Quickstart

Requirements

  • Linux — other platforms are currently untested and unsupported.

  • Python 3.10 or newer.

  • OpenSCAD — solid-node uses it to build the STL files of OpenSCAD-based nodes and to render snapshots, so it is required even if you only use the web viewer.

  • Optionally, the jscad CLI (from npm) if you want to write nodes in JavaScript with JScadNode.

Installation

Start by creating a virtual environment for your project

$ virtualenv --python=python3 myproject-env
$ source myproject-env/bin/activate

And install solid-node in your environment

$ pip install solid-node

Make sure you have openscad installed. On Debian-based systems:

$ sudo apt-get install openscad

Create your project

Create a new project with a starting structure

$ solid new myproject
$ cd myproject

Start the solid process. By default, the web viewer is used.

$ solid develop root

Open the link http://localhost:8000 in your browser. If you prefer using Openscad as a viewer, use the –openscad parameter

$ solid develop root --openscad

Open root/__init__.py file in your preferred code editor and see your model update in the viewer as you modify the code.

Check the _build directory for the STLs of your project.

From here, continue with the tutorial: Modeling parts.