openscad-exporter

Bulk-export OpenSCAD models from CSV or customizer JSON parameter sets.

Requirements

Requires an OpenSCAD binary that supports --export-format param (OpenSCAD 2021.01 development snapshots or the 2024.xx stable release and later).

Install

uv sync

Usage

# Generate a single-row CSV of a SCAD file's default parameter values.
uv run openscad-exporter scad-to-csv path/to/model.scad --output params.csv

# Convert a CSV (one parameter set per row, with an `exported_filename` column)
# into an OpenSCAD customizer JSON file.
uv run openscad-exporter csv-to-json params.csv --scad path/to/model.scad --output model.json

# Export every parameter set to STL (or off/amf/3mf/dxf/svg/png).
uv run openscad-exporter export path/to/model.scad --from-csv params.csv --output-dir out
uv run openscad-exporter export path/to/model.scad --from-json model.json --output-dir out --format stl

PNG-specific camera flags (--camera, --imgsize, --colorscheme, --viewall, --render) only apply with --format png.

OpenSCAD binary is discovered via --openscad-path, $OPENSCAD_BINARY, PATH, then known platform locations.

Examples

These examples use tests/fixtures/rocket.scad, a small parametric rocket with the customizer parameters rocket_d, rocket_h, head_d, head_h, wing_w, many, wing_l, wing_h, and $fn.

Minimal CSV

Only the exported_filename column is required. Any parameter you leave out keeps its default value from the .scad file.

exported_filename,rocket_h
short,60
tall,150

Export both variants to STL:

uv run openscad-exporter export tests/fixtures/rocket.scad \
    --from-csv rockets.csv --output-dir out --format stl

You'll get out/short.stl and out/tall.stl.

Multi-parameter CSV

Override several parameters per row:

exported_filename,rocket_d,rocket_h,head_d,wing_w,many
slim,20,120,30,2,3
classic,30,100,40,2,3
chunky,50,80,60,3,4

Nested directory layout

Slashes in exported_filename create subdirectories under --output-dir:

exported_filename,rocket_h
small/v1,60
small/v2,80
large/v1,150

uv run openscad-exporter export tests/fixtures/rocket.scad \
    --from-csv rockets.csv --output-dir out --format stl

Produces:

out/
├── large/v1.stl
└── small/
    ├── v1.stl
    └── v2.stl

PNG previews

Render each row as a 512×512 PNG with the auto-fit camera:

uv run openscad-exporter export tests/fixtures/rocket.scad \
    --from-csv rockets.csv --output-dir previews \
    --format png --viewall --imgsize 512,512

Discovering parameters

If you don't yet have a CSV, dump the SCAD file's defaults to seed one:

uv run openscad-exporter scad-to-csv tests/fixtures/rocket.scad --output rockets.csv

This writes a single default row with every customizer parameter as a column. Duplicate it, edit the values, and re-run export.