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The concept of OpenSCAD is great, but I think it is in need of some modernization. The last time I modeled something with it I discovered how inconvenient it is to do things like create threaded bolts/nuts... it may just be my inexperience with it, but there don't seem to be straightforward ways of creating basic shapes like helixes.

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I think so, too. I was just browsing and came along this: http://www.pythonocc.org/

But it would be great to have a concept where you create a model of a table by creating a cylinder, copy and translate it three times, add a flat cube, connect these 5 pieces, and name them table. Then you would have another (non-)primitive that you can instanciate and maybe have some parameters to change it.

Isn't that what SketchUp does?

Which is cool, and that's why I like SketchUp. But AFAIK you can't switch to 'text' mode in SketchUp where you can edit the history and rebuild the scene.

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