Rig Cad for OpenSCAD Users

If you already write union, difference, and modules in OpenSCAD, you already know this editor. The Objects tree is the program: same operations, same child order, same variables. A one-off tab is a valid first project here. You do not keep the simple script in another window.

What you will learn: how OpenSCAD operations map onto the tree; where variables and $fn live; the mounting-tab script as a visible tree; and a tray whose Customizer sliders are Variables.

If the editor is new, keep Rig Cad Editor Guide: The Five Core Panels open in another tab.

OpenSCAD is a language for constructive solid geometry. Rig Cad evaluates the same language as a tree.

The habits you already have are enough to start:

• union() / difference() / intersection() → an operation node and its children
• cube(), cylinder(), sphere() → primitives under Add Object
• translate / rotate / scale → the node's transform
• a variable at the top of the file → a Variable
• a module → a named parent you can move as one feature
• a for of copies → a repeat

Type literals on a first part. Name them when a hole or wall should track another measurement.

Table: OpenSCAD next to Rig Cad.

Difference is still ordered. The first child is the body you keep. Later children are cutters. That is difference(keep, cut, cut), not a bag of solids.

OpenSCAD's first chapter is two solids and an operation. That playground is here.

Table: OpenSCAD operations next to Rig Cad.

Switch the operation on the same two solids. You are still writing CSG. The tree is the pretty-printer.

The mounting tab you would write as:

partThickness = 8;
holeDiameter  = 10;
cutterOvershoot = 2;
cutterDepth = partThickness + 2 * cutterOvershoot;

difference() {
  union() {
    base();
    roundedEnd();
  }
  holeCutter();
}

In Rig Cad that is a difference whose first child is a union, with partThickness and holeDiameter as Variables and cutterDepth as an expression. The hole stays a through-hole when thickness changes. Same script, readable without opening a buffer.

A one-off tab does not need the variable block. Type 8 and 10 on the nodes. Name them when the second size has to stay a through-hole.

A tray with trayWidth, compartmentCount, and a derived divider pitch is an OpenSCAD Customizer file. Here those names are Variables. Divider count and spacing are expressions, the same as dividerCount = compartmentCount - 1.

Outer box, inner cavity, repeated walls: difference plus a repeat. Build that as a script or as a tree. Both are CSG.

Try wallThickness at 1.6 and look at the floor. That is an assert you can see.

Table: OpenSCAD habits next to Rig Cad.

FreeCAD users arriving from the same open-CAD habit will recognize the tree and the parameters. The CSG operations are the shared language. A separate FreeCAD map can wait.

You already write the operations. Constructive Solid Geometry in Rig Cad is how the tree stays editable once it is more than one module.

If a hole leaves a cap after a transform, Oversize the Cutter is h = t + 2*eps, written on the cutter. Beyond Sliders is for constrained families.