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_drafts/cadquery-direct-api.md

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+---
+title: "CadQuery Direct API"
+author: "James Pace"
+date: "2024/02/06"
+---
+
+[CadQuery][cadquery-homepage] is a "CAD via Python" library.
+Instead of using a WYSIWYG editor to generate CAD models, when using CadQuery
+you write Python code that does the same operations.
+
+The most popular code based CAD tool is [OpenSCAD][openscad-homepage].
+Uins CadQuery feels much closer to using a "normal" CAD package, in my opinion,
+than using OpenSCAD, in the sense that with CadQuery and normal CAD packages you
+think in terms of operations on sketches or faces that compose into the final part.
+At least the little bit of OpenSCAD didn't feel like that, though my experience with
+OpenSCAD is extremely limited.
+
+CadQuery has three API layers (in order from highest to lowest level: fluent, direct, OCCT).
+Fluent is the suggested level with the most documentation.
+It feels the closest to normal CAD.
+The mental model is you start with a workplane which is a root of a tree and then
+perform operations which add elements to the tree with the modifications needed to build
+the desired part.
+For example:
+```python
+import cadquery as cq
+
+result = (
+     cq.Workplane("front")
+     .circle(2.0)
+     .pushPoints([(1.5, 0), (0, 1.5), (-1.5, 0), (0, -1.5)])
+     .circle(0.25)
+     .extrude(0.125)
+    )
+```
+will:
+1. Make a workplane.
+2. Add a single 2D circle.
+3. Add four points to the stack of the tree.
+4. Operate on those four points by drawing smaller circles at each point.
+5. Extrude the result.
+
+This may seem confusing, but if you've worked with Fusion360 or Creo, you've basically done
+the same thing (see the timeline in the bottom of the window in Fusion360 or the history in Creo),
+and I've found that it clicks, what's going on isn't that hard to work out.
+
+What is a pain to work out is ehen something goes wrong, its very hard to introspect what's happening
+at each step.
+You don't have to write everything in basically one line like I did above, but based on the examples,
+that's basically the suggested the way.
+Even if you didn't write everything on one line, the actions in each of the lines is extremely dependent
+on state hidden in the workplane that is basically impossible to tease out.
+
+What I've found more challenging is it is really hard to organize things in a way that allows for code/shape
+reuse.
+Specifically, I've worked on two projects where I've wanted to reuse idenctically dimensioned 2d shape in
+multiple parts.
+The direct mode API make this much easier.
+
+
+[cadquery-homepage]: https://cadquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
+[openscad-homepage]: https://openscad.org/
+

_drafts/draft.md

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+---
+title: "Draft"
+author: "James Pace"
+date: "2024/01/01"
+---