Hacker News Reader

Comment by phrz | Hacker News Reader

Unfortunately CadQuery (primarily its GUI) seems like its development has fizzled out, without getting it to the point of functionality on macOS. OpenSCAD, on the other hand, works quite reliably on Mac.

Also, it's clunky, but I've had success by using Python to generate OpenSCAD code. The best application of this was an SVG to OpenSCAD path converter.

View on HN

Doesn't https://github.com/CadQuery/CQ-editor work on MacOS? I don't really see how development has fizzed out. There have been quite a few commits the last couple of months.

I wanted to kick the tires on CadQuery, but I had to install and understand Anaconda first. Any tool that requires me to understand a build system or a language package manager to correctly and safely build the software before I can use it is not ready for prime time.

If this was important for my life, I might put in the effort. If it is for passing curiosity, I probably won't. Especially when it impacts not just this software but opens an entire universe of what exploits can now be run on my PC.

When I have to set up a VM to sandbox an environment for a tool, it stretches my patience. It makes the tool extremely cumbersome.

I feel you. (Un)fortunately for me CQ is important enough because OpenSCAD and similar are not CADs... they are just simple generators without an ability to reference, use already drawn things. Whereas CadQuery has the main feature which is missing from OpenSCAD directly in its name: "Query".

I'm actively working on bringing CadQuery and all its dependencies to Nix because *Conda is an abomination of highest order.

Moreover the pywrap and OCP which are CadQuery's dependencies are even much worse. They are like galleries of every DevOps anti-pattern ever invented. The more you dive into them the more horrible it gets.

CQ is actually nice though.

Yes I agree. Anaconda is one of the worst pieces of software on earth. In fact I have never gotten it to work with anaconda. I use this nix-flake: https://github.com/marcus7070/cq-flake which is faaaaar easier to use and setup and includes the editor. But the README says it probably won't work on non-nixos systems so your mileage may vary.

Oh no. Somebody has already created flakes for CQ :( But also oh yeah, somebody has crated flakes for CQ! (and it seems I was only 1/2 ~ 2/3 way there anyway)

FWIW I'm not familiar with Anaconda either and it took about 10 minutes to get it and the cadquery editor up and running. To each his own though!

Of course, when the tool is actually a library for a particular programming language, considerations of build environment and package manager are more germane. But you still might question if it is worth it.

Which is ironic given that Anaconda was made to simplify package management and deployment.

Since April 2021, and at the time of the OP, there had been one non-readme related commit to the linked repository. And no, CQ-editor does not work on Mac for a variety of reasons, including code signing errors.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com