partcad-cli 0.5.8

Command-line interface to PartCAD

PartCAD

PartCAD is the first build system and package manager for CAD models, and a framework for creating assemblies.

PartCAD allows to maintain information about mechanical parts, how they come together to form larger assemblies, and to reuse the same parts in multiple assemblies, multiple projects. The implementation of parts can change over time (e.g. optimize or migrate to build123d from STEP) without the need to update all of the consumers.

Find more documentation here.

Installation

The recommended method to install PartCAD for most users is:

pip install partcad-cli

For contributors:

git clone https://github.com/openvmp/partcad.git
cd partcad
python3 -m pip install -e ./partcad
python3 -m pip install -e ./partcad-cli

PartCAD works best when conda is installed. If that doesn't help (e.g. MacOS+arm64) then try mamba. On Windows, PartCAD requires at least a conda environment.

Architecture

Tools for mechanical engineering

Here is an overview of the open source tools to maintain mechanical projects. It shows where does this framework fit in the modern mechanical development workflows.

flowchart TB

subgraph repo["Your project's GIT repository"]
  subgraph custom_repo["Custom parts"]
    direction TB
    custom_part_internet["A STEP file\ndownloaded from Internet\nor the vendor site"]
    custom_part_cad["A part exported as a solid\nfrom a CAD tool not\nsuitable for collaboration"]
    custom_part_cq["An individual reusable part\nmaintained as a script\nunder a version control system"]
    custom_part_os["Another reusable part\nmaintained as a script\nunder a version control system"]
  end

  model["Your project's model defined\nas ASSY or Python code\nfor version control\nand collaboration"]

  subgraph scenes["Scenes"]
    test1["Capability 1\ntest scene"]
    test2["Capability 2\ntest scene"]
  end
end

subgraph external_repos["Third-party GIT repositories,\nCDN-hosted files or OCCI servers"]
  subgraph external_repo["Repository of standard\nor popular parts"]
  end
end

subgraph external_tools["External tools"]
  freecad["FreeCAD"]
  cadquery["CadQuery / build123d"]
  openscad["OpenSCAD"]
  gazebo["Gazebo"]

  partcad["PartCAD library"]
  style partcad fill:#c00
end

custom_part_cad <--- |Individual\ncontributor|freecad
custom_part_cq <--- |Part design\nworkflow| cadquery
custom_part_os <--- |Part design\nworkflow| openscad

external_repo ---> |Import| model
custom_repo ---> |Import| model
model -.-> |Import| test1
model -.-> |Import| test2

custom_repo <-. Maintained\nusing\nPartCAD\nconvention .- partcad
external_repo <-. Maintained\nusing\nPartCAD\nconvention .- partcad
model <--- partcad
test1 <--- partcad
test2 <--- partcad

test1 -.-> |Export| gazebo
test2 -.-> |Export| gazebo