Parametric 3D Printing with CadQuery

Overview

This skill generates parametric 3D models using CadQuery (Python) and exports them as STL files ready for slicing. CadQuery is preferred because it installs via pip, has a Pythonic API, and handles complex geometry (fillets, chamfers, booleans, assemblies) better than alternatives.

Setup

# CadQuery requires Python 3.10-3.12 (OCC kernel lacks 3.13+ wheels)
python3.12 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate

# Install CadQuery and preview dependencies
pip install cadquery trimesh pyrender Pillow numpy lxml

CadQuery uses the OpenCASCADE kernel under the hood. trimesh, pyrender, Pillow, and numpy are used for the preview-analyze-iterate loop; lxml is required by the 3MF writer (stl_to_3mf.py). No display server is needed; everything renders headlessly via pyrender's offscreen backend.