Hi,

Here is a simple hinge, parametric, of course.

The code that I have attached, would be fairly easy to translate into
openscad, if interested.

This prints well, and the 45 degree angle means no supports  and improved
strength.  The year old, open spool of petg, was a bit wet, hence the high
tolerance value, but it printed fine with a couple of mouse ears. compared
to printing vertically .

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Which language  is that ? it has .cad extension

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [OpenSCAD] Fwd: OFF TOPIC - usability/mutability- to be, or
not to be!
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2025 10:27:26 +0000
From: Raymond West via Discuss discuss@lists.openscad.org
Reply-To: OpenSCAD general discussion Mailing-list
discuss@lists.openscad.org
To: OpenSCAD general discussion Discuss@lists.openscad.org
CC: Raymond West raywest@raywest.com

Hi,

I've been developing my own cad. Why? because I can, with help from
AI. Having dabbled with Python, I decided that is not for me. The
implementation of the Manifold library is not yet complete in python,
or it wasn't when I started into this, a month or two ago, so I
decided to use C++  (Cpp) and a parser for my code. C# would have been
easier, but that needs .net, afaik. I know very little about Cpp, and
I forced co-pilot to write all  the code. At the moment, the LLM
versions of AI are little more than glorified search engines. They
work well for Python, where most of the difficulty is in finding
blocks of code/existing libraries, to do what you want, but I wonder
whatever they were smoking when the decision was made to make spaces
significant in Python, although that concept would have been OK for
coding forms, I suppose... so, I've had to hack together a parser, for
my home brew, simple cad language.

Fundamentally, In my cad world every object relates to the physical
world and has three dimensions, excluding time and whatever else. 2d
objects do not exist, other than as thin 3d objects. Object names can 
can mutate - a value, one moment, a shape the next. All calculation in
fixed decimal point.

So, how far have I and AI got? I'm pretty pleased, and I've attached
some code and results below. This only shows a fragment. My latest
effort  is to show_view to a gui screen, so that I can manually select
points, and enter them into the code. this will be needed to easily
select specific, individual edges to be filleted, and also I think
that may be useful for pinpointing mismatched triangles. The code
example (demo.cad) attached, shows the errors that verify can pick up,
for example. Because my cad does all it's calculations using manifold
parameters, then the result should be manifold (watertight), but it
may have small defects.

I've designed it so that a useful help is built in, and a verbose mode
that can print out the calculation steps, if I have a problem with a
particular function, although the more recent functions do not have
that (AI memory is worse than mine.). I simply have to say to
copilot,' write the help for xyz function', then spend an hour or two
reminding it how it organised it three hours earlier. I've used my cad
a few times to create 'useful' 3d printed items, but I want to see if
the mutable names becomes a problem with more advanced items.

I use meshlab to automatically show the .obj and .ply files, openscad
for the scad files. I much prefer the openscad viewer, but it is
slower to render.

Not shown, but I have subroutines, for/next, if's etc, the versions
that I grew up with, and, as well as the manifold simplify, i have my
own point reduction methodology, which sometimes behaves in a more
predictable manner - (but sometimes not), my own Minkowski type
function (which also operates inside the base shape), paths, etc.

For demo.cad, you can view the code by dragging it into the openscad
editor, or if you want it pretty, use vs code, and set to c#. the
other image files should be self explanatory.

Best wishes,

Ray
because of the 1500kb size limit, I'll send the other ply and obj
files seperately

HI,

Last November, I started developing my own cad program, written in
cpp, using AI (co-pilot in visual studio code). It has now got to the
stage that I can not remember all the function details, and I have
used copilot to generate an html helper sheet. It also has a short
list of pseudonyms, since if you don't know the exact word, you will
not normally find its functionality.  So, for example, if you want to
'add' a couple of shapes, and do not know that it is a boolean union
operation,  then a search on 'add' will bring up the union operation
description. If more detail is required, then in the program editor I
can enter '? union full', to get a full description and example of
'union'. If, in the editor, I enter '?', then on the console I get a
full list of functions, or I can select select just the parameters,
examples or the algorithm.

Furthermore, there is a verbose flag that can be set in the code, that
gives the details of each calculation within any selected function, as
the program runs, which is useful for debugging.

I can also ask copilot to generate code in my  cad language. I've not
tested if it can translate openscad to my cad, or vice versa. One
problem is, not to fall into the x/y problem situation, which I often
do, and continuously see on fora/elsewhere.

I think, since I make many typos, that I may need it to create a
pre-parser, but already it is 1.8 GB of code, which needs considerable
re-factoring.

I've attached the html helper below, if anybody wants to play with it.

Best wishers,

Ray

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HI,

Last November, I started developing my own cad program, written in
cpp, using AI (co-pilot in visual studio code). It has now got to the
stage that I can not remember all the function details, and I have
used copilot to generate an html helper sheet. It also has a short
list of pseudonyms, since if you don't know the exact word, you will
not normally find its functionality.  So, for example, if you want to
'add' a couple of shapes, and do not know that it is a boolean union
operation,  then a search on 'add' will bring up the union operation
description. If more detail is required, then in the program editor I
can enter '? union full', to get a full description and example of
'union'. If, in the editor, I enter '?', then on the console I get a
full list of functions, or I can select select just the parameters,
examples or the algorithm.

Furthermore, there is a verbose flag that can be set in the code, that
gives the details of each calculation within any selected function, as
the program runs, which is useful for debugging.

I can also ask copilot to generate code in my  cad language. I've not
tested if it can translate openscad to my cad, or vice versa. One
problem is, not to fall into the x/y problem situation, which I often
do, and continuously see on fora/elsewhere.

I think, since I make many typos, that I may need it to create a
pre-parser, but already it is 1.8 GB of code, which needs considerable
re-factoring.

I've attached the html helper below, if anybody wants to play with it.

Best wishers,

Ray

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Hi Ray

How can I "play arround with a cheat cheat"? Don´t I need the whole
program for that?
Sorry, if this is a stupid question...

I am only user and not developer.

yours
Karl

Am 14.05.26 um 14:18 schrieb Raymond West via Discuss:

HI,

Last November, I started developing my own cad program, written in
cpp, using AI (co-pilot in visual studio code). It has now got to the
stage that I can not remember all the function details, and I have
used copilot to generate an html helper sheet. It also has a short
list of pseudonyms, since if you don't know the exact word, you will
not normally find its functionality.  So, for example, if you want to
'add' a couple of shapes, and do not know that it is a boolean union
operation,  then a search on 'add' will bring up the union operation
description. If more detail is required, then in the program editor I
can enter '? union full', to get a full description and example of
'union'. If, in the editor, I enter '?', then on the console I get a
full list of functions, or I can select select just the parameters,
examples or the algorithm.

Furthermore, there is a verbose flag that can be set in the code,
that gives the details of each calculation within any selected
function, as the program runs, which is useful for debugging.

I can also ask copilot to generate code in my  cad language. I've not
tested if it can translate openscad to my cad, or vice versa. One
problem is, not to fall into the x/y problem situation, which I often
do, and continuously see on fora/elsewhere.

I think, since I make many typos, that I may need it to create a
pre-parser, but already it is 1.8 GB of code, which needs
considerable re-factoring.

I've attached the html helper below, if anybody wants to play with it.

Best wishers,

Ray

---

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