
OpenSCAD mailing list
To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org
Jean-Pierre,
At the bottom of the OpenSCAD downloads page (
https://openscad.org/downloads.html) there is a section titled "Development
Snapshots". There you can download a current build of OpenSCAD as it is
being developed. I believe that these are built nightly.
On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 8:08 AM jpm2nice-tech--- via Discuss <
discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote:
On 12/01/2026 at 18:33, Jordan Brown via Discuss wrote :
You might also consider moving to a development snapshot; render
performance with the new Manifold back end is far, far faster.
Hi, gentlemen!
Being a beginner in OpenScad, I follow this list with attention, but I do
not always understand all the concepts adressed.
"Manifold" is one of these concepts.
Would somebody explain to me what is exactly "Manifold"?
(Or give me a link towards an explanation)?
And also the meaning of "moving to a developpement snapshot"?
Thanks a lot, and sorry for a probably very basic question.
Jean-Pierre
OpenSCAD mailing list
To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org
On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 02:08:24PM +0000, jpm2nice-tech--- via Discuss wrote:
On 12/01/2026 at 18:33, Jordan Brown via Discuss wrote :
\
You might also consider moving to a development snapshot; render
performance with the new Manifold back end is far, far faster.\
Hi, gentlemen!
Being a beginner in OpenScad, I follow this list with attention, but I do not always understand all the concepts adressed.
"Manifold" is one of these concepts.
Would somebody explain to me what is exactly "Manifold"?\
Manifold is a word that means: An object where it is properly defined
what's "in" and what's "out".
If you have a cube, that's manifold. If a bug in openscad forgets to
output one of the sides it is no longer manifold.
In the context of OpenScad, there is a new way to go from "openscad
program" to "a datastructure that proplerly defines what's in and
what's out". This new way is called "manifold".
IMHO you really want to upgrade to a version of openscad that has
this. For one you have the improved rendering speed when your
objects become more complex.
But also... we used to think that "random STLs found on the internet
are always SHIT". Like they have holes and other nasties making them
non-manifold and "troublesome" for slicers.
Well... most of those accusations of "bad STLs on the internet" turn
out to be caused by the old OpenScad library for handling such things.
A client sent me a file that I was supposed to manipulate and
3D-print. "bad file, get me a better one!". So they eventually managed
to get me a file that openscad could manipulate. But after "manifold"
the old file suddenly worked without a hitch.
Roger.
--
** R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl ** https://www.BitWizard.nl/ ** +31-15-2049110 **
** Verl. Spiegelmakerstraat 37 2645 LZ Delfgauw, The Netherlands.
** KVK: 27239233 **
f equals m times a. When your f is steady, and your m is going down
your a** is going up. -- Chris Hadfield about flying up the space shuttle.
** 'a' for accelleration.
On 1/15/26 15:26, David Bernat via Discuss wrote:
Hey folks. Curious why spam filters are not detecting this computer
generated email from JPM2NICE.
What are you even talking about?
ciao,
Torsten.
After a bout with modeling stone walls for a hobby project, I ended up
knowing more about manifold-ness and why .stl files are deficient in
carrying forward such. So, mostly so I'd remember what I found (I'm
getting that old), I wrote a missive about it that might help:
https://glenn.pulpitrock.net/blog/posts/2025-12-21-whats-so-bad-about-stl-files/
Glenn
On 1/15/2026 7:08 AM, jpm2nice-tech--- via Discuss wrote:
On 12/01/2026 at 18:33, Jordan Brown via Discuss wrote :
You might also consider moving to a development snapshot; render
performance with the new Manifold back end is far, far faster.
Hi, gentlemen!
Being a beginner in OpenScad, I follow this list with attention,
but I do not always understand all the concepts adressed.
"Manifold" is one of these concepts.
Would somebody explain to me what is exactly "Manifold"?
(Or give me a link towards an explanation)?
And also the meaning of "moving to a developpement snapshot"?
Thanks a lot, and sorry for a probably very basic question.
Jean-Pierre
---
OpenSCAD mailing list
To unsubscribe send an email todiscuss-leave@lists.openscad.org
On 1/15/2026 7:09 AM, Rogier Wolff via Discuss wrote:
On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 02:08:24PM +0000, jpm2nice-tech--- via Discuss wrote:
On 12/01/2026 at 18:33, Jordan Brown via Discuss wrote :
You might also consider moving to a development snapshot; render
performance with the new Manifold back end is far, far faster.
"Manifold" is one of these concepts.
Would somebody explain to me what is exactly "Manifold"?\
Manifold is a word that means: An object where it is properly defined
what's "in" and what's "out".
While that's true, here the context is a piece of software: the
Manifold rendering engine https://manifoldcad.org/#Intro.
The rendering engine is what takes a description of shapes - say, "the
union of a 10-unit cube and a 10-unit sphere" - and turns it into a big
pile of connected triangles that are the resulting surface.
The old rendering engine - the only one available in the 2021.01 release
- is called CGAL. It's still available in the development snapshots,
though it's no longer the default.
The new one is called Manifold. Its primary value is that it is far far
faster than CGAL, but also it is more tolerant of imperfections than
CGAL is and it has some support for preserving color across rendering.
Is it too late to use (within OpenSCAD context) something other than manifold to refer to the library,
like MRE (Manifold Rendering Engine) or manifold-lib.
Or is Capital-M-anifold meant to address this?
From: Jordan Brown via Discuss [mailto:discuss@lists.openscad.org]
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2026 4:04 AM
To: OpenSCAD general discussion Mailing-list
Cc: jpm2nice-tech@yahoo.fr; Rogier Wolff; Jordan Brown
Subject: [OpenSCAD] Re: Manifold, snapshot...
On 1/15/2026 7:09 AM, Rogier Wolff via Discuss wrote:
On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 02:08:24PM +0000, jpm2nice-tech--- via Discuss wrote:
On 12/01/2026 at 18:33, Jordan Brown via Discuss wrote :
You might also consider moving to a development snapshot; render
performance with the new Manifold back end is far, far faster.
"Manifold" is one of these concepts.
Would somebody explain to me what is exactly "Manifold"?\
Manifold is a word that means: An object where it is properly defined
what's "in" and what's "out".
While that's true, here the context is a piece of software: the Manifold rendering https://manifoldcad.org/#Intro engine.
The rendering engine is what takes a description of shapes - say, "the union of a 10-unit cube and a 10-unit sphere" - and turns it into a big pile of connected triangles that are the resulting surface.
The old rendering engine - the only one available in the 2021.01 release - is called CGAL. It's still available in the development snapshots, though it's no longer the default.
The new one is called Manifold. Its primary value is that it is far far faster than CGAL, but also it is more tolerant of imperfections than CGAL is and it has some support for preserving color across rendering.
Hi,
It is probably because, instead of creating a new thread, I have first
tried to answer an old one, changing the subject.
I may also have forgotten to chage my alias.
Sorry for the mess, I am not used to this list!
J-P
Le 15/01/2026 à 15:26, David Bernat via Discuss a écrit :
Hey folks. Curious why spam filters are not detecting this computer
generated email from JPM2NICE.
David Bernat, Ph. D.
Property of Starlight LLC.
On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 9:08 AM jpm2nice-tech--- via Discuss
<discuss@lists.openscad.org mailto:discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote:
On 12/01/2026 at 18:33, Jordan Brown via Discuss wrote :
You might also consider moving to a development snapshot; render
performance with the new Manifold back end is far, far faster.
Hi, gentlemen!
Being a beginner in OpenScad, I follow this list with attention,
but I do not always understand all the concepts adressed.
"Manifold" is one of these concepts.
Would somebody explain to me what is exactly "Manifold"?
(Or give me a link towards an explanation)?
And also the meaning of "moving to a developpement snapshot"?
Thanks a lot, and sorry for a probably very basic question.
Jean-Pierre
---
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