Installation

Command line tools

PartCAD command line tools are implemented in Python and, in theory, available on all platforms where Python is available. However, it is only getting tested on Linux, MacOS and Windows.

$ python -m pip install -U partcad-cli

Note

PartCAD works best when conda is installed. If that doesn’t help (e.g. MacOS+arm64) then try mamba. On Windows, PartCAD must be used inside a conda environment.

Note

On Ubuntu, try apt install libcairo2-dev if pip install fails to install cairo.

The commands and options supported by PartCAD CLI:

$ pc --help

 Usage: partcad [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...


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╭─ Options ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│            -v                     Increase verbosity level                                                  │
│            -q                     Decrease verbosity level                                                  │
│ --no-ansi                         Produce plain text logs without colors or animations                      │
│            -p  PATH               Specify the package path (YAML file or directory with 'partcad.yaml')     │
│ --level                           Use log level as log prefix [default: level]                              │
│ --time                            Use time with milliseconds as log prefix [default: level]                 │
│ --path                            Use source file path and line number as log prefix [default: level]       │
│ --help                            Show this message and exit.                                               │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭─ Commands ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ add         Add a package, part, or assembly                                                                │
│ ai          Execute AI-related commands                                                                     │
│ info        Show detailed information about a part, assembly, or scene                                      │
│ init        Create a new PartCAD package in the current directory                                           │
│ inspect     View a part, assembly, or scene visually                                                        │
│ install     Download and set up all imported packages                                                       │
│ list        List components                                                                                 │
│ render      Generate a rendered view of parts, assemblies, or scenes in the package                         │
│ status      Show the current state of PartCAD's internal data                                               │
│ supply      Manage supplier-related tasks                                                                   │
│ test        Run tests on a part, assembly, or scene                                                         │
│ update      Refresh all imported packages                                                                   │
│ version     Display the versions of the PartCAD Python Module and CLI, then exit                            │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Python module

PartCAD provides Python modules that can be used in CAD as code scripts (such as CadQuery and build123d). It’s a dependency of partcad-cli so it doesn’t usually need to be installed separately.

$ python -m pip install -U partcad
$ python
...
>>> import partcad as pc
>>> ctx = pc.init()

Visual Studio Code extension

This extension is available through the VS Code marketplace. The corresponding marketplace page is here.

Public PartCAD repository

The public PartCAD repository is hosted at GitHub. If necessary, PartCAD tools are automatically retrieving the contents of this repository and all other required repositories and packages. No manual action is needed is need to install it.

However, if you suspect that something is wrong with locally cached files, use pc system status to investigate and to determine the location of the cached files.