Openscad Part Design — Design skill for Claude Code

OpenSCAD part design: a Claude Code skill

Design 3D-printed parts by talking to Claude. Describe what you need, or show a sketch, a photo or a screenshot with arrows. Claude writes a parametric OpenSCAD design, renders it, measures it, checks that the moving parts don't collide, and iterates with you until it looks good and works. All of this happens **before** anything is printed.

The skill is distilled from a real multi-iteration project: a wall mount with tilt and drop joints, a hidden cable and printed thumbscrews. It went through several complete layouts before it was both functional and good-looking. The lessons from those rounds are built into the skill.

What it does

1. Asks for your printer once (model, bed, nozzle, materials, minimum wall, hole allowance, fits, bridges/overhangs). It stores the answers in printer.json next to your .scad file, and every later session in that folder picks them up.
2. Takes a brief: what the part does, the objects it holds with your caliper measurements, the motions and their ranges, mounting, cables, and looks.
3. Models the objects you own first, as reference models, so the design fits the real thing.
4. Proposes 2–3 layouts before shaping anything, judging their silhouettes from front, side and top, how far they stick out, and where cables cross each joint.
5. Builds one parametric file with:
   • an assembly view;
   • each part on its own, in its print orientation;
   • a whole print plate;
   • motion sliders and transparent housings;
   • numbered reference stickers you can point at ("round it at A4").
6. Tests before printing:
   • a render after every change;
   • collision sweeps over every motion (including the wall and the cable);
   • at milestones, a measured check of walls, holes, hole spacing and fits, reported as measured vs requested.
7. Hands off for printing: binary STL/3MF exports, orientation, material and hardware. After your test print, it