Deep technical writing on 3D printing technology, filament science, and the craft of making.
A Cautionary Tale -- Three calibration coupons, three weeks, and the number everything else depended on.
Printing and measuring are one system, and you can't trust a dimension until you know what your instrument can actually resolve. Three coupons and five print runs later, the number that mattered most wasn't the printer's -- it was the caliper's.
Turning one named cup into a design you can call as many times as you need.
Named variables let you redesign a shape by changing one number. Modules and lists let you build the shape once and call it as many times as you need -- at whatever sizes a list happens to contain.
Three shapes, three operations, and the moment a number needs a name.
You know your way around the editor. Now it's time to actually build something -- three basic shapes, three ways to combine them, and the point where hardcoding numbers stops working.
The editor, the viewport, and the handful of things worth knowing before your first shape
OpenSCAD's window looks sparse compared to most CAD software — that's on purpose. Here's what each part does and how to move around it.
Where to get it and how to set it up on Windows, Linux, and Mac
OpenSCAD is free, cross-platform, and installs differently on different platforms. Here's exactly where to get it and how to install it.
Intro to CAD
What CAD actually is, what it can and can't do, and the free and paid tools worth knowing about — before writing a single line of OpenSCAD.
Three processes, three philosophies
FDM, resin, SLA — three processes, three philosophies. A look at what separates them and what they share.
We also publish The Workshop — practical guides to materials, processes, and getting the most from your order.
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