Summary
Virtually everything that you interact with on a daily basis and many other things that make modern life possible were designed and modeled in software called CAD or Computer-Aided Design. These programs are advanced suites with graphical editing environments tailored to domain experts in areas such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, architecture, etc. While the UI-driven workflow is more accessible, it isn’t scalable which opens the door to code-driven workflows. In this episode Jeremy Wright discusses the design, uses, and benefits of the CadQuery framework for building 3D CAD models entirely in Python.
Announcements
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- Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Jeremy Wright about CadQuery, an easy-to-use Python module for building parametric 3D CAD models
Interview
- Introductions
- How did you get introduced to Python?
- Can you start by explaining what CAD is and some of the real-world applications of it?
- Can you describe what CadQuery is and the story behind it?
- How did you get involved with it and what keeps you motivated?
- What are the different methods that are in common use for building CAD models?
- Are there approaches that are more common for models used in different industries?
- What was missing in other projects for programmatically generating CAD models that motivated you to build CadQuery?
- Can you describe how the CadQuery library is implemented?
- How have the design and goals of the project changed or evolved since you started working on it?
- How would you characterize the rate of change/evolution in the CAD ecosystem, and how has that factored into your work on CadQuery?
- How did you approach the process of API design?
- How do you balance accessibility for non-professionals with domain-related nomenclature?
- Can you describe some example workflows for going from idea to finished product with CadQuery?
- How are you using CadQuery in your own work?
- What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpect
