JB
Jordan Brown
Thu, Mar 12, 2026 6:55 AM
Jordan also said ""most recent" ... by definition they are files you've looked at before."
I wasn’t intending to draw a view vs edit distinction. (There, I would look to major applications for the usual practice, perhaps with an option.). My point was that the recent files list will not show you files that you have not looked at, and is limited even for files that you have looked at. Downloaded it? Won’t show. Wrote it last year? Probably won’t show.
> Jordan also said ""most recent" ... by definition they are files you've looked at before."
I wasn’t intending to draw a view vs edit distinction. (There, I would look to major applications for the usual practice, perhaps with an option.). My point was that the recent files list will not show you files that you have *not* looked at, and is limited even for files that you *have* looked at. Downloaded it? Won’t show. Wrote it last year? Probably won’t show.
JB
Jordan Brown
Thu, Mar 12, 2026 6:57 AM
Are you aware of a program called "search everything"? Works on windows and is very fast on NTFS volumes.
Not by name, but there are many such programs (including, I believe, one built into Windows Explorer).
However, the question was about a program that would show you what the resulting model looks like, and a text searcher won’t do that.
> Are you aware of a program called "search everything"? Works on windows and is very fast on NTFS volumes.
Not by name, but there are many such programs (including, I believe, one built into Windows Explorer).
However, the question was about a program that would show you what the resulting model looks like, and a text searcher won’t do that.
R
Rudolf
Thu, Mar 12, 2026 9:26 AM
Jordan said "I'm now wondering if we could/should have an (optional)
lazy-thumbnail mechanism, that would record a thumbnail automatically
whenever you did F5 or F6."
I like that idea a lot.
I also like this idea. It would be enough to (optionally) have the last
F5 screen saved automatically, whenever doing an explicit file save.
However, until we see such a thing in OpenSCAD it shouldn't be a too big
deal to write a crawler tool that finds all *.scad files in a path, runs
F5, and exports a preview png of each, say in some overnight job. It
also could maintain a database and automatically keep track of new scad
files ...
Rudolf
> Jordan said "I'm now wondering if we could/should have an (optional)
> lazy-thumbnail mechanism, that would record a thumbnail automatically
> whenever you did F5 or F6."
>
> I like that idea a lot.
>
I also like this idea. It would be enough to (optionally) have the last
F5 screen saved automatically, whenever doing an explicit file save.
However, until we see such a thing in OpenSCAD it shouldn't be a too big
deal to write a crawler tool that finds all *.scad files in a path, runs
F5, and exports a preview png of each, say in some overnight job. It
also could maintain a database and automatically keep track of new scad
files ...
Rudolf
GH
gene heskett
Thu, Mar 12, 2026 10:20 AM
On 3/12/26 02:21, larry via Discuss wrote:
On Thu, 2026-03-12 at 01:00 -0400, gene heskett via Discuss wrote:
Every .scad file it the current directory. And that list is about 70
entries, which may have 2 or 3 more dir levels. grep -s becomes
fairly helpful if you can recall the module name.
You might like my solution. I call it 'seek', and it traverses an
entire directory tree, looking for any substring in a file name, prints
anything it finds with the substring coloured.
#!/bin/bash
#echo "$1"
tree -a -i -f | grep -i --color=always "$1" | less -R
Looks like I'll have to give that a try, thank you
Every .SCAD file that you've ever touched? Every .SCAD file on
your system?
"most recent" can have a meaningful limit - most recent 10, most
recent
100, and by definition they are files you've looked at before.
That
list does not include everything. The other sort orders, not so
much.
Sorting by creation date would be good also.
If you know what folder you're looking in, Windows will let you
sort the
list at "open" time. Doesn't keep your place in the list, but you
could
do that in your head, more or less. Also doesn't cross folders
I'm now wondering if we could/should have an (optional) lazy-
thumbnail
mechanism, that would record a thumbnail automatically whenever you
did
F5 or F6.
OpenSCAD mailing list
To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org
Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.
Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
- Louis D. Brandeis
Don't poison our oceans, interdict drugs at the src.
On 3/12/26 02:21, larry via Discuss wrote:
> On Thu, 2026-03-12 at 01:00 -0400, gene heskett via Discuss wrote:
>> Every .scad file it the current directory. And that list is about 70
>> entries, which may have 2 or 3 more dir levels. grep -s becomes
>> fairly helpful if you can recall the module name.
> You might like my solution. I call it 'seek', and it traverses an
> entire directory tree, looking for any substring in a file name, prints
> anything it finds with the substring coloured.
>
> #!/bin/bash
> #echo "$1"
> tree -a -i -f | grep -i --color=always "$1" | less -R
Looks like I'll have to give that a try, thank you
>
>>> Every .SCAD file that you've ever touched? Every .SCAD file on
>>> your system?
>>>
>>> "most recent" can have a meaningful limit - most recent 10, most
>>> recent
>>> 100, and by definition they are files you've looked at before.
>>> That
>>> list does *not* include everything. The other sort orders, not so
>>> much.
>> Sorting by creation date would be good also.
>>> If you know what folder you're looking in, Windows will let you
>>> sort the
>>> list at "open" time. Doesn't keep your place in the list, but you
>>> could
>>> do that in your head, more or less. Also doesn't cross folders
>>>
>>> I'm now wondering if we could/should have an (optional) lazy-
>>> thumbnail
>>> mechanism, that would record a thumbnail automatically whenever you
>>> did
>>> F5 or F6.
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> OpenSCAD mailing list
>>> To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org
>> Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.
> _______________________________________________
> OpenSCAD mailing list
> To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org
Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
- Louis D. Brandeis
Don't poison our oceans, interdict drugs at the src.
JB
Jon Bondy
Thu, Mar 12, 2026 1:26 PM
My thoughts were heading in this direction, too.
I keep almost all of my .SCAD files in one folder, so the following
would be easy for me.
I could write a trivial batch file in Windows that ran OpenSCAD from the
command line and created STL files in a parallel directory. Then I
could use the Windows Explorer to visually scan through the parallel
directory using something like this:
https://papas-best.com/stlthumbnails_en
I use "Everything" under Windows, which is an instantaneous file filter
based on text fragments. Type in "car .scad" and you will only see
.SCAD files that contain "car"
https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/
"Everything" changed my life. I never poke around in the directory tree
to find a file. I just type in a fragment of the name and use the file
directly.
Jon
On 3/12/2026 5:26 AM, Rudolf via Discuss wrote:
Jordan said "I'm now wondering if we could/should have an (optional)
lazy-thumbnail mechanism, that would record a thumbnail automatically
whenever you did F5 or F6."
I like that idea a lot.
I also like this idea. It would be enough to (optionally) have the
last F5 screen saved automatically, whenever doing an explicit file save.
However, until we see such a thing in OpenSCAD it shouldn't be a too
big deal to write a crawler tool that finds all *.scad files in a
path, runs F5, and exports a preview png of each, say in some
overnight job. It also could maintain a database and automatically
keep track of new scad files ...
Rudolf
OpenSCAD mailing list
To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org
--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software.
www.avg.com
My thoughts were heading in this direction, too.
I keep almost all of my .SCAD files in one folder, so the following
would be easy for me.
I could write a trivial batch file in Windows that ran OpenSCAD from the
command line and created STL files in a parallel directory. Then I
could use the Windows Explorer to visually scan through the parallel
directory using something like this:
https://papas-best.com/stlthumbnails_en
I use "Everything" under Windows, which is an instantaneous file filter
based on text fragments. Type in "car .scad" and you will only see
.SCAD files that contain "car"
https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/
"Everything" changed my life. I never poke around in the directory tree
to find a file. I just type in a fragment of the name and use the file
directly.
Jon
On 3/12/2026 5:26 AM, Rudolf via Discuss wrote:
>
>> Jordan said "I'm now wondering if we could/should have an (optional)
>> lazy-thumbnail mechanism, that would record a thumbnail automatically
>> whenever you did F5 or F6."
>>
>> I like that idea a lot.
>>
> I also like this idea. It would be enough to (optionally) have the
> last F5 screen saved automatically, whenever doing an explicit file save.
>
> However, until we see such a thing in OpenSCAD it shouldn't be a too
> big deal to write a crawler tool that finds all *.scad files in a
> path, runs F5, and exports a preview png of each, say in some
> overnight job. It also could maintain a database and automatically
> keep track of new scad files ...
>
> Rudolf
> _______________________________________________
> OpenSCAD mailing list
> To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org
--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software.
www.avg.com
LM
Leonard Martin Struttmann
Thu, Mar 12, 2026 2:17 PM
On windows, since I have Cygwin loaded, I use:
dir/s/b | grep "text"
On Mac/Linux I use find with subsequent grep as needed.
On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 6:27 AM Jon Bondy via Discuss <
discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote:
My thoughts were heading in this direction, too.
I keep almost all of my .SCAD files in one folder, so the following
would be easy for me.
I could write a trivial batch file in Windows that ran OpenSCAD from the
command line and created STL files in a parallel directory. Then I
could use the Windows Explorer to visually scan through the parallel
directory using something like this:
https://papas-best.com/stlthumbnails_en
I use "Everything" under Windows, which is an instantaneous file filter
based on text fragments. Type in "car .scad" and you will only see
.SCAD files that contain "car"
https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/
"Everything" changed my life. I never poke around in the directory tree
to find a file. I just type in a fragment of the name and use the file
directly.
Jon
On 3/12/2026 5:26 AM, Rudolf via Discuss wrote:
Jordan said "I'm now wondering if we could/should have an (optional)
lazy-thumbnail mechanism, that would record a thumbnail automatically
whenever you did F5 or F6."
I like that idea a lot.
I also like this idea. It would be enough to (optionally) have the
last F5 screen saved automatically, whenever doing an explicit file save.
However, until we see such a thing in OpenSCAD it shouldn't be a too
big deal to write a crawler tool that finds all *.scad files in a
path, runs F5, and exports a preview png of each, say in some
overnight job. It also could maintain a database and automatically
keep track of new scad files ...
Rudolf
OpenSCAD mailing list
To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org
On windows, since I have Cygwin loaded, I use:
dir/s/b | grep "text"
On Mac/Linux I use find with subsequent grep as needed.
On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 6:27 AM Jon Bondy via Discuss <
discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote:
> My thoughts were heading in this direction, too.
>
> I keep almost all of my .SCAD files in one folder, so the following
> would be easy for me.
>
> I could write a trivial batch file in Windows that ran OpenSCAD from the
> command line and created STL files in a parallel directory. Then I
> could use the Windows Explorer to visually scan through the parallel
> directory using something like this:
>
> https://papas-best.com/stlthumbnails_en
>
> I use "Everything" under Windows, which is an instantaneous file filter
> based on text fragments. Type in "car .scad" and you will only see
> .SCAD files that contain "car"
>
> https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/
>
> "Everything" changed my life. I never poke around in the directory tree
> to find a file. I just type in a fragment of the name and use the file
> directly.
>
> Jon
>
>
> On 3/12/2026 5:26 AM, Rudolf via Discuss wrote:
> >
> >> Jordan said "I'm now wondering if we could/should have an (optional)
> >> lazy-thumbnail mechanism, that would record a thumbnail automatically
> >> whenever you did F5 or F6."
> >>
> >> I like that idea a lot.
> >>
> > I also like this idea. It would be enough to (optionally) have the
> > last F5 screen saved automatically, whenever doing an explicit file save.
> >
> > However, until we see such a thing in OpenSCAD it shouldn't be a too
> > big deal to write a crawler tool that finds all *.scad files in a
> > path, runs F5, and exports a preview png of each, say in some
> > overnight job. It also could maintain a database and automatically
> > keep track of new scad files ...
> >
> > Rudolf
> > _______________________________________________
> > OpenSCAD mailing list
> > To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org
>
> --
> This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software.
> www.avg.com
> _______________________________________________
> OpenSCAD mailing list
> To unsubscribe send an email to discuss-leave@lists.openscad.org
KC
Kevin Cole
Thu, Mar 12, 2026 3:02 PM
On Linux I have a cron job that runs updatedb from the plocate
package. MUCH faster than find, as long as you keep the locate
database up to date with updatedb.
So,
$ locate substring | grep $HOME | most
quickly finds all files with "substring" in the name, and then filters
out any that are not in a subdirectory of my home directory --
eliminating /var/..., /usr/..., and whatnot.
And "most" is a very fancy pager much better IMHO than "less". (I have
an alias for grep that applies --color=always.) "locate -i" does a
case-insensitive search. There are some other nice options for locate
as well.
I'm using the plocate Debian package as opposed to locate or mlocate.
On Linux I have a cron job that runs updatedb from the plocate
package. MUCH faster than find, as long as you keep the locate
database up to date with updatedb.
So,
$ locate substring | grep $HOME | most
quickly finds all files with "substring" in the name, and then filters
out any that are not in a subdirectory of my home directory --
eliminating /var/..., /usr/..., and whatnot.
And "most" is a very fancy pager much better IMHO than "less". (I have
an alias for grep that applies --color=always.) "locate -i" does a
case-insensitive search. There are some other nice options for locate
as well.
I'm using the plocate Debian package as opposed to locate or mlocate.
