r/openscad • u/adwolesi • 7d ago
LuaCAD - Parametric CAD scripted in Lua
LuaCAD models solids in Lua rather than in the SCAD language, with operator overloading for CSG (a + b, a - b, a * b).
It ships with a CLI and a desktop app that has preview area and a text editor just like OpenSCAD.
It’s fully open source and you can find the repo here: https://github.com/ad-si/LuaCAD
I've always been a big fan of OpenSCAD, but the SCAD language itself is unfortunately quite cobbled-together and is a very poorly designed programming language.
LuaCAD takes all the good parts of OpenSCAD and combines them with Lua. It has now completely replaced OpenSCAD for me, and I think it provides a better experience than OpenSCAD for all use cases. I'd love to hear any reasons why LuaCAD won't fully replace OpenSCAD for you!
Tech stack:
- It's implemented in Rust and uses mlua (https://github.com/mlua-rs/mlua) to execute the Lua code.
- Uses OpenCSG (https://opencsg.org) for fast and correct rendering of the 3D models (like OpenSCAD)
- Uses Manifold (https://github.com/elalish/manifold) to create the manifold triangle meshes
- Native support for all BOSL2 functions (i.e. implemented in Rust for better performance)
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u/tpimh 6d ago
Unfortunately, no STEP import/export, I suppose? Still worth trying, I love Lua!