OpenSCAD

About

OpenSCAD

OpenSCAD is a free open-source solid-modeling application that describes 3D geometry as a script rather than through a graphical modeling interface. The project was founded in 2009 by Marius Kintel and Clifford Wolf and is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2. OpenSCAD runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux and is widely used by makers, engineers, and educators for parametric, code-driven models.

OpenSCAD launched in 2009 as a joint project by Marius Kintel and Clifford Wolf, who wanted a solid-modeling application that produced deterministic, script-driven geometry rather than the interactive graphical modeling that dominated the CAD market at the time. The application reads a plain text file and interprets it as a constructive-solid-geometry program: cubes, cylinders, spheres, and polyhedra are declared, combined through union, difference, and intersection, and organized through modules and variables that let a single script produce many parametric variants of a part. That model has made OpenSCAD a favorite of makers, engineers, and educators who need repeatable, versionable models for 3D printing and CNC fabrication. The stable 2021.01 release remains the reference production build, and continuous development snapshots are published alongside it on openscad.org for users who need the newer features and preview improvements. The application exports STL, OFF, AMF, 3MF, DXF, and SVG for fabrication and downstream handoff, and imports STL, DXF, SVG, and 3MF for hybrid workflows where hand-modelled parts feed a scripted assembly. A built-in preview shows the model as it develops, and the render command performs a full CGAL-based Boolean evaluation for export. The application also exposes a customizer interface that turns tagged script variables into sliders and dropdowns for non-programmer users of a shared model. OpenSCAD is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2, and the codebase is developed openly at github.com/openscad/openscad with a public issue tracker, mailing list, and periodic release announcements. Community channels include a dedicated subreddit at r/openscad, a project Twitter presence, and an extensive user library at the Thingiverse and Printables sites where scripted parts are shared alongside their source. Educational and industrial users deploy OpenSCAD for parametric enclosures, adapters, printable spare parts, laboratory fixtures, and configurable jigs. The application requires no account, no cloud service, and no internet access after installation, and remains one of the most-cited examples of code-driven, reproducible design in the open-source hardware community.