OpenSCAD launch script to get blazingly fast nightly build w/ manifold enabled by default

README.md

So yeah, the last stable build of OpenSCAD is over 4 years old as of this writing.

Nightly (Dev) builds of OpenSCAD have seen 100x speed improvements since that release, when enabling the Manifold backend (see this presentation).

If you can install a Dev build instead of the stable version, you should! (then, pass --backend=manifold if using in Command line, or switch the renderer from slow CGAL to Manifold in the UI settings if using the UI; see instructions here).

If you can't install the Dev build, well, you kinda can (for command-line use only, and if you have Docker): put the openscad script below in your PATH, and you're good to go (make sure it's executable w/ chmod +x path/to/openscad).

Oh, and on MacOS some projects that use OpenSCAD assume its binary is in /Applications/OpenSCAD.app/Contents/MacOS/OpenSCAD. You can just rename any existing app, then type:

mkdir -p /Applications/OpenSCAD.app/Contents/MacOS
ln -s path/to/openscad /Applications/OpenSCAD.app/Contents/MacOS/OpenSCAD

openscad

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

declare -a DOCKER_ARGS=()
declare -a OPENSCAD_ARGS=()

# Transform CLI arguments so any file / folder paths are mounted in Docker (in read-only, except for the -o output file in read-write)
# Folders are mounted at the same path in the container as in the host, which is unorthodox but simpler to manage.
while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
    arg="$1"
    shift
    
    if [[ "$arg" == "-o" ]]; then
        [[ $# -eq 0 ]] && { echo "Error: -o requires an argument" >&2; exit 1; }
        touch "$1"
        REAL_PATH=$(realpath "$1")
        DOCKER_ARGS+=( -v "${REAL_PATH}:${REAL_PATH}:rw" )
        OPENSCAD_ARGS+=( -o "$REAL_PATH" )
        shift
    elif [[ -f "$arg" ]]; then
        REAL_PATH=$(realpath "$arg")
        DOCKER_ARGS+=( -v "${REAL_PATH}:${REAL_PATH}:ro" )
        OPENSCAD_ARGS+=( "$REAL_PATH" )
    else
        OPENSCAD_ARGS+=("$arg")
    fi
done

# Mount git repo root if we're in a git repo
GIT_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || true)"
if [[ -n "$GIT_ROOT" ]]; then
    DOCKER_ARGS+=( -v "${GIT_ROOT}:${GIT_ROOT}:ro" )
fi

# Mount OPENSCADPATH, w/ platform dependent default
if [[ -z "${OPENSCADPATH:-}" ]]; then
    case "$(uname -s)" in
        Darwin)
            OPENSCADPATH="$HOME/Documents/OpenSCAD/libraries"
            ;;
        Windows_NT | CYGWIN_NT*)
            # Cygwin or Windows WSL
            OPENSCADPATH="$(cygpath -u "$HOME/Documents/OpenSCAD/libraries")"
            ;;
        *)
            OPENSCADPATH="$HOME/.local/share/OpenSCAD/libraries"
            ;;
    esac
fi
DOCKER_ARGS+=( -e "OPENSCADPATH=${OPENSCADPATH}" -v "${OPENSCADPATH}:${OPENSCADPATH}:ro" )

docker run --rm -it \
    -w "$(pwd)" \
    "${DOCKER_ARGS[@]}" \
    openscad/openscad:dev \
    openscad "${OPENSCAD_ARGS[@]}" \
    --backend="${OPENSCAD_BACKEND:-manifold}"