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openscad.bsky.social
OpenSCAD
@openscad.bsky.social
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openscad.bsky.social
If you already have OpenSCAD installed, make sure Manifold is selected.

If you rely on, or want to still use, the CGAL backend, you can enable this in preferences (see screenshot) or on the cmd-line using `openscad --backend=cgal`.
Screenshot of the OpenSCAD Preferences window with the Advanced tab being selected. The section "3D Rendering" has the Backend ComboBox set to the value "CGAL (old/slow)" which can still be selected to revert to the graphics engine that has been driving OpenSCAD for many years.
August 17, 2025 at 6:05 PM
openscad.bsky.social
OpenSCAD supports enabling those features when specifying the font to use in the text() module.

The screenshot shows the different display of the "Linux Libertine G" font (www.numbertext.org/linux/) with "Small Caps" and "Oldstyle Figures" features enabled.
Screenshot of OpenSCAD showing the editor at the top with a short script creating the same text twice using the same font but the first one in the script, shown on top in the view port has the font features "Small Caps" (smcp) and "Oldstyle Figures" (onum) enabled. s = 20; t = "Hello World! - 01234567890"; text(t, s, font = "Linux Libertine G:style=Regular:fontfeatures=+smcp;+onum"); translate([0, -2 * s]) text(t, s, font = "Linux Libertine G:style=Regular"); The smcp feature causes the lower case letters to look like scaled down upper case letters and the onum feature changes the numbers to have different height. 0, 1, 2 are small as lower case letters, the other digits have the height of upper case letters with 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 sitting below the base line having the top aligned with the small numbers, 6 and 8 sitting on the base line. The bottom of the screenshot shows the font selection window with the Linux Libertine G font selected, showing some more details about the font.
August 9, 2025 at 5:13 PM
openscad.bsky.social
3MF NOTE: The export uses spec conform material definitions, unfortunately some (all?) slicers use custom extensions for colors that OpenSCAD is not able to use.

More on that topic soon...
January 1, 2025 at 2:37 PM
openscad.bsky.social
There is still a lot of work to do, but now it's possible to export/import colored model via 3MF. OFF can handle colors a bit longer already.
January 1, 2025 at 2:37 PM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 24 of #SCADvent opens the last door of our advent calendar and this has a Christmas tree again. We started this years series with a simple printable tree. Today we bring you a procedurally generated Christmas Tree gently swaying in the breeze.

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...

#OpenSCAD
December 25, 2024 at 1:07 AM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 23 of #SCADvent brings some Christmas greetings and wishes a happy new year will wait for us soon.

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...

#OpenSCAD
December 23, 2024 at 11:54 PM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 22 of #SCADvent proves one thing: Nessie lives and seems to be in a Christmas mood. We just don't know where.

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...

#OpenSCAD
An OpenSCAD screenshot showing Nessie... with a red Christmas hat, complete with white pompom on top. The whole background is blue sea with some dark patches for waves. Nessie is green waving through the sea, tail, middle part of the body and head out of the water, coming from left moving to front right direction. Big red nose, maybe because it's cold (or related to Rudolph the Reindeer?). Eyes straight ahead, looking at something we can't see.
December 22, 2024 at 11:50 PM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 21 of #SCADvent celebrates winter solstice with a recursive fractal star.

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...

#OpenSCAD
December 22, 2024 at 12:24 AM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 20 of #SCADvent concludes the tutorial series with part 15. This shows one way of handling multiple parts in #OpenSCAD. Using the customizer single parts can be selected in 3d-printing orientation. Additionally there is the option to show an assembly view.

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...
December 21, 2024 at 12:45 AM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 19 of #SCADvent does a deep dive into creating polygons and polyhedrons in part 14 of the tutorial. It's the most complex way of producing geometry, but gives almost unlimited power over #OpenSCAD to the user wielding math.

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...
December 20, 2024 at 1:16 AM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 18 of #SCADvent lets it snow. Part 13 of the tutorial shows how to use recursive modules for creating random fractal snowflakes.

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...

#OpenSCAD
December 19, 2024 at 12:44 AM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 17 of #SCADvent looks in part 12 of the tutorial at for() loops in more detail and explains a technique for piecewise generation of objects called chain hull.

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...

#OpenSCAD
December 18, 2024 at 12:48 AM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 16 of #SCADvent start the last week of the tutorials. We covered the basics of #OpenSCAD in the previous two weeks so the upcoming 5 parts will focus on a couple of specific topics. Part 11 presents many different ways for generating rounded rectangles.

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...
Screenshots of OpenSCAD fading in and out. This is the visualization on different ways for generating rounded rectangles, so all of the 8 screenshots except the 7th show rectangles with rounded edges just with different sizes. Screenshot 3 is a bit special as its rectangle has rounding with different radius, the one on the upper left has only half the radius of all the others and the upper right has twice the radius. The 7th screenshot shows a small polygon representing one of the rounded edges, it looks like a quarter circle arc where the two ends of the arc are also connected by a straight line.
December 16, 2024 at 11:03 PM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 15 of #SCADvent has something very different to offer - an #OpenSCAD interpretation of "Nighthawks", an 1942 oil on canvas painting by the American artist Edward Hopper - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightha...

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...
A screenshot of OpenSCAD showing an interpretation of the painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. Wikipedia describes the original painting that it "portrays four people in a downtown diner late at night as viewed through the diner's large glass window. The light coming from the diner illuminates a darkened and deserted urban streetscape.". The OpenSCAD version does not have the people and lighting, but otherwise stays quite near the original showing the diner with yellow walls, the big brown counter and the bar stools lined up at big glass front.
December 16, 2024 at 12:42 AM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 14 of #SCADvent gives another pause to the tutorial and has an interesting Christmas bauble created by just a couple of lines of #OpenSCAD. The calendar also has the 3MF file ready for download.

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...
Screenshot of a Christmas bauble. The main body is a light blue sphere with a rounded grove around the equator. Embedded, while keeping the overall sphere outline, is a light brown shape of a six pointed star which is slightly twisted. From top and bottom the star shape is visible and from the side the points of the star shape show as small bridges or walls at the bottom of the groove.
December 15, 2024 at 12:46 AM
openscad.bsky.social
Day 13 of #SCADvent brings part 10 of the tutorial which collects the pieces introduced over the past days and combines them into a parametric model of a candle holder and includes candles in preview mode.

files.openscad.org/advent-calen...

#OpenSCAD
Screenshots of OpenSCAD fading in and out, the first showing a light brown candle holder with a ring shaped base and 3 white candles. The second shows a similar holder with a smaller diameter and 4 smaller candles. The candles have a black wick and a stylized yellow flame.
December 14, 2024 at 12:58 AM